Previous messages by Mike Barrett and your's truly have emphasized the importance of the bicycling community mounting an effective opposition to the mayor's proposed 33% increase in Metro bus fares <http://www.mail-archive.com/bikies%40danenet.org/msg10506.html>.
Now, Mayor Dave is playing hardball with his proposal to increase bus fares. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that he is threatening to not reappoint TPC members if they vote against bus fare hike: http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=313554 It's time for the bicycling community to mount up and voice their concern for keeping bus fares in the city of Madison no higher than the current $1.50 per ride. It is in bicyclists' best interest that Madison maintain an affordable bus transit system. Public comments can be made at the beginning of Tuesday's (Nov.11th) 5:30 pm Common Council meeting, which is being held in Room 201 of the City County Building, to discuss amendments to the Capital and Operating Budgets: I recommend that those who can't make it to the meeting on Tuesday contact their alders and tell them you do not support ANY bus fare increases ... that raising bus fares is not the way we get more people in Madison to use mass transit, and that raising bus fares will ultimately make Madison more auto-congested, more polluted and a less desireable place to live, and that you would be willing to pay higher property taxes every year to keep Madison liveable. Below, for your information, are recent comments from the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association Council on the City's budget, particularly on Metro Bus concerns. (Excellent comments in my opinion.) Mike Neuman ---------- To: All Madison Alders and Mayor Cieslewicz From: Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association Council Subject: 2009 Budget: Limit Road Building - Support Bus Service To better reflect New Urbanist principles enacted in the Comprehensive Plan; to better reflect The Natural Step principles; to better reflect what's happening to the economy, energy costs and real estate, when you consider our 2009 city budget, Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association asks you to: 1) Freeze road building at 2008 levels adjusted for inflation. Madison population is growing at less than 1% per year; yet the proposed budget appears to increase road spending by 65%. Of total road spending, 17% appears to be for highway expansion. In any budget year, particularly a year like this, road building should not grow faster than population growth plus inflation. 2) Use road building savings to: a) Maintain $1.50 cash bus fare. Raising the cash fare may not increase farebox revenue at all; it may actually reduce farebox revenue if it leads to a dropoff in riders. Our cash fare is at the high end of peer city bus systems. Ann Arbor transit system's cash fare is $1.00 (http://theride.org/fares.asp#0 ). Other cities have found a lower fare means more riders and more farebox revenue. We risk losing ridership gains if we raise the fare. We should encourage higher farebox revenues through higher ridership levels that lower fares bring. This is consistent with generally accepted elasticity (supply & demand) models of transit ridership vs. fare rates. More information can be found here: http://www.vtpi.org/tranelas.pdf ; and http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/elastic.cfm) For many Atwood neighbors, the bus is how we get to work each day. We choose to take the bus because we want to. Bus use reduces motor vehicle traffic. Bus use improves air quality. This summer the EPA proposed to designate Dane County a nonattainment area - because we do not comply with the national ambient air quality standard for small particles (PM2.5). Air pollution causes health problems. It's also an economic development issue because if we're declared a nonattainment area, it may limit what types of businesses may be able to locate here. For air quality's sake, for business development's sake, we need to do all we can to maintain and increase the number of bus riders - and reduce our reliance on motor vehicles - one of the main causes of small particles in the air. b) Restore routes cut over the past six years, including 10 and 11 service, and 7-day, half-hour service on both the 3 and 4. c) Explore Bus Rapid Transit with a pilot starter line. d) Restore and expand traffic calming funding. e) Expand enforcement of crosswalk laws to better protect pedestrian safety. 3) Dedicate a portion of the savings to property tax relief on the budget as a whole. When we spend too much on capital projects like highway expansion, the amount of tax money we then need to set aside for debt service grows each year. Essential services - like the bus system -- suffer. In the current budget, too little is left to fund essential services appropriately in the Operating Budget. Already debt service is projected to take 12.5% of our 2009 Operating Budget. The Comptroller says that number may reach 17% in three years http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/304058 Excessive highway expansion tarnishes our green image and significantly undermines our ability to carry out The Four Natural Step Principles the City has wisely adopted. http://www.naturalstep.org/the-system-conditions ). We ask you to restore balance and sustainability to our city budget. Please limit our spending on road building. Please support our bus system. _____________________________________________________________ Start a rewarding Medical Transcriptionist career. 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