Mayor Barrett Responds to Alderman Donovan’s Transit Option
Mayor Barrett released the following statement in regard to Alderman Donovan’s transit option press release today
The streetcar near the Milwaukee Intermodal Station.
“Although this is a last-minute attempt to delay, once again, the streetcar vote, I’m glad to see that Alderman Donovan is finally engaged in the public transit conversation.
“It is interesting that Alderman Donovan chooses to highlight Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki has a population of 600,000 and a metro population of 1.4 million; a population size very similar to Milwaukee. What Helsinki has that Milwaukee does not is an extensive multimodal, public transit system that includes a streetcar system [tram] with ten plus lines and more than 50 million passenger rides a year, a subway system, inter-city trains, buses [including minibuses] and a robust bicycle program.
“The Helsinki extensive multi-modal system includes connecting the City’s streetcar system, bicycle program, inter-city rail system, buses, including the minibuses, through the “mobility on demand” program. The goal is to make public transit connections easy and seamless; a laudable goal that I fully support and why I fought and will continue to fight for multi-modal public transit options and increased mobility in Milwaukee, which includes: improved bus system, enhanced bike system, investments in our local roads and the streetcar project.”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
Mentioned in This Press Release
Recent Press Releases by Mayor Tom Barrett
Milwaukee had a fantastic mass transit network that extended west to Watertown, north to Sheboygan south to Kenosha,
and southwest to East Troy. The tracks are still in the floor of the We Energies headquarters on Michigan. It’s doubtful
that this network will be recreated in our lifetime. The mayor’s streetcar could be the beginning of a new mass transit
network extending to new destinations one step at a time. It system needs that opportunity.
There is good reason to be skeptical of traditional mass transit approaches as self driving cars become the new reality. The flexibility and low cost of shared, self driving taxicabs will render most traditional mass transit approaches obsolete, whether fixed rail, traditional busses or drive it and park it yourself. I estimate that self driving will be in the market and available by about 2020, a short time away.