Chuck, I have to tell you that I think the UW could be doing a lot more to reduce commuter driving to Madison than it's presently doing, especially considering it has a 20-year plan on the table now. But since my demands are greater than yours, I may do as you suggest. Maybe those UW meeting times and places could be posted on the bcp page?
It's not so much the number of parking spaces that the UW is planning that concerns me. Rather, it's the number of motor vehicles (incl. motorized scooters) driven to and from campus that the problem. In other words, it's the OPERATION of the motor vehicles that produces the pollution, traffic congestion and safety conflicts in Madison (and throughout Dane County and beyond).
Madison's air quality and traffic congestion have been getting worse and worse, especially in the last 20 years. The number of children in the Madison Metropolitan School District who have asthma tripled in the 1990s. Ozone has been identified as a contributing factor to the development of asthma. Ozone is created when nitrous oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) combine in the presence of sunlight. In Dane County, car and truck emissions are the biggest source of NOx and are the second leading source of VOC. Traffic volumes on Madison highways grew 3% each year in the last 9 years, according to the City's "Environmental Health Report Card 2004".
http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/health/pubnews/pdf_files/2004RptCard.pdf
Separating what part of the problem is the fault of the city vs. the UW vs. the State, etc., is going to be difficult, but it seems that the entity which is by far the largest motor vehicle attraction in the city ought be doing the most, instead of just continuing with the status quo.
I realize the UW has been taking some positive steps to reduce car parking needs on campus, for allotting "free" bus passes to students and promoting bicycle use. (However, I don't consider their promotion of "car sharing" to be a step in the right direction.) What they're doing is fine, it's just that it's not nearly enough. For example, why aren't they a stronger promoter (investor?) for Madison Metro expanding its busing operations to include the suburbs around Madison, many of which undoubtedly feed large volumes of solo occupied motor vehicles into the campus everyday?
Mike Neuman
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Chuch Strawser wrote:
Mike, you know that the UW doesn't control what the city does. They can, at best, influence only influence things like the proposed State Street Ramp. As for the mopeds, yes, actually, the UW will be reducing the number of parking spaces for mopeds. Because they are beginning to require that mopeds be registered with the UW (like motorcycles) and parked in designated moped spaces, they will effectively be reducing the number of moped spaces on campus, since up until now mopeds could legally park at any bike rack (and practically speaking, parked wherever they wanted). Registration requirements will allow the UW to ticket illegally parked mopeds. Mike, really, the UW is headed in the right direction. If you don't trust me (as a paid bicycling advocate, a member of the PBMVC, and a member of the Joint SE Campus Area committee) to keep on top of this, then I suggest you go to the UW bicycle & pedestrian subcommittee meetings of the UW transportation committee - email Matthew Burczyk ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) about times and places. But I'd suggest your considerable efforts to advocate transportation alternatives might be more effective if they were directed differently. As an example, your justifiable criticism of the city's proposed State Street Ramp should be directed towards the city, not the UW. I've criticized the ramp, as well as the city's refusal to implement other solutions to the *perceived* dearth of parking downtown, such as a networked system of electronic signs that tell motorists approaching ramps 1)how many spaces are available in that ramp, 2)how many spaces are available in the next closest ramp(s), and how to get to those other ramps. I've also suggested to the city that the city's *minimum* parking requirements all be changed to *maximum* parking requirements, saving developers money and discouraging the provision of excessive amounts of parking and the car oriented landscapes that result. You might make these suggestions, and/or your own, to the city of Madison (and other nearby municipalities), rather than flogging the UW for doing the right things. Chuck Strawser Project Coordinator Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin 106 E. Doty Street, Suite 400 Madison, WI 53703 voice: 608-251-4456 fax: 608-251-4594 www.bfw.org
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