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A number of Madison residents voiced their concerns Tuesday regarding Metro bus fares increasing next year, proposing instead to cut back on road improvements.

However, the City Council voted to keep funding for road projects at their proposed levels.

The public testimonies kicked off the City Council’s long process of approving the city’s budget Tuesday night.

Residents who spoke against the fare increase opposed the large number of road improvements included in the mayor’s capital budget and proposed to delay those projects and use the money saved toward Metro operation and improvements.

“The mayor’s roads-to-nowhere air of Palinism,” Madison resident Mike Barrett said.

Several residents noted the increase could cause a decrease in ridership, causing negative effects on the environment by forcing more people to use cars and on the economy by forcing people to spend less money on other things.

“Without a critical mass of riders, service will cut back,” Madison resident Barbara Smith said. “We need to increase bus ridership, not decrease it. … Raising fares to $2 would be a disaster for people on fixed incomes.”

Ald. Marsha Rummel, District 6, and Ald. Robbie Webber, District 5, proposed five amendments to the capital budget that would delay a number of road improvement projects, many of which are on the edge of the city.

The amendments to delay projects along County Highway M were not adopted by the council after debating the issue, meaning the city will fund these projects and not use the saved money to keep bus fares stagnant.

The fate of bus fares will be voted on during the budget meetings over the next two days.

“I don’t see what one year of waiting (to start the road improvements) really gets us,” Larry Nelson, director of city engineering, said.

Ald. Paul Skidmore, District 9, whose district includes part of the highway, said delaying the improvement projects would limit the success of the neighborhood plans for the affected areas, but Webber disagreed.

“To say that the neighborhood plan has these projects in it is false,” Webber said. “Maybe they should, but they don’t, and I’ve seen them.”

Webber said because the road improvements are on the edge of the city, the county has the same level of responsibility, if not more, in funding the projects. She added they have refused to fund them because they know the city ultimately will.

County Board Supervisor Carousel Andrea Bayrd spoke against the bus fare increase because it is already too expensive for many individuals living in her district. She urged the council to be creative with ways to keep the bus fare at a normal level.

“These are individuals who do not have enough money now to pay for it. … They are terrified of the change,” Bayrd said of the people who ride the buses with her in the district.

Bayrd said the increase would also discourage middle-class riders, such as those who live in her neighborhood in the Midvale Heights area, to ride the bus as a way to protect the environment.

Among the road improvement projects that will be included in the 2009 capital budget is the Gilman Street reconstruction project, which would renovate Gilman Street between University Avenue and North Henry Street

The renovation is part of the Downtown Improvement plan that started in summer 2003 with the renovation of State Street. The amendment to include the project passed easily because most of its funding is coming from tax incremental financing.