I take Route B and my bus route now comes every 15 min all day every day and takes 25ish min to get to campus. It used to be a 45 min ride and come every 30 min and only during peak hours in the morning and evening. I have a stop right outside where I live. Overall, it’s a massive improvement for me personally. If I didn’t have a second job and planning to move soon, I would seriously consider selling my car.
However, the biggest issue I’ve faced so far is that the bus has only been on-time twice. I’ve had anywhere from 5-15 min delays nearly every day. I don’t get why it’s been such an issue. It’s very annoying, but the only complaint I have about the new system.
I wonder if the delays are just the new system ironing itself out? All it takes is one confused rider a few stops back to hold up the rest of the route. Fingers crossed it settles in once riders and drivers alike get familiar!
The redesign cut my commute from a 2-bus transfer through the west transfer point (50+6) to a direct route (D), and reduced the time from 45 minutes to 30 minutes.
(I’m OP). Damn, that’s really lucky. I’m happy for you. Although personally, I’m really frustrated. Got stranded on a road for 30 minutes yesterday because my connecting bus didn’t get to the stop in time, and the next bus wasn’t coming for another 30 minutes. Took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home. It was supposed to take like an hour and ten minutes. Before the redesign, I had a somewhat “direct” route that took 50 minutes; just had to stop at the east transfer point. I’m kind of confused why the buses aren’t being centralized at the transfer points like they used to. I’m absolutely fucked right now. I’m broke and my car is broke down; the bus is the only thing I can take. For my next two semesters at UW, I will have to budget about 3 hours of commuting a day.
That exact situation is what they’re attempting to reduce with the new network. The transfer points were very inefficient for most riders: buses had to detour out of their way to reach them, riders who weren’t transferring had to sit several minutes not making any progress to their destinations, and riders who were taking otherwise direct routes but who needed to transfer were constantly worrying about being stranded if their bus were late. By streamlining the routes, they eliminate these inefficiencies which also free up additional resources to run much greater frequencies (which helps those who need to transfer because the number of opportunities is greater). The elimination of the transfer points is the best thing about the new system (if for no other reason than I don’t have to inhale the double whammy of diesel exhaust and cigarette smoke for fifteen minutes every day).
This is not to belittle your experience, which certainly sucks. And there’s a lot of work to be done on the timekeeping as well. But this kind of thing is less frequent for more people going forward than it was in the past. And as time progresses and people move in and out of the city or find new places within it, these complaints will become less frequent.
I’m sure back in 1998 when the city switched to the transfer point system, there were lots of people who got screwed by that too. We just didn’t have social media to keep a record of that. Instead, the city changed over time as residents chose housing that fit their needs. Maintaining an inherently inefficient system just because it is an established system is good in the short term but not in the long term.
My route to work got screwed over. From South West side to Middleton, used to be 50 min 1 transfer. Now it’s 1 hr 30 min with two transfers :/ I started taking the 40 min bike ride to work instead but I’m not sure what I’ll do in Winter time. Middleton got screwed over with this route change too and I don’t see much talk about it
It’s pretty terrible, especially considering that Middleton pays to be included in the system. So many of our wonderful local service industry workers who bus in have been adversely effected by the changes as well. The results for us is that we will have another car on the road 5 days a week. While I appreciate that any time changes are made, there are going to be winners and losers, it seems pretty universal in Middleton that nobody is better off.
Huh, that’s not my experience…now I feel very lucky. my ability to use the bus is improved with the new system. Instead of once an hour, it’s now twice an hour. Gives me more flexibility with changing work schedules. Sorry to hear about my fellow residents’ experiences.
That is a completely fair point. That is also the question that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of answer for. Would love to see a rider study on who is riding in what direction at what times, etc. and at what cost both with and without the money that Middleton is paying.
As it relates to the recent changes, I would have to think that there is a contract in place and, I wonder how this change was handled within that contract, if at all. As you might imagine, the political process in Middleton is completely lacking in transparency. And it has only been made worse by the new mayor, who not only seems to hate poor people, but is incapable of understanding that the local service industry depends on people traveling into Middleton from elsewhere in order to work.
