MILWAUKEE — Reckless driving continues hitting record levels post-pandemic while public transportation numbers continue to struggle to rebound.
“When you have people shifting away from the bus, that means some of them are going to be taking cars more often which leads to more cars on the road and more overall risk in the transit system,” Robert Schneider, Professor of Urban Planning at UW-Milwaukee said. “That’s for drivers, for pedestrians, and for bicyclists.”
The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) has seen a decline in ridership over the last ten years but nothing as dramatic as the decrease in 2020.
Ridership was cut in half, after averaging 36.7 million from 2013 to 2019, and ridership hasn’t topped 16 million in each of the last three years.
It’s not the only factor adding to Milwaukee’s reckless driving issue, but Schneider says it is definitely a factor.
“It’s slightly complicated,” Schneider said. “At certain times of day, when you have more cars on the road, it actually introduces congestion. So that means cars are traveling a bit slower. At other times, having more cars traveling at night time or middle of the day when the roadways aren’t congested means more cars traveling typically at higher speeds on those wider open roads, adding to the number of opportunities that there might be conflicts.”
“If you never want to step foot on a bus, just be glad the rest of us are,” Marybeth McGinnis, Program Director of MilWALKee Walks said. “That’s fewer people driving on the road that you don’t have to deal with.”
McGinnis sold her car four years ago and strictly commutes by foot, bicycle, or bus; sometimes all three. While her decision has benefitted her financially, saving some $10,000 a year, taking public transportation makes her feel safer by being off the roads.
“One million percent,” McGinnis said. “Every day you see people shooting on the freeway or driving around. When I drove around, I wasn’t the happiest person in the car. I get on the bus, look at my phone, or read a book. I have friends here that take the bus everywhere with two kids. They’ll be across the street and wave to each other. It’s dorky. It’s cheesy, but you don’t get that community driving around.”
It was a chilly but sunny day downtown when McGinnis spoke with the I-Team. Her bus arrived on time, as it almost always does. She chose to live in an area of the city where the frequency of buses passing her home is high. But she acknowledges, it’s not that easy everywhere.
“The north and south sides have less and less frequent bus service,” McGinnis said. “When I go to work on the north and south sides, that’s when I run into the biggest issues.”
Since 2017, MCTS has cut 10 routes, resulting in 1,422 stops being eliminated. The most recent cuts, in November of 2022, were due in large part to COVID stimulus money drying up, fewer people traveling downtown due to virtual work, and a nationwide shortage of bus drivers, according to MCTS.
In Milwaukee, 16 percent of homes do not own a vehicle. However, Health Compass Milwaukee shows that percentage can jump up to 40 percent in the central city where the highest percentage of African Americans live. These areas also share some of the highest poverty rates and lowest household income in the city. McGinnis says the privilege is not lost on her that if she happens to miss a transfer, she could afford to order a Lyft or Uber on her phone. That’s not always an option for other people without a vehicle in the city.
So while reckless driving is a problem that can affect every person in Milwaukee, access to public transportation can disproportionately impact people in poverty.
“Bus service is essential transportation for many people,” Schneider said. “The transit system is a lifeline to get to jobs or other activities that we need to be supporting. In doing so, we can also address reckless driving.”
Schneider praises the efforts from MCTS to increase ridership; adding a rapid transit line, bus-only lanes, and new technology upgrades to collect fares through smartphone apps. But he says, in order to fully impact reckless driving, these efforts need to make public transportation more attractive than driving a car.
“If we don’t need to be as dependent on cars, people are going to have other good options to use,” Schneider said. “Then they’ll feel less time pressure, less social pressure to be driving, and buses are seen as a really attractive option.”
MCTS is also adding a fare-capping system to offer a financial benefit to those who ride the bus the most frequently. While every ride typically costs $2 for riders who use the UMO app or a WisGo card to pay their fares, those riders won’t pay more than $4 per day to ride no matter how many rides they take.
Check the MCTS website for more information about how fare capping works.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
