johndecember.com johndecember.com / places | MKE · blue · Streetcar · Books · Cafes · Transit | search Search · star Market · hotel Hotels

(click on image for larger version) Streetcar MKE Streetcar: Personal Blog

Click on image for larger version)

Three Years of Transit: by Foot, Rail, and Bus

by John December / Updates/More Info: johndecember.com/mke

Posted: 2023-08-04

Please see my caveats about my blog before reading this.

Outline of This Essay

I Used Transit and Walking As My Sole Mobility for a Third Year

I Used Transit and Walking As My Sole Mobility for a Third Year

The global Covid-19 pandemic sent shockwaves throughout the world and dislocated daily life through the widespread shutdown of businesses, schools, and public buildings. Because there were few places to go, a massive collapse in public transit ridership followed (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2023; Parker et al., 2021; Qi et al, 2023).

I coped with this pandemic by staying close to home, getting my vaccinations, following public health advice, and using only walking and the local (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA) streetcar system for transportation. I described the first year, from March 2020 to March 2021, in my essay, "Year of The Hop." My practice of staying close to home and using only walking and transit continued for a second year, augmented by a trip on an Amtrak train and trips on the local bus system. I describe this second year, covering March 2021 to March 2022, in my essay, "Two Years of Transit." While the pandemic waned from public life in 2022, I continued to use only walking and transit to get around, and so by March 2023, I had completed a third year of using only transit for mobility. This essay covers what I experienced and learned during these three years of transit-only mobility.

Living car-free for a third year was easy: I extended my routine from the first two years and continued what was familiar. I rode the streetcar to reach many regular, daily destinations like the grocery store, post office, cafes, stores, restaurants, parks, and the riverwalk. For my freelance work, I have close-in locations in the city, lakefront, and river for my outdoor photography of cityscapes and scenes. My indoor work sites are located at my clients' buildings on The Hop streetcar route. As part of my work to improve my photographic techniques and support the streetcar, I managed to snap a few more photos of The Hop.

I reached places in my neighborhood easily by walking and riding The Hop streetcar. For places further from the streetcar route, I walked up to about 2 km (1.25 miles) beyond a streetcar stop. For more distant locations in the city and county, I used the Milwaukee County Transit System. I used a regional inter-city bus, The BadgerBus, and Amtrak, both serving the Intermodal Station on The Hop route. With a ride on The Hop to the Intermodal station, I could reach regional destinations-- Madison and Chicago. This diagram summarizes the transit modes I used for different geographical scales:

(click on image for larger version) illustration of transit used in neighborhood city county region

I met all my needs during this time--employment, food, medical care, transportation, recreation, libraries, doctor, dentist, shopping, dining, cafes, entertainment, education, and more. I gained insight into living car-free and the value of public transportation. I also saw the challenges faced by the urban area where I live and the historic dislocations of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most importantly, over these three years, my experience has helped me see outside the frame of car dependency more than I ever have before. I can identify with those who live car-free by necessity or choice. I have also grown to empathize with those car-dependent people who see no other choice than to use a car for transportation nearly everywhere. I see opportunities in a post-pandemic world for the city where I live, its urban metro area, and the entire region and state to better serve people through diversity, resiliency, and strength. Transit has a significant role in this work. As Charles Marohn states in Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (2021), "Deploying transit is a primary strategy for building wealth within a community."

The Pandemic Deepened My Car-Free Living Choices

Experiencing three straight years of using only transit and never riding in a car for mobility is part of my story of living car-free. The last time I owned a car was in 1989 when I left a full-time job to go back to graduate school. After that, I kept my driver's license and drove family or rental cars a few times. In 2009, I operated a family car for a short distance, but I have not driven a car since. When I needed to renew my driver's license in 2021, I voluntarily got a state identification card instead (I did not lose my license due to revocation or legal reasons but by choice).

As I related in my Year of The Hop, from March 2020 to March 2023, I did not use or ride in a car, taxi, rideshare, van, or other vehicle (or any aircraft). While this claim of being car-free may seem odd, many people worldwide are car-free not by choice but by necessity or circumstance. My experience has given me insight into the lives of all those who use public transportation for mobility. I understand more about car-free living and how city design could help support it. I can see the biases in city planning and urbanism against people who walk and take transit. I understand the sometimes prejudicial treatment and social ridicule car-free people sometimes face.

My intent has never been to advocate that everyone should be car-free or that cities should be designed only as car-free areas. However, I am not alone in being car-free, as The US Census found that 8.5% of US households have no vehicle available, and 25% of households in my zip code 53202 have no vehicle available. Diversity in living and mobility options is critical for a healthy community. However, car-dependent people who are decision-makers can forget about car-free people. Car-dependent people can also get defensive and assume that car-free options may detract from the importance of cars, and that seems to cause them considerable anxiety. I have had close acquaintances panic upon learning about my car-free life, and they sometimes exclaim that it could not be for everyone--when I never said it should be for everyone. However, many currently car-dependent people may someday lose their ability or desire to drive a car.

I choose to live a car-free life in a city because I enjoy it and want to demonstrate that it is possible. I also have many reasons to continue living car-free as a personal choice--for environmental concerns, concerns about urban design, and my community's health, equity, livability, and prosperity. Cities work best when they support wide diversity in mobility choices--and certainly, not everyone needs to be car-free to take transit. Transit can be a healthy part of a car-lite life. Households can save considerable money and time by reducing car ownership to just one (instead of two or more) cars.