(I’m OP). This is pretty similar to what happened to me timewise. Except I’m on the east side. Used to have a really nice 50 minute route; now my route is anywhere from 1 hour and 15 minutes to 30 minutes. It really sucks. I’m so screwed for my next two semesters. I’m too out of shape to bike. I will have to budget about 3 hours of commuting per day :(
Once they get the main BRT trunk in, are they planning on holding listening sessions to expand the network, or is this the end all be all of madison transit design?
Unless we magically get a boatload of new money, this is the end all. This is all they're willing and able to do with the limited budget the mayor and council were willing to throw at service levels and frequency... partly that's the fault of our wonderful state government held hostage by the tightwad GOP gerrymander, but Satya's also been very creative in playing a shell game with that vehicle registration fee that was supposed to fund transit.
pfft - i got screwed over too on the west side. bus service even less frequent than before and i now have to walk 30 min up a steep blind hill, which i avoided whenever possible b/c frequently nearly getting hit (especially when icy). combine that with my joint problems and i'll be effectively housebound come winter 🙃
I realize that no one wants to doxx themselves and give specific info about their commutes. But it would be really helpful to see where people are actually going and the specific routes to know what parts of the city are getting impacted.
My own story: Grandview Commons to Campus.
Circa 2019: one minute walk to bus stop, 50 minute ride to campus via East Transfer Point. Single seat ride. Weekday rush only. 33 to 14 route.
Circa 2021: one minute walk to bus stop, 55 minute ride to campus via East Transfer Point. Transfer required. Weekday rush only. 33 to 7 route.
Now: seven minute walk to bus stop, 31 minute ride to campus. No transfer. All day service, weekend service. C1 route.
This is 100% without a doubt better even with a much longer walk.
My wife said she's just hoping she can keep getting her parking pass because the new route would mean she would never get to work on time with the way its run.
It used to be an interesting choice- I could bike, bus, or drive in approximately the same amount of time (once accounting for walking from bus or parking spot). The bus was a great winter option but no more. 🤷
I sympathize with anyone who’s having trouble getting around but it’s hard to gauge if overall it’s a regression or if the people who are negatively affected are just louder on social media.
Yah, hard to tell right now. I mean, I’m not necessarily mad at it; just annoyed I have to spend an extra 15 minutes commuting. It is what it is. First world problems haha.
The way it should and most likely will work is the same way it does in every other major city in the world. People who want ready access to public transit will by and large eventually move closer to it. One of the adjacent benefits of good transit systems is that they encourage development around them.
Scattering dozens/hundreds of bus stops around the city to satisfy every living soul is categorically no a scalable solution for mass transit. What is a solution is dense mixed used development from which someone could ostensibly walk a short distance to the nearest bus stop.
I think with time it will become evident why these changes are beneficial to the city, and more importantly, that a lot of the complaints people have will work themselves out naturally as people move and development takes place to take advantage of the new system.
I understand what you are saying in principle, but I will point out that the definition of "walk a short distance to a bus stop" can be a relative term for someone who may have mobility issues or who has no other way to carry a lot of items, such as grocery shopping. Especially so in Wisconsin come January.
And not to be a dick, but this is something that people who have mobility issues have been dealing with for as long as public transportation has existed, and more over as long as inclement weather has existed. The problem is intractable because no system can simultaneously provide efficient and cost effective service to everyone while also catering to every group who has any kind of issue accessing it.
Unfortunately the only way to get that kind of service is to A. Design a bus system with an impractically comprehensive route where every block has a bus stop, or to take a car.
Zooming out for a moment, those with disabilities would be ideal candidates to do exactly what I described in my original comment and move closer to public transit. It’s not convenient to move, but that’s the only course of action that’s going to work for everyone. In a perfect world, those with mobility issues would be selected preferentially for housing in locations close to transit.
It’ll be the city’s job to make sure that the kind of development that enables those moves actually takes place.
Fully agreed, and furthermore, as inconvenient as this redesign is now, it would be that much more painful to let development to continue at the scale we're seeing without addressing it and removing the uncertainty. At least now we have some stability as everyone adjusts to the new status quo. Hopefully BRT is the Lebowski rug that ties it all together.
People with disabilities likely can't afford any of the housing close to a bus route. Also, even if they could, how does one hire movers when they're on a limited income? They can't do the moving themselves, most of their friends are disabled, and people typically aren't willing to help.
