No stone in county mass transit search will go unturned

BY WILLIAM MCREYNOLDS, Racine County Executive

Friday, May 23, 2008

http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/05/24/commentary/doc483788d788430124365593.txt

There’s an old saying that nothing is constant except change. That’s as true about public transportation as about most other things. During the first half of the 20th Century, public transportation was heavily used all over the country, including here in Racine County. For much of that time, we even had convenient commuter rail running north and south. From the early 1900’s until 1963, the North Shore Line provided frequent service to cities between Chicago and Milwaukee.

But here, as elsewhere in the country, bus and rail ridership declined when post-World War II prosperity produced more cars, more highways and more scattered suburbs.

In the 1960’s, Wisconsin’s new interstate highways were more than adequate. Gasoline was under 30 cents a gallon (about $2.00 in today’s dollars). Baby boomers were just kids and Racine had plenty of good jobs for people who didn’t even finish high school.

Now, Interstate 94 is clogged. Gas prices are soaring. Boomers are retiring into urban condos and good jobs and good workers are often found beyond city limits and county lines. Life as we knew it in the 1960’s is gone. We must again take a serious look at public transit.

While there’s little doubt that we need public transit, the question is what kind? I share former Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith’s contempt for “transportation systems that take people from where they don’t live to where they don’t want to go.” There are things we must know. For example, where do people live, and where will they live in the foreseeable future?

Where do they want to go? And what’s the most sensible, cost-effective way to get them there and back?

We’re working hard to ensure that Racine County has good jobs and that our people have the skills to fill good jobs here and in the surrounding area. But the good people must be able to get to the good jobs. How can we help them do so? And if senior citizens, or even some of us aging baby boomers, need to get to the doctor or the grocery store, how can we help both groups do so?

These are not just City of Racine issues or East of I-94 issues. They affect folks in every corner of the county. Figuring out our needs and the best ways to meet them requires collaboration. With the support of the elected heads of local governments, including Mayor Gary Becker of Racine and Mayor Bob Miller of Burlington, we’re undertaking a countywide joint transit study. The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) will provide technical assistance.

We’re also reaching out to the state Department of Transportation, with an eye toward possible grant-funded transit initiatives, especially for the western part of the county.

While our study must have a Racine County focus, we know that any sensible transit program must also provide for connections so that our people can reach destinations in adjacent counties. We should seek arrangements by which people who live in one county can use some form of public transit to get to jobs, see their doctors, or visit their grandchildren, across county lines.

Commuter rail, by itself, will not be the answer to the county’s transit needs. Commuter rail won’t get people from the City of Racine to jobs in Union Grove or along I-94, nor will it carry workers from the western part of the county to jobs, or older persons to medical appointments.

But commuter rail will be an important part of the answer. It offers a realistic prospect of taking enough people from where they live to where they want to go. It will provide an impetus for additional economic development in and along the rail corridor. And I believe we can find a local funding mechanism that has the support of the people who live in the area to be served, but doesn’t burden people who live outside it.

A lot of older Racine County residents fondly remember, if not the old North Shore Line itself, at least the easy access it afforded to Milwaukee and Chicago.

When enough of our citizens conclude that such convenient transportation is worth the public financing investment required, commuter rail can be a reality in Racine County.

Commuter rail promises to be an important part of Racine County’s transportation equation. But our needs are broader than that. All of those needs deserve thorough examination and careful evaluation, and all will be given their due.