My Car-Free Pattern Involved Walking and Transit

As I previously documented, for my first and second years, I met all my needs by living car-free, in large part, because of the many destinations along The Hop streetcar route. I could reach everything I needed in these past years by walking, riding The Hop streetcar, and riding a bus sometimes. I could reach:

One of the keys to understanding public transit is to not just see it as "going from A to B," where A and B are transit stations, but consider the entire trip of a person, starting from an Origin (O) and traveling to a final destination (D). The person might use a variety of transportation modes to travel in between O and D. The following diagram shows a simple illustration of this idea. The diagram shows a trip a person takes that includes a segment by transit. The diagram shows the origin and destination of the person. Station A is where the person boards the transit vehicle, and Station B is where the person alights (exits) from the transit vehicle. Circles around the stations show the walksheds--the area around a transit station where people typically can be expected to walk to or from the vehicle. A distance of about 400 meters (about 1/4 mile) is often used for this distance (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, 2016; PedShet.net).

(click on image for larger version) Diagram of trip connector showing a transit trip

This trip is in three segments:

  1. The person walks from the origin to Station A and boards the transit vehicle. Note that this walk shown is within the walkshed distance to the station.
  2. The person rides the transit vehicle from Station A and alights from the transit vehicle at Station B.
  3. The person walks from Station B to the destination. Note that this walk illustrated is beyond the walkshed distance from the station.

In this example, the transit segment (from Station A to Station B) is called a trip connector because it connects the walking trips the person takes to and from the transit stations. The walking distance is W = distance(origin, Station A) + distance(Station B, destination). The trip connector covers the distance, C = distance(station A, Station B).

This diagram captures the use of transit to connect an origin and destination, not just the "A to B" trip. The origin and destination may be at various distances from the stations. For transit to be helpful to most people, these walking distances to transit stations should be less than the walkshed distance, about 400 meters (1/4 mile). In this example, the person walks the total distance W. If the direct walking distance from the origin to destination is D = distance(origin, destination), the distance gained by transit is D - W. Thus, the passenger, rather than needing to walk D, can walk the distance W.

This framework of the total trip (O-A-B-D) is important for several reasons:

  1. It shows how people can extend the area in a city that they can reach by walking and using transit as a trip connector, and it provides a framework for measuring this. This example could be more complicated with additional segments added.
  2. This diagram shows the total trip of the person walking to the boarding station and from the alighting station so that these distances are considered in transit planning and evaluating the value of transit, not just the "A to B" segment.
  3. This diagram illustrates the walksheds--the walking areas around stations. A person's ability to live in or find resources within these walksheds contributes to the usefulness of the transit. The success of the transit system will depend on the generators of trips and attractors of trips within these walksheds (Woldeamanuel, 2016).
  4. The total experience of the person taking the trip matters, not just the segment "from A to B." Those walksheds are where the ridership comes from and goes, and what those walksheds offer in the way of buildings for housing, stores, or other goods or services contributes to the success of the transit system.

    As transit author Christof Spieler observes, "the transit experience depends on buildings and streets and sidewalks as much as it does on stations and trains; and, above all, to talk about getting transit in the right places" (Spieler, 2018, p 1).

    Strong Towns leader Charles Marohn also questions why "Enormous sums are spent on transportation infrastructure, yet next to nothing is spent connecting transit stops to the community... Instead of marrying people and place, it is as if designers of the transit system focus only on the actual transportation device, not the experience of the rider and not the quality of the place being served." (Marohn, 2021, p. 147).

  5. There is more analysis to be done because the walking distance to transit (Walker, 2011) may vary from 400 meters. The actual distance people are willing to walk varies by the purpose of the trip, the mode offered, and the person's subjective thinking. The key is not to make rationalist assumptions that people will always take the fastest mode possible. Many factors, such as walking distance, comfort, routing, and other subjective factors, might affect a passenger's decision to wait for a slower bus right outside their home instead of walking further to a more rapid train. (Or, in my case, walking a bit further to a streetcar stop because I prefer that mode and connectivity it offers versus a closer bus stop.) It is a mistake to assume that people make transit decisions based on metrics like time, speed, or cost only.

This concept of using public transit as a trip connector or extender is part of the routine of many regular transit users. Philip Langdon, in his book, Within Walking Distance: Creating Livable Communities for All, points out that a streetcar's "aim, in dense urban settings, is to act as a 'walk extender,' helping pedestrians cover more ground and reach more destinations than they could otherwise do in several minutes" (Langdon, 2017, pp. 172-173).

However, this use of the streetcar as a trip extender is something that people who do not use public transit seem to not understand because they often think only about boarding a vehicle (usually an automobile) right at their origin and exiting the vehicle right at the destination as part of the trip. They call that "going from A to B." They do not see walking to a transit station as part of the trip and walking from a transit station after leaving the transit vehicle as part of the trip.

People who do not use transit seem to want to have a public transit system that goes quickly from "A to B," where "A" may be their front door and "B" the door of their destination. Confronted with any public transportation option that does not deliver them from door to door, encased in a private bubble, seems lacking. In criticizing transit or when car-dependent people design transit, "A to B" is the standard way of ignoring the landscape around the stations, ignoring walking, ignoring land use, and placing the stations in less effective places or zoned for low-density uses instead of transit-oriented development.

