Leaders Must Realize that Transit and Jobs are Linked

This op-ed originally ran on Oct. 20 in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

by Peggy Shulz

It's mystifying how something 40 feet long and weighing 13 tons can be virtually invisible as it travels our city streets. Yet public transit here is suffering from woeful inattention at best.

In Milwaukee County, approximately 330 buses are on the streets at the height of rush hour. On a typical weekday, 140,000 rides are taken on the Milwaukee County Transit System. How can that many vehicles covering hundreds of miles for nearly 24 hours a day go virtually unnoticed by so many people, including those in the position to dictate the future of transit?

Perhaps most important to the transit discussion is this vital statistic: Nearly 45% of those 140,000 daily rides are taken by workers going to and from their jobs (as reported in a study by the Public Policy Forum).

As a nearly lifelong transit advocate, I've shared my devotion to transit on these pages a number of times. But recent developments make it even more crucial to get across this point: Access to transit equals jobs. Please repeat after me: Transit and jobs are inextricably linked - and not just for the minimum-wage worker who can't afford a car.

The transit system reports that in a recent survey of adult riders, 30% had household incomes of $28,000 or more; 53% had taken at least some college level courses or had college degrees.

The latest 2012 county budget proposal seems to put a plug in the bleeding of the transit system. But it's by no means a certainty, and even if Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's plans work out, it's for one year only.

In the spring of 2008, I picked up the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's relocation guide. I saw "transportation" on the table of contents and eagerly turned to the listed page. There was mention of the airport, Amtrak, I-94, even the ferry service across Lake Michigan. I held my breath, waiting for some mention of the transit system. Not one word.

Recently, I obtained the 2011 edition of the guide. The same transportation description was there. But again, those considering moving to Milwaukee were left clueless as to the availability of public transportation here.

MMAC President Tim Sheehy, to his credit, co-signed (with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Abele and school leaders) a letter to state legislators this past spring urging them to give Milwaukee County most of the assets of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority (which has been disbanded).

It is all the more incomprehensible, then, to see that the MMAC's own publication continues to ignore the very existence of the transit system.

Visit Milwaukee publishes an "Official Visitors Guide." In the 2011 edition, on the pages that outline transportation and tours, one can read about Mitchell International Airport, private coach tours, limousines, car rentals, taxicabs and, of course, the Lake Express Ferry. And the public transit system? What public transit system?!

This year, the transit system made a route alteration in response to a request from Actuant Electrical in Menomonee Falls to provide bus service for its employees. Other hopeful signs that at least some businesses are getting it with regard to transit are announcements in recent weeks of two different employers moving from areas not reachable by the transit system to locations in the city convenient to bus routes.

Stella & Chewy's, a pet food manufacturer, is relocating from Muskego to Milwaukee's south side near two bus routes. J.F. Ahern Co. will open a new facility in the Menomonee Valley, replacing its existing building in Menomonee Falls. But those two employers are, seemingly, swimming against the tide of most businesses in our state.

It's October, so the BuySeasons.com annual hiring blitz is in full swing. Yet the company is located in New Berlin, beyond the reach of the transit system.

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance recently announced plans to demolish one of its downtown Milwaukee buildings. The company will decide whether to replace the building there, in a location well-served by a variety of bus routes, or in Franklin, to a spot inaccessible to public transportation.

My question: Is the "Welcome to Wisconsin" mat out only for those businesses that refuse to accept the value of public transportation?

Tell Us About Your Day... in Transit!

A Day in the Life of Transit

The November edition of DigitalCT is our most ambitious undertaking yet, as we try to convey all the public and community transportation does in a single 24-hour period. To make our "Day in the Life of Transit" issue come alive, we need as many of our members and readers as possible. The point of this edition will be to accurately portray all the myriad ways in which public and community transportation impact their communities. To express your interest -- or for more details -- please email Scott Bogren at bogren@ctaa.org.

Spreading the Word About Transit

This article appeared in the Indianapolis Star (http://www.indystar.com/article/20111006/OPINION08/110060338/Spreading-word-about-transit?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|p)


It was a hit a few years ago when gasoline topped $4 a gallon and its own price was $3 a trip. At $5 a ride, it has maintained a loyal core. Indy Express Bus is a secret that needs to be shouted about, its backers believe; and its promotion can serve as a campaign vehicle for the greater cause of regional mass transit.


Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard will join Ehren Bingaman, executive director of the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, in an announcement today of a new federal grant for marketing the suburban express service.


The end of a federal subsidy was supposed to have scotched the amenity at the end of 2010, but CIRTA and Miller Trailways have kept it going with the fare increase and reduced frequency. Bingaman is fond of pointing out that the total average cost of thecommute by car is $13 one way, not including parking, according to the American Automobile Association


Ongoing efforts to remind Carmel and Fishers residents of the continuing service will be enhanced by the $200,000 grant, which will be used for billboards, spiffed-up buses and other marketing strategies. Rides to Colts games have been added as well. In the planning stage is a service from Indy's central city for people working in the suburbs.


