If Milwaukee County had light rail, would you use it?

[Nuclear_Art]

Originally Posted by jjacobeclark

You've got to be kidding. The streetcar loop route was quite possibly the stupidest idea ever. It would pretty much guarantee that the starter system was never expanded. It has since been revised, most likely due to the outcry on sites like this one and Urban Milwaukee. Check it out.

Of course loops can be always have future expansion and for a starter system actually work better than a single route. The problem with a single track system is with any problems on the track, IE: accident or fire or bridge problems or whatever, service is truncated. A loop system can still maintain complete service along the entire route by reversing cars. These problems caused major delays in Milwaukee old TMERL system and would again plague the new system. A downtown loop would not.

[green_mariner]

There are alot of examples of the potential that is there to become a society that isn't so dependent on cars.
Taiwan High Speed Rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shinkansen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hokkaido Railway Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Korea Train Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
High-speed rail in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know things can be done. It just isn't being done. Living in the suburbs of metropolitan Atlanta, I know first hand what it's like to live in a place where mass transit is hardly existent. I would be more than happy to see MARTA extend to Kennesaw, where I live. Unfortunately, there is an undercurrent of people that have been around since the 1970's who are against it. Those persons cite "the criminal elements" would get out there. I think "crime elements" is just a euphemism for poor minorities, especially African-Americans. MARTA was even referred to as "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta" by a few people. I don't know what the situation is in Milwaukee as far as transit goes, but the mass transit needs to be improved in this nation as a whole. NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco are the few cities with at least decent mass transit.

[atomhammer]

Claiming that Milwaukeeans would never "demand" light rail is pure rightwing propaganda. Milwaukee County executives are less enthusiastic than city officials because a lot of the county's money is in the suburbs. The Republican Party here uses this division to great advantage. They regularly use all sorts of fear tactics to keep politicians and suburban (read older, white) voters in line. The truth of the matter is that suburban voters don't want to pay for something they won't benefit from, as much as Black people and urbanites would. It's pure greed. There would be TREMENDOUS demand for rail, and they know it. Who on Earth, for example, enjoys driving to Summerfest and looking for parking? Prospect Avenue alone could have paid the transit systems bills during that last gas price spike. Milwaukee was the only large city in North America not to make money off of the gas spike, because Scott Walker refused to allocate funds to accommodate the spike in demand for busing during the price hikes at the pump. So lines of people sat waiting half an hour for packed buses, and the transit system actually lost money. History proves the rightwingers wrong too. The city once had dozens of streetcar lines. They were only removed when the price of gas was made so artificially low that it became infeasible to run streetcar lines. This was also made impossible by white flight, which took tremendous amounts of tax payer money from the city to the new suburbs (as well as lowering density).

UWM would benefit tremendously if students could use transit to get from research park, to the Water Institute, to the Downer Woods campus, to the new dorms along the river, within an hour.

Several demographic surveys have also said (for years) that part of the reason young adults leave Milwaukee is because of our backwards, one dimensional transit options (i.e. use a car or leave the city). Our problem isn't a lack of demand. Our problem is a political system that allows the party of the rich to block any investment of tax money into anything that doesn't immediately benefit millionaires. It's the same mentality that allows us to keep 225,000 African-American Milwaukeeans in appalling poverty, while pretending we're "open for business". Our rail policy (or complete lack thereof) is just one reflection of this 19th century way of looking at public finances or life in general. It's basically really hard to take the county seriously on rail or transit, when we have the second highest fares in America, constant cuts in routes, and people like Scott Walker are quoted saying they wish everyone had an SUV so we wouldn't have to have buses at all.

[Supine]

Originally Posted by atomhammer

Claiming that Milwaukeeans would never "demand" light rail is pure rightwing propaganda. Milwaukee County executives are less enthusiastic than city officials because a lot of the county's money is in the suburbs. The Republican Party here uses this division to great advantage. They regularly use all sorts of fear tactics to keep politicians and suburban (read older, white) voters in line. The truth of the matter is that suburban voters don't want to pay for something they won't benefit from, as much as Black people and urbanites would. It's pure greed. There would be TREMENDOUS demand for rail, and they know it. Who on Earth, for example, enjoys driving to Summerfest and looking for parking? Prospect Avenue alone could have paid the transit systems bills during that last gas price spike. Milwaukee was the only large city in North America not to make money off of the gas spike, because Scott Walker refused to allocate funds to accommodate the spike in demand for busing during the price hikes at the pump. So lines of people sat waiting half an hour for packed buses, and the transit system actually lost money. History proves the rightwingers wrong too. The city once had dozens of streetcar lines. They were only removed when the price of gas was made so artificially low that it became infeasible to run streetcar lines. This was also made impossible by white flight, which took tremendous amounts of tax payer money from the city to the new suburbs (as well as lowering density).

UWM would benefit tremendously if students could use transit to get from research park, to the Water Institute, to the Downer Woods campus, to the new dorms along the river, within an hour.

Several demographic surveys have also said (for years) that part of the reason young adults leave Milwaukee is because of our backwards, one dimensional transit options (i.e. use a car or leave the city). Our problem isn't a lack of demand. Our problem is a political system that allows the party of the rich to block any investment of tax money into anything that doesn't immediately benefit millionaires. It's the same mentality that allows us to keep 225,000 African-American Milwaukeeans in appalling poverty, while pretending we're "open for business". Our rail policy (or complete lack thereof) is just one reflection of this 19th century way of looking at public finances or life in general. It's basically really hard to take the county seriously on rail or transit, when we have the second highest fares in America, constant cuts in routes, and people like Scott Walker are quoted saying they wish everyone had an SUV so we wouldn't have to have buses at all.

Wow. You convinced me. You seem to know a lot about rail.

When is Milwaukee going to get a charismatic leader, with fire deep in his belly, like this dude when he speaks?


All The Kings Men Nail 'em up - YouTube

[Joots]

Will Milwaukee ever get light rail?

[MN_Ski]

I would love a line from Whitefish Bay to South Milwaukee, and then from Downtown to Waukesha.

I was always indifferent to light rail until I lived in Minneapolis and Denver. However, you can actually drive and park your car almost anywhere in the city for free...something that was almost impossible in Minneapolis, and am starting to dread in Denver.

[mkempls]

This is a super old question and I'm sure as sh*t not going to go back through the answers, but yeah, I would definitely use a light rail. Even with this new street car being built, part of me wonders if this is really what the city needs to be spending its money on, but if it's being built, you better believe I'll be on it. I spend most of the year in Minneapolis and I think the light rail here is a huge part of making the Twin Cities the modern cities that they are. If I have the option to take the light rail rather than bus or drive, I take it.

[TRlaura]

No, I would definitely not use light rail in Milwaukee.

[SkyWriting]

Originally Posted by smith21

if salt lake city has a lightrail why cant milwaukee?

We do now. It's not very exciting or popular. Most are not impressed. Even though it was free for the first year or so. And the overhead wires are very ugly and never showed in the promotional drawings.
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