The walksheds are keys to successful transit, and so the walkability of the area within the walkshed should be high, should exhibit pedestrian safety, have clear pathways, and have pleasant and clean surroundings. The land in the walkshed is valuable for transit-oriented development, denser development, taller buildings, and the location of essential services and goods (ideally, essential services such as groceries or a medical clinic). Areas around transit stations could have less automobile parking (Ewing, et al, 2021) in order to increase the space for housing, busineses, or services serving people. These walksheds power the transit system by generating and attracting transit trips. Ignoring these walksheds, land use within them, and passenger trips through them misses the purpose and power of transit.

I often use The Hop as a trip connector. For example, I walk to the nearest station for the streetcar, ride it to another station, and then take a walk from that station to my final destination, which often may be outside of the 400-meter walkshed.

For example, I used The Hop as a trip connector or extender:

Using the streetcar as a connector, I can reach more areas in the city than I would otherwise reach only by walking. The transit segment of a trip gives me time to sit, rest, cool down in hot weather, warm up in cold weather, check social media, and then be ready to alight from the transit vehicle ready to walk and explore.

In using transit as a trip connector, my priorities are: (1) connectivity and (2) preservation of my walking energy. It does not bother me if the distance or time covered by my total trip is not at some minimum value that other routing or different mode (such as a comparison to a direct automobile trip) might offer. I value the connectivity and the experience of using the transit service--because that is what is available to me--as part of the trip. Often, planners or car-focused people emphasize the time and distance a trip covers and make rationalist assumptions about the traveler's priorities and behavior. These assumptions skew an entire city or region to become more automobile-oriented because the automobile often gets subsidized and promoted as the universal transportation mode.

Also, people who might consider using transit might not understand the benefit of using transit as a trip connector. I have heard people proud of their walking ability state that they do not need transit because of their walking prowess. However, they can take advantage of the tremendous benefit of using the streetcar or transit system as a trip connector. Using transit as a connector, people can significantly expand the area in which they can walk--far beyond what they could reach by walking alone.

The Pandemic Accelerated my Use of Online Services

The pandemic encouraged and accelerated some of my online shopping and interaction patterns. Before the pandemic, I used online shopping for camera and computer equipment, electronics, household goods, and clothing. However, during and now after the pandemic, I use online shopping even more: I buy more items online, including non-perishable groceries. I also now use an online pharmacy. My online shopping has thus removed trips to distant neighborhoods for items I now buy online, so I no longer take bus trips to big-box stores or a local pharmacy. Now, I exclusively prefer online shopping for household goods, electronics, clothing, prescriptions, and non-perishable food items. For in-person shopping, I continue to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, other food items, and many household and personal care items from two full-service grocery stores along The Hop streetcar route. The businesses I frequent the most are the grocery stores, cafes, and restaurants along the streetcar route.

The pandemic introduced online class delivery via Zoom or other conferencing for my continuing education classes. That worked well during the pandemic, but when in-person classes resumed, I consistently attended in person, although the classes come with an online option.

Another change is that I no longer travel to an automated teller machine (ATM) for cash because I have switched to cashless payments. I use a smartphone electronic wallet app or a credit card for purchases in grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, and other in-person retail settings. I have long used a touch payment card for transit. I started using cashless payments before the pandemic, but cashless payments became my exclusive payment system during and now after the pandemic. As a result, it has been several years since I made a cash transaction in a store. A trip to an ATM had been a regular part of my weekly routine, but now that is gone.

I Continued My Car-Free Living Patterns

I use the streetcar to reach the riverwalk or locations near the lakefront for exercise, walking, and photography. My shopping, employment, medical, educational, and other needs can be met by the streetcar, walking, or an occasional bus trip. Therefore, when it came up for renewal, I did not see the need to keep a driver's license.

As the pandemic focused my destinations closer to home, and my year of using only walking and the streetcar showed me that I could meet all my needs, I used the bus less frequently. I only need the bus for continuing education classes, specialized medical appointments, or for an trip outside of downtown. While the MCTS bus system is excellent, I use the streetcar at approximately 10:1 regarding the number of times boarding over the bus system. I also recognize that I am fortunate to live in a connected neighborhood offering practical resources for living and enjoying the city. The streetcar magnifies my ability to make use of these resources.

In my caveats about my blog, I expressly acknowledge that a metro area needs all modes--including buses, professional trucking, delivery, bicycling, walking, and automobile driving. Buses are a critical part of a metropolitan transit system because they can serve less dense areas and connect those areas to activity centers or transfer points to other transit modes.

As I noted before, public transportation involves walks to the origin and destination of the transit trip, not just "from A to B." Using transit as a connector is a crucial strategy for public transit use. Specialized transit, however, can get people who need transit from door to door for a trip. For example, Helsinki, Finland, has a neighborhood bus that offers service from door to door. Someone in need could use ridesharing or special assistance to get door-to-door service--this is the basis for the rideshare services. Each form of transit--regularly scheduled service along a route or customized service from door-to-door serves a niche purpose. All these forms of transit available in a region are important because each mode can fill a niche need well.