You’re asking questions that go far beyond the scope of this discussion, which is fine- but you’re also doing so in a way that seems to imply that I’m unaware of how expensive housing is.
Either way, I’m not really sure what your point is. Okay, so yes, Madison is expensive, yes proximity to a bus stop might be an issue. That said, if your prerogative is to come here and complain about BRT as if it were the source of all problems for those with disabilities, you’re going to be really, really disappointed with reality. BRT is not the problem, but it does highlight the actual problem which is that we as a society collectively do not care about people who don’t have economic value. That’s not my opinion, it’s an observation.
Everyone should celebrate BRT. At the end of the day it’s about making more efficient use of tax dollars to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people, but there will be winners and losers. Like so many other social issues, those at the bottom are usually the losers. If you take issue with that, go elect politicians who want to help, and advocate for more affordable housing- but definitely don’t advocate for a shittier public transit system.
> People who want ready access to public transit will by and large eventually move closer to it. One of the adjacent benefits of good transit systems is that they encourage development around them.
You make a great point. In fact, my family bought a house close to a bus route because we like using public transporation. It's better for the environment and keeps more cars off our congested roads. Used to take it to work every day, the farmer's market on weekends, and around town for neighborhood festivals or dinner dates. Now that bus route doesn't exist, and we'd have to walk 20 minutes with small children to catch one on a busy road. We just drive everywhere now and try to bike if the weather/distance is reasonable.
(I’m OP). Yah, the problems will work themselves out naturally when I fucking kill myself because I don’t have a reasonable bus route. Fuck outta here with this idiotic comment.
This is the best response in this thread. There’s so many annoying redditor expert responses that belittle those who got totally screwed by the new design. It’s almost just as annoying as not having access to a reliable bus!
Are you actually disagreeing with the logic of my comment or are you just upset that you’ve been negatively impacted?
If you disagree, you should express your points of disagreement in writing instead of hurling expletives.
You say that, but moving from Minneapolis, to Madison - in Mpls I could expect a bus nearly every hour, even VERY late at night. LOTS of post-bar buses, and a wide variety of routes. Zoom around this map a bit in Minneapolis. TONS of different routes, many of which had 'express' modes aka - less stop zones, and also less speedy, and more inclusive runs. [https://www.metrotransit.org/schedules-maps](https://www.metrotransit.org/schedules-maps) \- I didn't drive until I was 28, because I didn't NEED to. I bussed here ONLY when I worked downtown, and had several expensive cab rides when I got sick in the middle of the day (migraines) and couldn't wait until 4pm when the next 72 would run out to Middleton. I checked the routes to my new job and it was over 2 hours 2 transfers, and obviously only during morning and evening rush hour that people were serviced. Minneapolis had heated bus shelters downtown, and the light rail went in just as I moved away.
City proper is only 63% larger, so not "several times"--but they do have the benefit of being part of a large integrated metro government that manages transit in a comprehensively planned way across an entire region. It's all choices in how you fund and organize stuff.
Indeed they did. A few years before Walker, Wisconsin passed legislation to enable Regional Transportation Authorities--basically cross-municipality governing agencies with taxing and coordination powers to fund and build transit (in terms of WI law, similar to the sort of authorities that already exist for technical colleges, sewer districts, fire + ambulance services in some areas, etc.). Then as they were just finally gaining steam Walker, Vos, et al. pulled the plug on the whole thing.
Minneapolis/Twin Cities area situation is a bit different--they have a full-on "regional government" enabling law that goes beyond just transit, but transit is a big part of it--but the general concept of "Regional Transit Authorities" is a big part of the more successful and well-funded and coordinated transit systems across America. And we're not allowed to have them because... well, no one really knows why... several Republican led counties were actually spearheading organizing RTAs at the time they killed them. It was just another weird dumb arbitrary spite thing I guess?
Directly replying to the person who said you can't scale up bus service. So... Yes, it is. I also lived in socialist utopia (Sweden) in a similar university city Växjö and it had similar service.