Convenience, energy conservation, traffic flow and air quality all will be bettered with increase popularity of Indy Express Bus. At the same time, however, its limited scope speaks to the need to develop a multicounty transit system with a dedicated funding source. This requires action by the Indiana General Assembly and ultimately the voters in a referendum.


While such a system may or may not include rail, at least in its early phases, the backbone would be buses -- including enhancement of the grossly underfunded IndyGo plus express bus service to communities as distant as Lebanon and Mooresville. Other metropolitan areas have achieved such mobility without painful tax increases; widespread buy-in is the key.


Mass transit succeeds when it is a choice and not a last resort. In Central Indiana, the latter has been the case for decades. It doesn't have to be that way, as the interurbans once showed and as Indy Express Bus demonstrates today. May the word spread.

Lake Erie Transit Incorporates Real Riders and True Stories

Monroe, Mich -- Jim Plaskiewicz has been riding the Lake Erie Transit bus to his job a Taco Bell for over 21 years. But on one particular Tuesday morning, his route was slightly different. Plaskiewicz was tapped to appear in one of four new television commercials for the transportation provier that included actual workers side-by-side with professional actors and -- of course -- LET's star team of drivers.

"When we sat down to plan the new campaign with Sheroian Associates, our marketing agency, we kept bringing up true stories of riders," said Mark Jagodzinski, LET General Manager. "Not only did we use a few actual stories of riders, but we invited some of our favorites to be in the commercials, like Mary Wenzel who is 92 and rides the bus to her hairdresser every Friday.

Over a two-day shoot at various locales around Monroe, a production crew worked to create four commercials promoting various benefits of riding Lake Erie Transit buses. The new commercials will begin airing locally in October.

"We have bike racks on every bus. We have a buddy program that helps seniors and new riders acclimate using Lake Erie Transit. We have hybrid buses and door-to-door service. AND we even have a bus driver who picked up a passenger in her own car after she missed the last scheduled stop," said Jagodzinski. "I think those are the stories worth sharing with our community."

From Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Urban and Rural Transit Association's Legislative Representative, Gary Goyke, shares this list of Don'ts when working with elected officials:

DON'T
• Address legislators with first names unless you have have truly become close enough to do so.
• Express your partisan views with legislators present.
• Threaten a legislator with political reprisals. It won't work.
• Infer or demand that political contributions will buy a vote. It's illegal, stupid and will backfire.
• Call names, make accusations or denigrate legislators.
• Pile on lengthy data that needs interpretation.
• Fake an answer. Instead, offer to recontact legislators with more information. Credibility is everything. You must be the expert for legislators.
• Count on your lobbyist or organization to get the job done for you. Legislators like constituents.
• Embarrass legislators in a public forum. It is in bad taste and will make you an enemy.
• Burn your bridges — you will need legislators' support on other issues.
• Support or oppose a candidate without know all the candidates.
• Insist a legislator support or oppose a proposal. Request is the word.
• Misstate the group's position on an issue. Credibility is absolutely necessary for political influence.
• Mix other concerns with the group's interests. Save them for another time.
• Contact a legislator at odd hours or inappropriate locations.
• Alienate legislator's staff or friends. They have influence.
• Cry wolf -- exaggeration destroys your credibility.
• Not keep in contact with a legislator -- it will help when you have an issue.
• Forget to say THANK YOU in a letter after a meetings. This will be long remembered but doing it is most often forgotten.

Incidentally, Gary Goyke is a former Wisconsin State Senator.

Transit is Infrastructure

We Are Infrastructure

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when many in the community and public transportation field might have gasped at being called infrastructure. Infrastructure, after all, was a term of art reserved for public works programs, you know, sewers and streets and perhaps highways, roads and bridges. We -- community and public transit -- are in the people business, or at least the business of moving people.

Indeed, community and public transportation is a people industry. But a healthy dose of pragmatism, as well as an honest assessment of what's being said by elected officials around the country, leads me to believe that it is infrastructure that just might carry the day for surface transportation legislation here in Washington this fall — and thus is a key aspect in framing your discussions at the local level. It is impossible to ignore when several conservative members of the U.S. Senate are willing to publicly support surface transportation investment -- stating that this type of infrastructure investment is not the type of spending that needs to be targeted for cuts. It seems to be even the rare point upon which the Obama Administration and the House Republicans agree.

Strictly defined, infrastructure refers to foundational elements in an unspecified system. For surface transportation, such elements include the various modes that encompass our network: transit, streets, highways, bridges, rail, etc., -- the so-called built surface transportation environment. Yet there are unique aspects of transit's infrastructure. Unlike some of the other components in our nation's surface transportation network, community and public transit infrastructure is more than bricks and mortar, asphalt and concrete. Our infrastructure is our drivers and vehicles and routes, as well as the facilities, stations, stops and technology that make up community and public transit. We bring human capital into the infrastructure equation.