As I review my car-free living practices over these past years, I can see some of the benefits:

  1. The overall benefit is the savings of time, energy (physical and mental), and pollution from not owning and operating a car.
  2. I walk and get exercise more than if I had a car.
  3. I avoid the costs of car ownership.
  4. I save time.
    • As a car-free person, I spend 0 hours on things like car maintenance, washing, fueling, parking, and getting a car repaired or serviced. I spend 0 hours shoveling a driveway, scraping snow off a windshield, shopping for a new car, shopping for car parts or tires, worrying about a car getting stolen or damaged, wondering where I parked a car, financing a new car, finding insurance, dealing with accidents or incidents, talking about cars, getting drivers training, or renewing my license.
    • If a car owner pays approximately $10k a year to operate a car, they must work to earn that money. If they earn $25/hour, that works out to 400 hours of work per year to get the money to pay for the car. That is about 7.5 hours per week! That is on top of the time they have to park, gas up, wash, repair, other otherwise maintain the car. Even if I take extra time to walk to and use public transit, I am ahead of a car owner in time use by these measures alone.
    • A car owner who needs to work nearly one day out of their workweek for their car is starting Monday in the hole regarding transportation time. A person riding a bicycle instead could easily beat out a car owner in terms of time spent on transportation and paying for that transportation. No wonder car drivers speed so excessively--they wake up Monday morning a day in the hole in terms of time and money spent on transportation.
  5. I avoid some of the risks of injury or death caused by drivers of automobiles. The CDC estimates that automobile drivers kill about 90 people each day in the US. I know I am at risk as a pedestrian--automobile drivers kill about 20 pedestrians daily in the US.
  6. Being car-free means not putting another car on the street or highway. Cars require space and public subsidies for endless highway and road construction, free and underpriced parking, underpriced gasoline taxes, and health and environmental damage and deaths due to automobile use and car-centric planning and policies. (Knowles, 2023; Grabar, 2023; Norton, 2008; Shoup, 2018)
  7. I do not have to deal with sitting in traffic or commuting. Many people love being in their car, so I wish them this enjoyment. However, I am glad I never have to do that.
  8. I enjoy being without a car because I do not have to park it and return to it after visiting a destination. I can go somewhere by walking and using the streetcar or bus, visit the destination, and then return by another means, mode, or path. I do not have to go back to a parking area and get the car where I left it.
  9. I have gained benefits by efficiently dealing with many common issues that people seem to worry about if they choose to be car-free:
    • It is easy to get groceries. I buy fresh groceries in small batches from nearby stores every few days. I usually take the streetcar there and back. I have a small pack and cloth bags. It is easy to carry and a pleasant errand to run. I also buy groceries online and have goods delivered to my home.
    • It is easy to get a ride to an airport by transit (my local system has a bus that serves the airport) or van or car services. For some reason, people think they need to own an automobile specifically to drive to the airport--it is a common question.
    • You can get to a doctor's appointment or other appointments on time if you carefully choose a transit route schedule option that gets you there early, and you have alternatives and tactics to ensure that you are there on time.
    • It is easy to say you have a car but do not own one. You can access a car through car-sharing and not own a car. You can say, "I have a car--through Zipcar [or some other service]," and avoid a situation where someone (or yourself) might think you are "car-less."
  10. A significant benefit of being car-free is knowing that when you take transit, a professional with training is operating the vehicle. I acknowledge with gratitude the many professional drivers and operators of buses, streetcars, trucks, vans, rideshare, emergency vehicles, automobiles, delivery vehicles, ships, planes, and trains. These operators, drivers, and first responders make my car-free life possible. I completely support professional drivers taking the road--that is why I keep off of it myself!
I maintain a brief overview of car-free tactics at https://johndecember.com/places/people/carfree.html.

I Experienced the Accomplishments of The Hop Streetcar

After The Hop opened in November 2018, I rode the streetcar daily (interrupted only by a hospital stay in June 2019 and the initial period of the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020). During this time, I saw new development along the streetcar route and experienced the accomplishments of The Hop, which I break into six main areas, with the second area consisting of five parts:

  1. The Hop restored urban rail transit to Milwaukee.

    Electric-powered fixed urban rail (streetcar) systems have been used worldwide continuously since the 19th century. Today, hundreds of streetcar (tram) systems operate, and more are planned. Metro Magazine observes that streetcars "are making an unprecedented resurgence across the US and around the world" (McCunney, 2014). Streetcars fill a specific niche in urban transit to connect densely populated activity clusters and are a recognized component of metropolitan transit systems (Rodrigue et al., 2020; Woldeamanuel, 2016; Spieler, 2018).

    Milwaukee had a long history of streetcars, as its electric streetcar service operated from 1890 under the Milwaukee Street Railway Company through its successor companies--The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company and The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transport Company--until 1958 (Canfield, 1972). The extent of the streetcar system in the city of Milwaukee grew to 289 km (180 miles) of track and reached a peak (around 1930) of over 400 streetcar vehicles (Canfield, 1972; The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee).

    After 1958 when its streetcars stopped, Milwaukee took its place on a list of larger cities in the USA with no operating urban passenger rail system. While Milwaukee retained its intercity passenger rail (later Amtrak) and built its bus system (later MCTS), transportation planners focused on freeways and cars.