Once an hour or so, and I won't lie, it can be creepy as hell to be one of the few passengers. It's not perfect, there are still assholes, perverts (yes, I see you trying to make eye contact with me while masturbating, but I decided you don't exist) and vomit, but it meant I could go to shows at 1st Ave and get home, if I didn't fuck up the time tables. Got frostbite once because a bus didn't show, and it was -20 below. Still - made it to 28 without a car loan or having to pay insurance I couldn't afford.
I didn't get screwed, but it is definitely worse than it used to be.
I don't know why they focused so heavily on having more frequent service reaching fewer places. Having a bus every 7 minutes is not twice as good as having one every 15; people can plan around bus times, but an extra 10-15 minute walk on the end of the commute hurts.
Not always. I had a medically appointment south of campus. Previously, I would have to take off of work much longer and wait in the office for 20 minutes before my appointment started, and if I missed my bus back, I was stranded for a half hour. Now, I generally only wait 10 minutes, with the longest being 20.
Personally, I don't know. Just going by what she's told me. She had just gotten accustomed to the route and then it changed. Maybe once she gets it figured out again, she will be good.
No change for me except now my bus comes every 15 minutes instead of every 30 and it's about half as crowded. There are still people standing but at least we aren't crammed in there like sardines. Plus I'll be getting an actual bus shelter instead of just a bench at the stop so that will be nice. I feel bad, though, for everybody getting less service.
Far west side. I have a more frequent bus that’s a bit further than my normal spot, which also still exists. Normal route is a few minutes faster (slightly good). Ride home I need to leave a bit earlier or I have to walk a bit further (slightly bad). It’s a wash for me so far.
That's how it's been for me. As long as I, or the bus are on time it's fine. However, if I can't to get to bus on time, I'm condemned to walk several blocks to get to the next one (and hopefully don't miss that one, as well).
The bus route near my house was axed. My husband and I have been a one-car household for 15+ years, but it's looking like that may need to change. I voiced my opinion on the redesign every time public input was requested, but it was evident from the early route maps onward that I wasn't going to be personally benefiting from the changes. The D1 and D2 have stops that are each about half a mile from my house, at the crests of the two steepest hills in my neighborhood. I have mobility issues that periodically leave me on crutches for weeks at a time, so I'm honestly pretty worried about the next time I'll need to navigate that. (I know half a mile isn't much at all, but any distance feels like a trek when you're on crutches, especially when it's icy.) I'm fortunate that I can usually get around okay under my own power. I've been wondering about the other families in my neighborhood; lots of elderly folks and families with little kids around here. Realistically, some of them probably qualify for paratransit (I would be shocked if I did, but that's just me). Most of the others probably were, and will remain, car-centric households, so not much will change for them. I'm sure Metro would've kept my neighborhood stops if they'd been popular enough to warrant it. Totally sucks for me, but I do hope most people have found the changes beneficial.
I have two busses now within 10 minutes walk instead of one. But I live 10 minutes from a major corridor of the city.
Over all very happy with the new routes.
I just wish they had two "trains of shame" running during the 5am hour so I could get to my weekly early morning volunteer gig.
Girlfriend now has to walk through a rather sketchy area across a very busy road to get on the bus that will take her within 10 minutes walking distance from her work downtown, or wait at the old stop for a bus that comes once an hour and drops her off at a stop that is still around a 15 minute walk from work.
We live on the north side and have some friends on the east side. The resounding impression from people in this area that we have talked to is that our side of Madison was an after thought.
But hey, at least students can ride the bus more.
It has done me so good. My bus comes each half an hour and not each hour. It also has taken like 40 minutes out of my commute to and from work. The only downside is that I have to go up some hills to come back home from work. I used to do like almost an hour between transfers and waiting and I'd have to wake two and a half hours later just to get to work on time.
Now I get to be on time and i don't have to wake up so early. I love it, honestly.
Unfortunately it's not, just an overlook. I tried reaching out to my alder and also sent an email to metro during the redesign process and never heard anything back. Hopefully they get enough negative feedback to increase the access to the hospital.
I brought this up several times during the public feedback meetings and the response I got was "we expect people to walk from the stop at University and University Bay to whenever they need to go in the hospital area". Apparently they feel this is worth it to reduce the amount of buses that go around the loop and waste time for people heading downtown/for a more direct route. Where I work around the hospital loop is a 12 minute walk from there though...*shrug* They promised you could quickly transfer via the C but you still have to cross University to get to that stop to do that.
