Multi-modal Transportation in Wisconsin July 11, 2020 WISDOM Summer - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Multi-modal Transportation in Wisconsin

July 11, 2020 WISDOM Summer of Solidarity Series

ESTHER PRESENTERS Connie Kanitz Jill Smith John Levine GUEST PRESENTERS Joyce Ellwanger, Milwaukee Kathi Zoern, Wausau

Overview of our time together today . . .

Coalition for More Responsible Transportation (CMRT) A Brief History of Transportation Some Wisconsin Stories: MICAH--Milwaukee, NAOMI-Wausau Trends in Transportation--How is it changing? State Transportation Funding and Impacts on Communities CMRT webinar video clip on Highway Expansions’ impact on Transit COVID-19 Impacts on Transit Call to action for transportation improvements

• Coalition for More Responsible Transportation (CMRT) is an network of

25 + organizations who advocate for multi-modal transportation in Wisconsin Sierra Club-John Muir Group, WISDOM affiliates, 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin,

WISPIRG, Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, Wisconsin Transit Riders Alliance, Amalgamated Transit Union, and others.

• CMRT provides a vision for what is possible
• Transportation for the future depends on residents pressing for a shared

vision.

• Look at the next example for vision and imagining our future . . .

CMRT Vision statement

• Residents of Wisconsin deserve an effective, convenient and clean

transportation system that connects everyone to the places they want and need to go.

• Our communities should be connected with safe walking and biking

infrastructure, good roads, and a robust public transit system.

• Provide a range of transportation options for everyone.
• Include everyone in planning and decision-making
• Redesign our Communities
• Focus on investments that will benefit all Wisconsinites

A Glimpse at Early American Transportation

• The United States had trains, streetcars,

trolleys, buses

• Department of Commerce was driving

force for breaking apart a multi-modal transportation infrastructure

• Department of Transportation changed

the infrastructure to support the model for commerce after World War II (resulting in a car dominant culture)

History of Social Inequity Regarding Transportation

• 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott

○ Protest against segregated bus services ○ Despite the Plessy vs. Ferguson court decision banning railroad cars ○ Post-World War II transportation policies have had inequitable impacts on

land use patterns. (Arrive Together, pg. 10)

• Cross-Bronx Expressway construction project

○ displaced 60,000 people ○ South Bronx lost 600,000 manufacturing jobs ○ per capita income dropped to one half the city average

• More construction projects in the 1970s and 1980s

○ displaced urban residents ○ disrupted urban communities

• President Clinton’s 1994 executive order

○ mandated that environmental justice must be a part of every federal

agency’s mission

○ directed these agencies to develop plans that identified and addressed

disproportionately high and adverse human and environmental effects of its programs, polls and activities on minority and low-income populations.

(Arrive Together,pg.10)

Social Inequity Cont.

• An example of the 1994 mandate
• MICAH and the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin filed suit
• Joyce Ellwanger will speak more about concerns and actions of

MICAH and other transportation advocates regarding Milwaukee I-43 and I-94 highway expansion project and outcomes.

Milwaukee’s 2012 Zoo Interchange Project Petition

MICAH’s Story of Milwaukee/Waukesha: Joyce

Ellwanger

Photo credit: Urban Milwaukee

Naomi’s story of Wausau transit: Kathi Zoern

Photo Credit: Wausau transit website

Break Out Groups

Talk with each other about some of your concerns about transit.

How is transit changing?

Transit connects workers to jobs; residents to medical appointments, school, shopping, leisure, and community interaction.

More Seniors Will Be Riding Transit

People over age 65 are the fastest-growing demographic in the state.

(Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Joint Committee on Finance, Long Term Care Expansion Report December 2013)

Wisconsin’s Growth Rate of People Over 65

Between 2015 and 2040, the population ages 65 and older will grow by 640,000 people an increase of 72%. This expected growth rate is also reflected in the projected increases in dementia prevalence.

(DHS.Wisconsin.gov Population Demographics, Sep 26, 2019)

DHS.Wisconsin.gov Population Demographics, Sep 26, 2019

College Graduates Prefer Transit

➢ Robust transit systems can help attract and retain young, college-educated talent for Wisconsin

(WISPIRG Foundation, Driving Wisconsin’s Brain Drain?, 2014)

➢ Multi-modal transportation

Photo Credit: WISPIRG Foundation, Millenials on the Move Report, 2016

State Funding for Public Transportation:

Misplaced Spending Priorities Hurt Local Communities

• Big-ticket highway spending has skyrocketed. 50% increase between

1998 and 2013.

• Public transportation has long been underfunded. Cut by 10% in

2011, with 6% restored in the following budget.

• Local roads are deteriorating. State assistance declined by 30%

between 1998 and 2013. One in three roads are rated as “poor or worse.” (1,000 Friends of Wisconsin, Wisconsin’s Local Road Crisis, 2015)

Highway Expansions Impact Transit Funds

CMRT webinar, May 28, 2020 (recording available)

How Highway Expansions Undermine Public Transit, Walking and Biking

Beth Osborne

Beth is the Director of Transportation for America. She was previously at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where she served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy since 2009.