    The re-introduction of urban rail transit to Milwaukee was a long road. In his article, "Developing Rail Transit the Hard Way: The Long and Tortured History of Milwaukee's Streetcar," Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman describes the efforts--involving many setbacks--to re-introduce streetcars to Milwaukee, starting with studies in the 1990s (Bauman, 2022). In 2018, after 60 years of absence and a wide variety of delays, opposition (Spieler, 2018, p. 200), and support, Milwaukee's streetcar service resumed with the opening of The Hop. Using a distinctly different vehicle type from the previous centuries (Brookville Equipment Corporation, "Liberty Modern Streetcar"), The Hop today connects portions of Milwaukee's downtown neighborhood.

    Thus, the first major accomplishment of The Hop was to remove Milwaukee from the list of larger cities with no urban passenger rail. Now Milwaukee has another chance to build the vital mode of urban rail transit used around the world successfully during three centuries--streetcars. Early streetcars in Milwaukee set down the transit fabric and strengthened the walking fabric of the city (Canfield, 1972; Newman, Kosonen, and Kenworthy, 2016). These fabrics remain part of the geography of Milwaukee today. The modern streetcars of The Hop open up the possibility for a downtown based on people-centric places, walking, and streetcar connections among activity clusters. With The Hop, Milwaukee can diversify its transit options and utilize the streetcar where it can serve best.

  2. The Hop demonstrates the unique advantages of streetcars.

    While Milwaukee cannot have a regional transit authority to coordinate its metropolitan-area transit systems, many different transit systems operate in the Milwaukee area (See my list, MKE Transit). Each mode of transit serves a specific purpose, and The Hop demonstrates the unique purposes and advantages of streetcars. I have created a list of the advantages of streetcars, but I would like to summarize these advantages by focusing on The Hop's main accomplishments as a streetcar system:

    1. The Hop serves people-oriented activity clusters within the tight geometry of downtown streets.

      The operations of The Hop near The Milwaukee Public Market and at Cathedral Square (particularly during the Bastille Days celebrations serving many passengers often close to the tracks) best exemplify these activity clusters. The track's fixed nature and the vehicles' no-emissions operation draws people to co-mingle in proximity to the streetcar (using precautions, of course). For example, The Market area in Helsinki, Finland, is served well by streetcars. I could not imagine how this proximity could be possible or pleasant with a diesel (fumes) bus or a wheeled vehicle not on a fixed track course through the area. Further, The Hop's geometry of fixed placement on a known course makes tight turns and narrow passageways possible.

      Management of the space in these people-oriented areas requires modern parking reform (Shoup, 2018) as well as smart parking revenue collection to avoid the fate of the city of Chicago, which lost billions and billions of dollars in a bad parking deal (Grabar, 2023, p. 143).

      The intelligent use of curb space management can enhance people-centered areas by providing more space for people and businesses. The Hop can connect these people-oriented areas to remote or off-site parking.

      The historical legacy of narrow streets in downtown Milwaukee supports a people-friendly urban atmosphere, and streetcars (first powered by horses and later electricity) fit right in because they were the transit vehicles that operated on early streets before automobiles (Canfield, 1972).

    2. The Hop's operational infrastructure demonstrates the appeal and efficiency of urban transit on fixed tracks.

      The permanence of streetcar infrastructure denotes a commitment to the land that developers of nearby properties can recognize and build transit-oriented development nearby.

      The permanence of the tracks also appeals to residents who want housing options near fixed transportation that they can expect to stay in place for a while rather than "nimble" bus routes, which can change on a whim.

      The physics of fixed rail transit is efficient for operating a vehicle using wheels on a track, giving a smoother ride, more efficient use of energy, and less wear and tear on the vehicles. Rubber-wheeled vehicles experience the punishing bouncing of vehicles on road surfaces, damaging the vehicle, the road surface, and passengers. Rubber tires have significant resistance requiring greater energy consumption for travel. (See "Why Rail Has 20X Energy Saving Advantage Over Rubber Tire Road Vehicles - The Science of Locomotion"). The advantages of fixed rails for vehicle locomotion have been recognized since before the 1800s.

    3. The Hop's modern, electric vehicles serve riders with highly-accessible transportation proven in Milwaukee's climate and passenger demand conditions.

      The Hop Liberty Modern streetcars are emissions-free, ADA-compliant, and offer level passenger loading and unloading through two big doors. Local Hop rider Bill Crowley stated, "Milwaukee's newest mode of public transportation, the streetcar system dubbed the Hop, is the most accessible option yet!" (Crowley, "Are You Ready to Hop?"). These vehicles accommodate people using wheelchairs, walkers, and mobility assistance so that all people board on a level platform, with no special ramps needed. (See also: Morris, 2021.)

      The Hop has a proven ability to run in all weather: it ran in snow, cold (including the polar vortex when air temperature reached -28 C (-20 F), and wind chills -40 C (-40 F)), heat, and blizzards. The Hop has a demonstrated ability to handle surges in passenger capacity demand to serve over 100 people. The Hop can draw power from the overhead wire through the pantograph or use onboard lithium-ion batteries, allowing for reduced construction costs and lengths of the route on which no overhead wires are required (Booth, 2019). The Hop has operated using its battery power during a power outage. These modern vehicles have provided a uniquely comfortable, efficient, and reliable ride. Riders prefer rail vehicles (Tennyson, 1989); thus, rail helps with rider attraction, satisfaction, and retention--all critical challenges for public transit systems. Vehicles like The Hop's Liberty Modern streetcars, serving people well, are a distinct advantage for a transit system.

