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OPINION & EDITORIAL

Transit faces end of line

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Also by Tim Williams:

Candidates plead 5th on Courage Test (January 21, 2008)

by Tim Williams

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Stand on a cold street corner, avoiding eye contact with the throng of fur-hooded folk huddled around you and stare down the horizon, trying to catch a glimpse of the high beams that signal your bus has arrived, several minutes late. Pull out your trusty bus pass, slide it through and sit with a sigh in the aisle seat.

That’s the extent to which most of us think about our public transportation, but unless we want this to be the picture of the future as well as the present, our apathy needs to change, and fast. The Dane County Board will debate today on the date to put to referendum a measure that would raise a half-cent sales tax to create a Regional Transit Authority to govern transit throughout the county. RTA’s first big project would be a commuter transit line that would span from Middleton across the isthmus to Sun Prairie.

But supervisor Jack Martz of Fitchburg is pushing to have Dane County residents vote as early as April 1, effectively sending the project to die. The concept of rail transport is still only a dim echo in most residents’ minds of the city’s crash-and-burn streetcar initiative, but Madison may be laughing a very short way to Mendota bank.

Clearly, Madison is facing a slowly mounting congestion crisis, caught between a lake and a wet place. Commuter traffic doubled in the last decade, causing Madison to spend millions on road construction that alleviates the symptoms, but not the underlying problem of a city with too much rush hour traffic. Transport 2020, a committee of university, city, county and state representatives that recommended the commuter rail project, predicts by 2030 Dane County’s population will reach 600,000. Only 48 percent of those will reside in Madison, but 64 percent will work there, which could result in gridlock, as there is little room for expansion on East Washington Avenue.

The city’s public transportation situation still seems rosy at the moment, as Madison Metro Transit recently celebrated its highest ridership since 1982, with more than 12.6 million riders last year. This is largely thanks to increased use of free or discounted bus pass programs offered to students, faculty, state employees and those who work for participating businesses. But one need look no further than Metro Transit’s constantly threatened budget to see that when money comes into the picture, public transportation no longer is everyone’s friend.

If even Madison residents who witness the city’s congestion every day are hesitant to invest in mass transit, its suburban and exurban towns and villages are unlikely to be persuaded in less than two months that a commuter rail line with start-up costs of $250 million is a necessary purchase. Expansions to other Dane County locales, even Martz’ Fitchburg, are planned, but a rail sales tax in east Bristo or Utica has as much chance of passing now as most Madison residents do of pinpointing either of those places on a map.

Supervisor Martz knows a swift referendum could stop the project cold, as a bill allowing the creation of sales tax-funded RTAs is still in the works in the state Assembly. Federal subsidy is also still uncertain and much less likely to happen under the Bush administration. While endless committee meetings and debate could be a fate worse than ballot death for mass transit, Dane County simply needs more time to determine if the project is feasible and equitable for its residents.

An aisle seat to a burgeoning metropolis could be yours, if the price is right.

Tim Williams (twilliams@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in English.

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