Community and public transit systems are an important ingredient in this surface transportation infrastructure mix. Transit systems reduce private automobile usage every day by millions of cars. Further, these systems -- whether rural or urban -- are often the mobility lifeline for seniors, people with disabilities, low-income individuals and others who either cannot or do not have access to an automobile. In a recent report, Transit Access and Zero-Vehicle Households, the Brookings Institute estimated that there are more than 10 million American households without a private automobile -- most of which are based around urban areas where access to effective community and public transit is available.

The American infrastructure debt is real and represents a serious impediment to economic stability and growth, to say nothing of the lost employment opportunities. The American Society of Civil Engineers, in a report entitled Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Surface Transportation Infrastructure, found that the failure to adequately invest in all forms of surface transportation infrastructure costs the American economy $130 billion and 800,000 jobs annually.

One reason the surface transportation infrastructure issue has gained so much traction in Washington with elected officials is its direct connection to jobs and the economy. From improving access to employment opportunities to actually stimulating job growth -- adequately building the nation's surface transportation infrastructure will have a clear, positive impact on the American economy. Some of the hardest hit sectors in the American workforce -- the construction trades -- are precisely those that benefit most from infrastructure investment.

As we move into a period where transit leaders and advocates are once again asked to tell the truth about transit and share the real benefits and impact of cost-effective and efficient community and public transportation, we must keep the infrastructure angle primary in our communications. As has always been the case, the most successful transit communications strategies are those carefully tailored to the audience. In today's political climate, that tailoring demands that community and public transit's vital role as infrastructure investment take a central role.

Remember: We are...infrastructure.

Key Congressional Committees -- House Appropriations Transportation and HUD Subcommittee

Republicans Tom Latham, Iowa Frank R. Wolf, Virginia John R. Carter, Texas Steven C. LaTourette, Ohio Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida Charles W. Dent, Pennsylvania Steve Womack, Arkansas Democrats John W. Olver, Massachusetts Ed Pastor, Arizona Marcy Kaptur, Ohio David E. Price, North Carolina

Key Congressional Committees -- House T&I Highways and Transit Subcommittee

REPUBLICANS	DEMOCRATS
John J. Duncan, Jr. (TN), Chairman	Peter A. DeFazio (OR), Ranking Member
Don Young (AK)Thomas E. Petri (WI) Howard Coble (NC) Frank LoBiondo (NJ) Gary G. Miller (CA) Timothy V. Johnson (IL) Sam Graves (MO) Bill Shuster (PA) Shelley Moore Capito (WV) Jean Schmidt (OH) Candice S. Miller (MI) Andy Harris (MD) Rick Crawford (AR) Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) Frank Guinta (NH) Lou Barletta (PA) Blake Farenthold (TX) Larry Bucshon (IN) Billy Long (MO) Bob Gibbs (OH) Richard Hanna (NY), Vice Chairman Steve Southerland (FL) John L. Mica (FL), (ex officio)	Jerrold Nadler (NY) Bob Filner (CA) Leonard Boswell (IA) Tim Holden (PA) Michael E. Capuano (MA) Michael H. Michaud (ME) Grace F. Napolitano (CA) Mazie K. Hirono (HI) Jason Altmire (PA) Timothy J. Walz (MN) Heath Shuler (NC) Steve Cohen (TN) Laura Richardson (CA) Albio Sires (NJ) Donna F. Edwards (MD) Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX) Elijah E. Cummings (MD) Nick J. Rahall, II (WV), (ex officio)

Key Congressional Committees -- House Transportation and Infrastructure

REPUBLICANS	DEMOCRATS
John L. Mica (FL) Chairman	Nick J. Rahall, II (WV) Ranking Member
Don Young (AK) Thomas E. Petri (WI) Howard Coble (NC) John J. Duncan, Jr. (TN) Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ) Gary Miller (CA) Timothy V. Johnson (IL) Sam Graves (MO) Bill Shuster (PA) Shelley Moore Capito (WV) Jean Schmidt (OH) Candice Miller (MI) Duncan Hunter (CA) Andy Harris (MD) Rick Crawford (AR) Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) Frank Guinta (NH) Randy Hultgren (IL) Lou Barletta (PA) Chip Cravaack (MN) Blake Farenthold (TX) Larry Bucshon (IN) Billy Long (MO) Bob Gibbs (OH) Patrick Meehan (PA) Richard Hanna (NY) Jeff Landry (LA) Steve Southerland (FL) Jeff Denham (CA) James Lankford (OK) Reid Ribble (WI) Chuck Fleischmann (TN)	Peter A. DeFazio (OR) Jerry F. Costello (IL) Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) Jerrold Nadler (NY) Corrine Brown (FL) Bob Filner (CA) Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX) Elijah E. Cummings (MD) Leonard Boswell (IA) Tim Holden (PA) Rick Larsen (WA) Michael E. Capuano (MA) Timothy H. Bishop (NY) Michael H. Michaud (ME) Russ Carnahan (MO) Grace Napolitano (CA) Daniel Lipinski (IL) Mazie Hirono (HI) Jason Altmire (PA)  Timothy J. Walz (MN) Heath Shuler (NC) Steve Cohen (TN) Laura A. Richardson (CA) Albio Sires (NJ) Donna F. Edwards (MD)