    4. The Hop shows the benefits of public transit--economic, social, and environmental--with the added benefits of urban rail.

      The Hop streetcar is public transit and carries the general benefits that public transit brings to a community. Public transit benefits include energy and environmental benefits, economy and employment, and health benefits (APTA). Rail benefits include "less traffic congestion, lower traffic death rates, lower consumer expenditures on transportation, and higher transit service cost recovery than otherwise comparable cities with less or no rail transit service. This indicates that rail transit systems provide economic, social and environmental benefits, and these benefits tend to increase as a system expands and matures" (Litman, "Rail Transit In America: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Benefits," 2020).

    5. The Hop demonstrates how rail-based public transit in cities can work toward community health, equity, livability, and prosperity.

      The streetcar provides emissions-free vehicles (at street level), connecting people with community resources, supporting walkability, and increasing access to transportation. This support works within goals for transit-oriented development, affordable housing along high-quality transit lines, emissions-free mobility goals of the Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office, the Milwaukee Pedestrian Plan, and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's VISION 2050 plan. In-city rail-based public transit offers a way to rebalance the inequities that have been happening for nearly a century in the US and throughout the world: public expenditures for automobile-centric travel and development have dominated, frequently leading to the destruction or "cutting in two" of communities at street-level and social inequities in separated neighborhoods. The high-quality transit experience streetcars offer reknits the urban landscape around people and can start to rectify this imbalance and lead to more livable, human urban landscapes. In the tradition of cities throughout human history, streetcars can build the shared infrastructure upon which commerce, culture, enterprise, and civic life can flourish.

  3. The Hop supports the more productive use of urban land through development.

    While many people might expect there to be evidence that streetcars cause development, research into this area shows a more complex relationship between streetcars and new buildings.

    As cities have proposed new streetcar systems and evaluated current systems, the relationship between streetcars and development has been under study. While there has been motivation to find a causal relationship, research has revealed a more nuanced and symbiotic relationship between streetcars and development. In 2010, a synthesis summary of literature documenting streetcar impacts on the built environment concluded with "the need for further empirical analysis" (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2010). Later, researchers Mendez and Brown (2019) studied Portland and Seattle and found that "in certain contexts, streetcars are associated with increased development activity," but the results suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between streetcars and development. The researchers Brown and Mendez (2018) cautioned that the function of the streetcar system as transportation is critical: "The more effective a streetcar is as a transportation service, and the more widely used it is by patrons, the more likely it is to have development effects."

    While some research shows that streetcars can promote spatial planning (development) but not transit planning (King and Fischer, 2016), the hundreds of streetcar systems worldwide demonstrate their use as transit. Ramos-Santiago, Brown, and Nixon (2016) examined the role of streetcars for transportation and as a development motivator and pointed out that both functions operate.

    The long-term, transformational power of streetcar stations on urban real-estate value is apparent from research by Brooks and Lutz (2019). They examined land use and population density near historic streetcar stops on The Los Angeles Railway, which ceased operation in 1958. Their findings showed that even after over fifty years of not operating, the land near the historic streetcar stops showed statistically significant higher population and building density that diminished with distance from the historical stops. They suggest that "the weight of the evidence is most consistent with land use regulation and agglomeration acting as mutually reinforcing pathways" (Brooks and Lutz, 2019). Streetcars build value in adjacent land, and that value persists.

    The profitable nature of land proximate to rail stations is best demonstrated in Hong Kong's currently operating rail system. The Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) makes a profit, including money to run the entire rail line. It uses a "transit + property" model where the MTR operates real estate on its service corridor and makes profits based on commercial enterprise and real estate values near the rail service. The MTR Corp posted a HK$9.55 billion (US $128 million) profit for 2021.

    This research indicates that the relationship between streetcars to development is one of catalytic, dynamic, and mutually-reinforcing factors. On The Hop route, I see the value of streetcars as providing a transit link to support development that is existing, planned, or still in the conceptual stage. Then, the completed development draws people to use it, leading to trip generation and increased transportation demand. This relationship is dynamic and interdependent. Each component--development and streetcars--must each meet their goals well and be oriented to supporting and gaining from each other.

    See this list of development along The Hop route.

    Most notably, since The Hop has been in operation, significant buildings--The Ascent (the world's tallest timber structure when it opened in 2022, BMO Tower, The Huron Building, Nova MKE, The Couture, 333 North Water Street, Holiday Inn Express, Tru Hotel, Home2 Suites, 321 N Jefferson Street, and the Cambria Hotel have all been built to replace surface parking lots, parking garages, or abandoned or underutilized sites. For example, The Ascent was completed in 2022 on the site of a former pizza restaurant which had sat vacant from 2007 to 2002--13 years--as a crumbling structure attracting blight and vandalism. Similarly, the NovaMKE apartments site also sat as an abandoned restaurant for many years, attracting blight. Once The Hop opened, a developer saw the potential of the land. In both cases, I am pleased and proud to see new buildings, new housing, and new neighbors in place of blighted and abandoned buildings.