Transportation for America is an advocacy organization made up of local,

regional and state leaders who envision a transportation system that safely, affordably and conveniently connects people of all means and ability to jobs, services, and opportunity through multiple modes of travel.

Congestion Should Not Be Sole Indicator for Making Highway Decisions

Building Boondoggles: How Highway Expansions Undermine Public Transit, Walking and Biking (CMRT webinar, May 28, 2020; featuring Beth

Osborne/Transportation for America)

Transportation for America Policy Objectives, Beth Osborne

• Update 100 year old approach to land use, cluster development,

focus on infill, design for people

• Connect people to jobs and services
• Require transportation agencies to stop favoring new roads over

maintenance.

• Make short trips walkable and making them safe.
• Remove restrictions on pricing to manage driving demand.

National COVID-19 Impacts on Transit

A study of nine communities and their transit systems across the country finds:

(Securing Safe Transit issue brief, June 2020)

• A top concern is health and

safety

• Modified service protocols
• New use habits

• Microcosm: Fox Cities Valley Transit Authority Changes
• No reduction in routes/ride

fare

• Requested “essential rides”
• nly during Safer at Home

Order

• Ridership down
• Social distancing and

increased sanitization

• Free mask for those that

want one

• The Safer at Home Order

ending has pressured transit, but ridership has only increased a little.

Photo Credit: The Dream Corps, #SafeTransit Pledge Campaign, 2020

Transit Changes During and Post Covid-19

• Unique time for

transit

• Need to be

intentional while transportation habits are in flux at a large scale

Upcoming Transit Equity Town Hall: Mobility, Race and the Economy 1 PM July 16th RSVP with link Speakers

Lateefah Simon - BART Board of Directors and President of Akonadi Foundation Joshua Malloy - Community Organizer with Pittsburghers for Public Transit Samuel Jordan - Founder at Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition Sandra Padilla - Lead on the Transit Service Planning team at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency The Dream Corps, #SafeTransit Pledge Campaign, 2020

Ways to Improve Public Transportation

• Invest in public transportation for better access to work, school, and

services.

• Clear the way for more regional transportation collaboration
• A “Fix it First” approach to roads and bridges
• A moratorium on new highway expansion projects

Call to Action

The "Zombie Highway" Returns - take action to voice opposition After a decade of fighting the I-94 expansion project (and winning!), Gov. Evers announced his intentions to revive the project. Tell the Evers Administration not to move forward on a project that is proven to be harmful and offers no solutions to the real transportation issues our communities are facing. Add your name and comments to the Petition regarding I 94 Expansion on sierra club website

addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/accessibleequitabletransportation

What else can you do?

• Join CMRT as an individual or a partner organization and participate

in quarterly meetings.

• Individuals contact cassandra.steiner@sierraclub.org
• Partner organizations contact this live link:

Google Form OR https://forms.gle/VFuUHNaUJWh6rk8S9

• Testify at Spring 2021 budget hearings regarding transit funding or send in

comments

• Even if your WISDOM affiliate does not have a transit task force, watch for

ways that you can participate in actions or meetings with notices from WISDOM from CMRT or other transit advocates.

• View CMRT webinars on Complete Streets, Highways Expansions,

Challenges of the Last Mile, Transit & Racial Justice. (links will be shared)

A Tool to help Build your team

Look at the list on the next slide. How do you see yourself? How do you see others who are on your team? Who else do you need on your team?

Weavers: I see the through-lines of connectivity between people, places, organizations, ideas, and movements. Experimenters: I innovate, pioneer, and invent. I take risks and course-correct as needed. Frontline Responders: I address community crises by marshaling and organizing resources, networks, and messages. Visionaries: I imagine and generate our boldest possibilities, hopes and dreams, and remind us of

• ur direction.

Builders: I develop, organize, and implement ideas, practices, people, and resources in service of a collective vision. Caregivers: I nurture and nourish the people around me by creating and sustaining a community of care, joy, and connection. Disruptors: I take uncomfortable and risky actions to shake up the status quo, to raise awareness, and to build power. Healers: I recognize and tend to the generational and current traumas caused by oppressive systems, institutions, policies, and practices. Storytellers: I craft and share our community stories, cultures, experiences, histories, and possibilities through art, music, media, and movement. Guides: I teach, counsel, and advise, using my gifts of well-earned discernment and wisdom.

Questions

Resources

• CMRT Webinars from Summer 2020

Complete Streets Recording Building Boondoggles: How Highway Expansions Undermine Public Transit, Walking and Biking

• July 16 Transit Equity Town Hall: Mobility, Race, and the Economy

(this is a live link ) to register (or use this url): https://dreamcorps.zoom.us/webinar/register/9115935555408/WN__n7AEO0mSs eexm4bavnjrA

• https://www.sierraclub.org/wisconsin/blog/2017/07/10-reasons-wisconsin-should-

stop-investing-highway-expansions

• Arrive Together Transportation Access and Equity in Wisconsin.pdf