Graham Kilmer
Transportation

MCTS Launches New Planning Process For Route Changes

MOVE 25 will give riders the chance to weigh in on 32 proposed changes.

By - Dec 9th, 2024 07:58 am
MCTS bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

MCTS bus. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Whether you knew it or not, the Milwaukee County Transit System has been listening.

Listening to feedback about its bus routes that is.

MCTS launched a new planning initiative called MOVE 2025 Monday that is giving the public the opportunity to share thoughts on 32 potential changes across 23 routes in the system.

“Move 2025 is is an opportunity for riders, drivers, general public to weigh in, provide feedback on some routing ideas that the planning team has come up with,” said Jesus Ochoa, MCTS Planning Manager.

These proposals were developed using ridership data and an array of formal and informal feedback from the public. Some of it came in the form of surveys or comments made directly to planning staff at public meetings, said Natalie Marshall, an MCTS transit planner.

“We have some ideas that that we think are improvements, but we really need the actual riders to confirm that,” Ochoa said.

The transit system implemented a major route overhaul in 2021 with MCTS NEXT, which rebalanced the system to favor high-frequency routes over geographic coverage. MOVE 2025 is not considering a major overhaul on the level of MCTS NEXT, it’s more in line with the route changes MCTS makes annually, but the process will allow for input over a nine-month timeline. MCTS already tweaks routes four times a year. But the changes considered during MOVE 2025 would not take effect until August next year.

“We were very intentional about ensuring that we’re giving a lot of time for folks to weigh in,” Ochoa said, “even before we present anything that could possibly happen.”

Between now and early February MCTS is collecting feedback at public meetings, an online survey and an interactive map on its website. Then planners will refine the options down to a list of preferred ideas and bring them back to the public. In August, based on that second round of feedback, a final plan will be submitted to the county board and the public for final feedback and approval.

What comes out of the process will likely be implemented in fall 2025. “So it’s heavy on public engagement with some planning,” Marshall said.

The transit system has very limited funding to work with, so, like MCTS NEXT, any changes that come from MOVE 2025 will be designed to be cost neutral. That means that if service is added somewhere it will have to be taken from somewhere else.

Some of the ideas that Ochoa and Marshall said have come directly from public feedback would increase east-west connectivity on the northern and southern ends of the county. For example, one would reconfigure the BlueLine in the north, another would create a new route running east and west along Drexel Avenue in the south.

The most important piece, though, is that riders support the changes. High-frequency routes move people more quickly and efficiently. In short, they work, as Ochoa said. But some of the changes planners are submitting to the public would add very-low frequency routes to the system for greater coverage of the county.

These coverage proposals would integrate more people into the system, better connecting them to high-frequency routes or taking them to and from employment centers and other destinations. For example, the planners have two ideas for extending Route 14 west along W. Wisconsin Avenue connecting the north and south route to Marquette University and other riders west of the Milwaukee River in Downtown.

The hope is that MOVE 2025 will allow the public to guide changes to their transit system next year, with special consideration given to the ideas of riders who currently ride the routes in question.

MCTS has scheduled five public meetings in January and February. The first will be held at the Milwaukee Public Library East Branch, 2320 N. Cramer St., on Jan. 15 at 5:30 p.m.

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Categories: Transportation

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