  4. The Hop supports and magnifies people-centric walkable urbanism.

    Using the streetcar as a trip connector is the best demonstration of how the streetcar magnifies walkable urbanism. The utility of transit is in its ability to provide connections among different modes, often using walking as the connector. So, when people seek "last-mile" or "first-mile" (1.6 km) mobility solutions, a big part of that (about 25%) is with them--their personal mobility (feet or assistive device).

    In using transit, where a person lives and where they are going varies greatly, of course, and so a streetcar (or other transit) route through neighborhoods is not expected to give the shortest distance or fastest-speed travel from a person's origin to destination in all cases. However, using the streetcar intelligently, with the savviness of people who know the basic practices of using public transit well, such as a trip connector, people can reach more places than they otherwise could. I see this directly in my destinations along the Hop route.

    More importantly, using The Hop over several years has reinforced my mental map of downtown. I look at the space topologically rather than in terms of a grid. I formed my mental map of London when I stayed there briefly: I used my short walk to and from my home stop (Goodge) to utilize the system of the Tube, bus, and walking, including the intercity trains to Manchester and Oxford.

  5. The Hop supports a complete neighborhood.

    While studying urbanism last year, I ran across the concepts of the "15-minute" or "20-minute" city (Capasso Da Silva, King, and Lemar, 2020). The concept behind these "X-minute cities" is that people can reach most of their daily needs in a travel time of X minutes by using a combination of walking, bicycle, or (in some definitions) a short ride on transit. Another related concept is a local activity center.

    In my first year of using only The Hop and walking for mobility, I demonstrated my ability to meet all of my needs--for an entire year--in the area along and near the streetcar route. I like to use the term "complete neighborhood" because it conveys that the neighborhood allows me to meet my needs nearby. The time factor is not such a significant criterion for me. However, walking plus using the transit put most things within about 30 minutes, but longer for specialized trips (to the dentist and to get my Covid vaccines). I have used the bus in subsequent years for specialized medical care at more distant sites out of downtown. I also have used the bus to travel to campus for continuing education. In all cases, my concept of "complete" is that I can do my tasks, errands, and recreational trips entirely car-free.

    By this third year, I am struck by how my mental map of the city has coalesced around the streetcar route. In my first year's coverage, I noted how I still have the sense of a home stop (Astor Street) in Milwaukee, much as I have my memory of the Goodge stop while staying in London, starting and ending there each day. Accessing good grocery stores is crucial (that is, stores that have fresh fruits and vegetables and a range of other food, household items, and personal care items that are reasonably priced). Sometimes a neighborhood corner store might sell mainly liquor and junk food--that is not useful. Similarly, well-meaning people try to create independent grocery stores that are non-competitive regarding price--this is also of limited use. High-end grocery stores that take up your "whole paycheck" for groceries might offer healthy foods at prohibitive costs. Locating necessities at an affordable price nearby is the key to a complete neighborhood.

  6. The Hop supports a re-invigoration of the city.

    Through its attention-getting appearance on downtown streets, the Hop serves as a visible means of connection, mobility, and a regular reminder of the effort to make vital connections available in the city. The Hop challenges assumptions about automobile dominance and moves Milwaukee forward to more diverse mobility options.

    The Hop has also supported fun and notable events to spark interest in the city. Some highlights include Music on The Hop, The Hopcast to extend community conversations, Art in Cathedral Square, and special celebrations and events throughout the year on The Hop route.

    Notable worldwide recognition has garnered attention. The Ascent, completed on July 20, 2022, was recognized as the world's tallest timber tower. National Geographic recognized Milwaukee as one of the top places for tourism.

    The Hop helps reinforce the unique sense of place downtown and makes Milwaukee a great place to visit--as well as to live.

    Milwaukee faces complex challenges, and as the city seeks to address problems, it must "run on all cylinders"--that is, work on every aspect of improving the city's goals for health, equity, livability, and prosperity for every person at all times. The problems Milwaukee faces include the full spectrum of problems large cities worldwide face, including public safety and equity. Essential services, such as mobility, health, jobs, and investment in businesses in the city, are requisite for the city to operate. The Hop has already played a role in creating a supporting mobility and development framework--a unique form of transit that grabs attention, opens development possibilities, and assists in the city's goals. The Hop serves an emerging, substantial market for tourism in the city (including cruise ship visits) and provides a unique way for visitors to get around. The argument that Milwaukee must solve all its serious issues before working on anything else is short-sighted--mainly because it is impossible. A city can address serious issues only while viable, operating, and gaining revenue. To get an idea of the revenue needed for a strong city, the Professional Engineer Charles Marohn identifies a goal of motivating $20 to $40 of private wealth for each $1 of public infrastructure liability (Marohn, 2020, p. 147). A whole city needs a holistic way to address its problems, and the unique mobility and support The Hop offers is just one part of it. These small parts build up a whole city.

    Changing the status quo from an automobile-centric urban transit environment (as described by Norton 2008 and Norton 2021) can be disorienting for some people. All modes of transit do not appeal to all people (I do not use an automobile, for example), so it should be no surprise that some people are against the streetcar. For others, their car dependency and lack of understanding of the purpose of different transit modes may make it difficult for them to understand or accept any other way of living or transportation investments.