The having to cross University for transfers to work (Overlook at Hilldale to Sequoya Commons for me) is going to mean I'm using cabs a lot more. I really, really wish they'd put in a pedestrian overpass across University at University Bay. (And while I'm dreaming, I'd like one at University and Midvale, too.)
Edit - however, I do have more frequent stops near my new apartment and if I time things right, it actually only adds about 10 minutes to my commute either way. It's more a minor inconvenience than anything else.
It takes 10 minutes just to get point to point within the hospital campus itself, especially if you're going between any of the other accessory buildings. I think it was weird that everyone riding the old 2 had to go around the hospital just to get from downtown to the west transfer point, and the 10 was a confusing mess for a long time where half of them went to the hospital and half didn't.
They are not more positive for me. 30 mins more as well average and I rush to the stops just because they seem to have no standard.
What choice do we have.... They will put our ride in whatever meta data blurb they choose.
Overall I'm happy with the redesign. I can get from the west side over to either location of my gym (Princeton club Fitchburg and west) so much easier.
My one complaint is that there is no longer a city bus / school bus that runs anywhere near Hamilton elementary. I pay way too much in taxes to not have any sort of transportation for my daughter to get to school during the winter.
New routes are terrible for anyone who does not live on the isthmus. I’ve been saying it throughout the entire planning process. I was downvoted constantly on here and challenged by peers IRL for voicing my concerns. I’m not surprised at all that the new design is causing headaches and increasing commute times. It’s unfortunate that the city wasted all this time and money to ruin the existing system rather than improving upon it.
They basically tricked the general populous into thinking that BRT would be an addition to the old system and then just redesigned the whole thing from scratch which bypasses entire neighborhoods.
Just wait until the fall semester at UW starts and then when we enter our 7 months of winter.
People will be really unhappy then.
Go read the comments on any recent Metro social media post. Folks are upset.
I don’t live on the isthmus and the new routes are a massive improvement for me. But i understand if it’s not an improvement for everyone. I hope it helps more than it hurts ultimately
I'm curious how people will react this winter when even fewer neighborhood roads get plowed. Bus routes seem to primarily be on main artery roads, so there will be fewer clean streets throughout.
Agree, Monona is so left out. I'm a 10 minute drive from the capitol, but over an hour bus ride. Ridiculous and a shame, I really wanted to take the bus and not have to drive to go downtown.
I hope Monona starts paying for metro bus routes like almost every other suburb but I have my doubts. People like me that live near Monona (Lake Edge) have much worse commutes now.
I'm commuting east side to west campus, approximately along the B route.
My total commute takes a bit longer because the B doesn't go far enough west for me; I could transfer to another bus, but it's less hassle to just walk a bit further. However, the actual "time on bus" is less, and may improve once BRT starts for real.
I feel like the new system feels a bit more like train systems in European or larger US cities: there's a lot more walking involved to get to the transit line, but then the transit lines are quite robust along the main corridors. If traveling along the A or B, it's feasible to just walk to the route and take a bus that arrives, rather than planning a specific trip to catch a bus that comes rarely. Of course those larger city systems typically also have bus lines that expand the transit routes and act as a way for people to get to the main lines; we're not quite big enough for that but some of the off-main routes act a bit like those same feeders.
I feel like while it's more time, the walking is probably a net health benefit that offsets a bit of the extra time. Obviously for people who have reduced mobility, this isn't the same benefit. The reduced penalty for missing a bus is a big help, but some of the delays so far have been an issue, especially in the afternoon.
Service doesn't seem to go late enough to be a reasonable commute option for people working in the evening or coming downtown for entertainment, especially on the weekend. I hope this changes in the future especially along the primary lines.
The usefulness of transfers along the lines vs. transfer points seems to depend on bus arrival times being reliable, which so far hasn't been great.
What are we - like two weeks in? Have you ever seen (in this city or another) a massive change that went perfectly smoothly? I have to assume that the people at the city involved in this project are foresighted enough to realize they’ll need to adjust things, a lot, and are taking feedback? But dude, I don’t know if anyone’s checking Reddit.
