The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran an editorial Friday on transit titled, “New Ideas Required.”
They called for money and the creation of a regional transit authority. These are old, tired ideas.
First of all, the Milwaukee County Transit System mostly serves those who have no alternatives for transportation. Many routes are antiquated, but political pressure maintains them. Their approach is to load the most people on each bus, but this way reduces ridership because then routes are unreliable and slow because too much time is needed.
Here are common sense ideas to create a system that transports people better.
1- For morning rush hours, institute an express pick-up service that stops every 6th stop. Rotate these stops. Clearly mark pick-up schedules. Use the terminal downtown to distribute passengers to work locations.
2- For the evening rush hours, use feeder buses to pick up passengers at work places and drop off passengers at the terminal. The key to both of these suggestions is to pick passengers up during rush hours with little wait and faster delivery. Use clear schedules and instructions as to what bus to board.
3- Co-ordinate with major users of cheap labor their work schedules and the locations of their staff. St Luke’s and the Medical Center are examples. According to one worker at St Luke’s, she needs to catch a 4:30 a.m. bus to get to St Luke’s by 7 a.m. She had similar wait times to go home. She arrives at work already tired. She lives less than 10 miles from work. The benefit for the hospitals would be more productive workers who they could count on to be at work on time. A similar co-operative arrangement could be made with MSOE, MATC, UWM, certain places of business, other hospital systems, etc. Some of these organizations might wish to supplement transit, or, at least, transit could be supported pre-tax. Indeed the Transit folk are already doing this with rides to Summerfest and baseball games.
4- Coordinate with businesses, such as those in Brookfield. Theses businesses need good, hard working people, but many of these potential workers have no transportation. Provide the transportation at affordable rates and add in training as well. It is cheaper than unemployment or welfare.
5- Use some of the wasted advertising dollars to pinpoint customers and fulfill their needs.
These ideas are not unique. The idea is: Serve your customers.
Move people to where they need to go or where they are in a fast, safe, and affordable manner.
The solutions for transit are not difficult. These ideas are not new. They just haven’t been implemented.
Bob Chernow is a Milwaukee businessman and futurist. He also chaired the Regional Telecommunications Commission, the North Shore Cable Commission, and the Milwaukee River South Rivershed Commission. He is a former River Hills trustee and heads up The Tellier Foundation.