    It also seems hard for some people to understand that each transit mode--from buses to streetcars to bicycles to cars--has different niche purposes. People who are used to driving everywhere may need to understand that different city areas exhibit different densities and geometries of streets. The rapid movement of cars through wide streets or free parking in abundance is only available in some places. The insistence on universal access for automobiles to all areas can spoil the operation of alternative modes and create the expectation of automobile accommodation in all things. Automobile bias (called "motonormativity") has been defined and measured (Walker, Tapp, & Davis, 2022) and represents a significant hazard to public health when decision-makers favor automobile needs over human needs.

    People must understand the unique geographies of dense activity clusters that streetcars serve well. A lack of understanding of the wide diversity of metropolitan and urban geographies or the differences in form and purpose of different transit modes--urban rail, light rail, and intercity rail--lead many to the mistaken belief that a transportation system should consist of cars and cars only everywhere. Many people appreciate suburban geography and see how it is well-suited to the automobile, but it is not accurate to think that suburban standards should reign everywhere, particularly in downtown areas. The history and function of cities show that they have a unique role in human civilization (Reader, 2004; Glaeser, 2011) as gathering places. Cities offer areas of dense population, taller buildings, and areas where pedestrians may be more favored than cars. Dense areas of the city have activity clusters where the high capital investment in rail transit pays off in superior mobility and the support for denser development.

    The sometimes fierce opposition to changes in mobility is a testament to the transformative power of streetcars to re-invigorate the city and move Milwaukee forward.

Despite Setbacks, the Story of Urban Life Continues

What is exciting is that the other side of the pandemic offers the challenge of rethinking and re-inventing the city. Never in human history has there been such a dislocation of urban transportation, and while there has been a gradual recovery of transit ridership by 2023, this recovery has been slow. The center city where I live has been re-invigorated by some companies choosing downtown locations for workers to collaborate in person. Office space importance is waning for other companies, and underused office buildings represent a chance for re-use for some other purpose, including housing.

The idea of a city center (Whyte, 1988) remains timeless, and the collaborative, in-person density that built American cities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries may be reawakening as a process of pandemic recovery.

The virtual connections of the pandemic have been a bridge to a post-pandemic world. Real life and contact with other people continue to hold an appeal. Historically, cities have reorganized according to emerging economic, social, public, and market sector opportunities. After its great fire, London did not wane but thrived even more. Similarly, Chicago's great fire led to a reimagining of city architecture and the basis of a modern city (Reader, 2004).

I remain optimistic about urbanism because of the dynamic and timeless ways cities have, for centuries, offered a wide range of choices appealing to so many different kinds of people seeking to benefit from proximity to each other. While a historic shift to car dependency for urban design has developed over the past century, and a century-long process crowned cars as "king" in American cities (Norton, 2008), human history has tended to return to the human scale for living options. Great urbanists like William Whyte and Jane Jacobs describe "the pull of the center" for downtowns and the "sidewalk ballet" of daily street life in cities. (Whyte, 1988; Jacobs, 1961). By walking and using transit to get through the confluence of events that started with the global pandemic, I stayed close to home, and home has gained more significance to me as a result.

I am Grateful for What the Pandemic Revealed

The pandemic revealed the subtle connections of daily life: who are the essential workers, and what are the critical things you need daily--from food to medicine to toilet paper and soap. The dislocation of daily life accelerated work-from-home and home deliveries, online conferencing, touchless payments, online commerce, and curbside pickups. As the pandemic lifts, the history of cities enters a new phase because some of these dislocations have led to longer-lasting changes in work, shopping, learning, and living patterns.

The pandemic's profound revelations include a demonstration of the connection of all life on Earth, the interconnected nature of the entire biosphere of Earth, the interlocking economic systems, the interlocking climate, the complex logistics of supply chains, the pull of the city center (Whyte, 1988), the challenges to mobility because of the removal of some destinations, and the fragility of the operating principles and systems of representative Democracy.

I am enthusiastic about walkable urbanism, living car-free, and using transit. I value the historical legacy of walkable urbanism and transit that has prevailed where I live. Indeed, as Milwaukee grew alongside its first-generation streetcar systems (horse, then electric-powered), the value of connected transit in a walkable urban environment was validated and established. The walking and transit fabrics set down by these early city streetcars persist today (Canfield, 1972), and I feel a kinship with those streetcar riders of a century ago.

I fully embrace the public comment I made for the Wisconsin Connect 2050 public comment process: I hope for a vast diversity of choices among a broad spectrum of living arrangements, transportation, and mobility modes. Part of those choices involves allowing car-free options and all the preferences in between, including car-lite lifestyles and one-car families, to complete car dependence for those who would like it.

The streetcar's operation, scale, and coverage have met my needs exceptionally well since it opened on November 2, 2018. I gave up my driver's license and used walking, the streetcar, Amtrak, and buses for mobility. The offerings along the route provided me with a complete neighborhood.

I recognize that not everyone can live a car-free lifestyle. However, the need for cars can be lessened for many people so they can live car-lite, get a short-term rental car occasionally, or even hop on The Hop streetcar to go to lunch sometimes. Less car-centric urban development can make way for more housing, business, jobs, and prosperity by opening up more urban land for productive uses. The result can be less emissions in the air, more support for people who do not drive, and more mobility choices for everyone. I hope that a wide range of mobility options thrives in cities and that public funding and market-driven investments support this diversity.

References
search Search · star Market
2024-08-03 · John December · Terms © johndecember.com