Meeting brings call for more mass transit and better pedestrian safety downtown

Kristin Czubkowski  —  6/26/2008 12:41 pm

The need for additional mass transit and more pedestrian safety emerged as high priorities at a downtown planning meeting on transportation Wednesday night.

While many of the approximately 50 attendees said the Madison Metro bus system worked well overall, they called for making it more user-friendly and to add more mass transit options for the downtown.

Some suggested improvements for Metro included electronic signs indicating when the next bus would arrive, park-and-rides to encourage downtown employees to take the bus at least part-way to work and a readily identifiable, free circulator bus to enhance tourism downtown.

Arnold Harris, a former urban planner from Cross Plains, also commented that "buses compete with vehicular traffic" downtown, sometimes adding to traffic problems rather than alleviating them.

Adding a light-rail system, he said, would help relieve traffic while enhancing bus ridership by providing rail riders with transportation to other areas of the city.

Bill Schaefer, a member of the Madison Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, said there has been some discussion of using the railroad tracks that run parallel to John Nolen Drive as an avenue for commuter rail downtown, but added that no plans have been finalized.

Attendees also praised the overall pedestrian-friendly nature of downtown Madison, but noted several problem areas, such as the outer circle of the Capitol, where pedestrians have trouble crossing the streets.

Nan Griffin, a downtown resident, compared Madison favorably to her former home in Florida where there were no sidewalks and few well-lit areas for walking. By contrast, she said she felt "very safe as a pedestrian" in downtown Madison.

Still, many attendees said there needed to be a "culture change" to encourage drivers to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and for pedestrians and bikers to follow traffic laws to promote cooperation between the groups.

The meeting was the third in a series of six meetings hosted by the city's Planning Division to gather public input for the first downtown plan since 1989. The two final meetings will take place Thursday night at the Wisconsin Studio of the Overture Center, 201 State St., at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., and will focus on "Downtown Living" and "Sense of Place(s)."

Kristin Czubkowski  —  6/26/2008 12:41 pm