Madison's bus system (Milwaukee, Burlington, Portland: low crime, house, transfer)

[susanra]

Unless Madison's bus system has changed radically since 1982 when I lived in Madison for three years, Madison was known as having one of the best bus systems in the U.S. for a city of its size.

I used the bus system exclusively (had no car) and it was always excellent.

I post this for the senior citizen in an adjoining thread who was asking about it.

Both Minneapolis, MN and Madison, WI have always had excellent bus systems. I would be surprised if Madison's has changed.

[Milwaukee City]

Yes I am talking about the bus system, it is horrible... It can take two hours to get from one side of town to the other. And I'm not talking about county, I am talking about town, Dane County has no regional transit authority yet, but it seems like a fairly popular idea amongst many of the people who ran for city council this year and many who won... It is very bad and very poor planning... I am well connected and have spoken with several Madison officials about ways to make it more efficient, to no avail, yet... They listen, but I think many are too afraid to change the bus system.. Funny, people who were allies of Obama, afraid of change, haha...

Well we do have that sort of... Megabus, badger bus, and coach USA all service Madison, but not in the way you're talking... They service us as in busses to Milwaukee or Chicago, they don't go anywhere else (unless you want to charter one for thousands of dollars)... We have no real form of regional transit... Unless you consider Milwaukee and Chicago regional... It is unfortunate, as nice as Madison is, we are extremely low crime, we have many parks, some decent schools, yet our public transportation sucks... That's about the only place Madison, as a city, is way behind on it's times...

-Ryanjo Madison resident.

[susanra]

I'm not interested in a regional system. I'm talking solely about the Madison city bus system which runs within Madison.

It was always a showcase of bus systems for cities of its size.

[Milwaukee City]

He was referring to the city bus system.

[Chelito23]

It is a heavily subsidized system that due to the nature of Madison can't serve a lot of people in an efficient manner. Yes, you "can" get from any point in the city to any other given point, but the times that it takes and the waiting and transferring make it a maddening experience. Walking or biking is very popular, unless you have a car. The system works fine if you are going from a transfer point to another transfer point, but the whole system was revamped so that there is now now cross town or direct bus, yo HAVE to go to transfer points, and this adds time and creates detours. It is possible to rely soley on the bus system, but you can do that anywhere, you are just trading time and convenience.

[Milwaukee City]

Yeah I'd agree with you C, if you're just going to point b from point a on the same line, the time won't be as maddening. It's when you have to transfer two or three times that sucks, especially in Madison you can bike anywhere very quickly as opposed to sitting and waiting for multiple buses. However this is very common is a lot of cities small and large. Milwaukee used to have a great system in the 90's where buses were running 10-15min at the most and all the bus lines complemented each other very nicely. You could take a bus all the way cross town and then walk across the street and have to wait 10min at the most....not anymore. Times in certain areas exceed 35min for a wait.

[Chelito23]

I think Milwaukee's grid system also helps it also, just put busses up and down the main streets and it's hard for a system to not work. In Madison, the bycycle wheel and spoke design of the downtown area, which turns into a suburban patchwork of roads across the rest of the city, make getting anywhere difficult. Madison is definantly a driver or biker's kind of place unless you are a die hard bus fanatic.

[MidwesternBookWorm]

I would love to be able to take the bus from home to work. It is not a practical possibility.

I live on the east side half a block off one of the main arteries that is served by multiple bus lines, and when I worked downtown, it was actually faster and easier to take the bus than it was to drive. And as a bonus, I could get 10 minutes or so of reading time on each commute.

Now, however, I work at a place in the southwest corner of town. It is possible to get from my house to my office by bus - IF I am willing to devote 75 minutes each way to the journey. Oh, and transfer twice. And walk half a mile at the far end. Or, I can drive the same distance in 20 minutes each way. Given the fact that I already spend 10-12 hours a day at the office, taking the bus would effectively mean that I'd be spending every waking moment either at, going to or coming from work.

I feel incredibly badly for any Madisonians who are obliged to use the bus system here for want of other means of transportation. If you live on or near a bus route and your destination is on or near the same bus route, it's a fine alternative. For anyone else, it's better than walking, but not by an awful lot.

[ryanj0]

Madison bus system is by no means an ideal system. Maybe it was back in the 80's I wasn't here then and didn't even use it, out of all honesty, until a few years back. For getting downtown, Metro is decent from ALMOST anywhere you live. I wouldn't call it the best, but certainly not among the worst I have seen either. For getting from one side of town to a destination on another side of town, I would say Madison is among the worst I have seen. It takes far too long, making it a very inefficient alternative for much of anyone.

In Grand Rapids (I have family there, similar in size to Madison) people complain about the bus system. But that system still takes half the time to get from one side of town to another that the Madison Metro does. Some bus systems I have seen which, coincidentally all are much better than the Metro are Canton, OH, Providence, RI, Portland, ME, and Burlington, VT. And to top it off, I stand by my quotes posted by Milwaukee City earlier. The Madison Metro is probably among the worst for a city of Madison's size overall. Or maybe I just happened to stumble upon great cities, although I doubt it.

[katreese]

Originally Posted by susanra

Unless Madison's bus system has changed radically since 1982 when I lived in Madison for three years, Madison was known as having one of the best bus systems in the U.S. for a city of its size.

I believe they did actually completely revamp the routes a couple of years ago - added transfer points, changed routes. It was supposed to make it better, but I don't remember what the consensus was (I took buses the first week I moved to Madison in 1996 and that was enough to make me run out and buy a car!).