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A complete revamping of the transit system in Milwaukee will not occur overnight. It is because of this that officials planning MCTS Next, a project that aims to create more high frequency bus routes across Milwaukee, is meeting with the public to discuss goals and plans for the new system.
MCTS Next was announced earlier in the summer amidst rapidly declining ridership, and long waits at many bus stops across the county. However, Milwaukee County Transit System officials are hopeful that the Next project will alleviate some of these complaints.
“We want to fix that ‘when is the bus coming?’ question,” said Thomas Winter, MCTS director of schedule and planning. Winter explained that currently only 40% of the MCTS bus routes are high frequency routes, or routes where a bus will stop at every 15 minutes or less. “We have a lot of low frequency service, and we want to create more high frequency service.”
MCTS officials met with disabled people and advocates at IndependenceFirst Tuesday morning. The GO Pass, which provided free rides to disabled citizens and those over the age of 65, was drastically cut in 2017 because of budget concerns, leaving many disabled people in the community angry.
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“It's an extremely complex situation,” said Michael Hineberg, who was present at the meeting. “One of my concerns is during the winter months, having bus stops being shoveled and accessible to people with disabilities. If we have a bus route that is quicker, it’s going to be more critical that those bus stops are shoveled.”
Thomas Winter of MCTS (left) discussed the rising number of high frequency bus stops that may come to Milwaukee County in the near future.
There may be some negative side effects for disabled people because of the project. Winter said that one of the trade-offs of creating more high frequency stops, is the possibility that some low frequency stops might disappear. “It’s possible that areas that have service today might not have service in the future,” he said. “This is a challenge that we have to confront.”
Winter said he is hopeful that the project will flip the number of high frequency routes to 70%, saying MCTS measures many routes based on ridership and productivity. MCTS wants their routes to be close to 30 riders per hour. Winter did say that the project will keep in mind the walkability of bus stops.
Hineberg said he hopes that officials across the community would consider disabled people more often. Data shows that nearly 15% of people across the county are living with a disability. “Thinking about other transportation modes, such as the new streetcar—I think that's going to create a whole new challenge for safety and accessibility for people with disabilities,” he said.
The streetcar does have a wide variety of options to help people with special needs, but the IndependenceFirst website did say that “there are some potential concerns about accessibility, particularly where the streetcar rails curve through crosswalks, creating the potential for wheelchair casters to become stuck in the gaps.” IndependenceFirst said they are working with the city to alleviate these concerns.
The MCTS Next project will be unveiling plans for the public to consider sometime this November. They will be asking for more public input around that time. New services are said to begin around 2020.
There are currently no public meetings listed on the MCTS website regarding the project.