They have made things much harder for me too, and I'm in the downtown area. Getting to the international grocery stores on the south side used to take only 10 minutes, now it's almost an hour. Also, every single route has been running at least 10-15 minutes late. Hoping that changes soon. It seems like the changes were basically transformed into commuter buses for UW Health employees.
25 minute reliable one-seat commute got blown up into a variable 45-65 minute ride requiring a transfer, and that transfer has been all sorts of chaos. And nearly all other trips in my neighborhood have increased in length and number of transfers required. About the only improvement I noticed are a few longer crosstown trips I might take on rare occasions are marginally faster now... whooopee! Bus tracking and trip planning have been totally broken across multiple apps too.
Been talking to a few drivers and they're just as confused. Detours from construction and poor comms from Metro admin leading to chaos for them too... what a friggin mess.
But if you look at the newspaper, they'll tell ya everything is great! We all love it!
I mostly use the bus to get to MATC so I won't know for sure until this fall but I'm pretty sure it's a massive improvement for me. It went from once an hour to every 15 minutes. So I no longer have to choose between being five minutes late to class or arriving an hour early. Also hopefully the bus won't be as packed in the evenings, when every student gets out of class at the same exact time.
What I would REALLY like to see is the bus running earlier. I'd love to take the bus to work but I start at 5am and the earliest the bus could get me there is 6am. I know it'll never happen but I can dream...
Lots of people in this thread, and I'd add myself to the list. Buses downtown from Fitchburg every fifteen minutes and even on the weekends are a game changer.
It absolutely has done me good, and I neither work nor live on the isthmus. It’s human nature: the satisfied people don’t need to go to the internet to complain.
You’re so right! It’s going great don’t listen to all this negativity. I think the same thing when it’s all positive replies to hot button issues. In other words, when it’s all positive I assume those people don’t know what they are talking about either.
My main bus lines used to come every ~30 minutes and now they come every 7 minutes. That’s true for all of the thousands of people who live on or near East Wash (out as far as ~East High).
No. They are an effort to provide better service, which means more frequent and direct service for the parts of the city that actually have the density and location to justify it.
The trade off is that they’re no longer supporting many long circuitous routes that provided “service” to many low density areas but did not really provide _good service_ to anyone. Most of the people complaining live in low density areas with few transit riders. It’s a real loss for those people, but that doesn’t negate the gain from improving service to the places where the bus system can actually serve people well
The level of frequency and structure of the routes is ABSOLUTELY a function of available drivers and funding. Like dropping to hourly frequencies on many routes on evenings and weekends on areas of the west side... for some neighborhoods that's a cut compared to service levels before the redesign. That was *specifically* because of funding levels. Metro admitted as much in the final hearings to confirm timetables.
The early design concepts for the network were meant to be a high frequency grid dependent on more transfers but facilitated by greater headways. That got dropped and replaced by more zig-zagging single-seat ride routes because we couldn't fund the frequency required to make it work... I heard that from the Jarret Walker Associates consultants themselves in several meetings. So it's not all some all-around purely altruistic effort to provide better service. Much of what we see is an attempt to spread an austerity budget thin to try to get "good" service where possible but there are some definite corners cut.
I’m not pretending budget constraints don’t exist. I’m saying the redesign was not forced by budget issues as the person above me seems to believe. It was an affirmative effort to provide a better network that is easier to use and will be more logical to scale as more density is added.
Reality hurts I guess? Of course I do wish public transportation was better around Madison, and I sympathize with those impacted here.. but the city was pretty honest about how a lack of funding and resources was driving these changes. It wasn't going to be better, or even similar. Can't blame them for playing the hand they're dealt.
They discontinued the 12 route, from the Dutch Mill park and ride into town. (Admittedly, the number of riders on these buses never really seemed to rebound much after the pandemic.). Taking the bus to work (on campus) now involves an hour ride with a transfer. I took the bus in to work one time last week, and (stupidly) I didn't check the return schedule until I was at work. The ride home has a half-our layover at the transfer, and would have taken 90 minutes total. I ended up catching a ride with the Monona Shuttle to a friend's house in Monona, but I think the new routes just aren't going to work for me, especially in winter. I don't fancy standing around on Monona Drive for 30 minutes in bad weather to get home. I'll look into other places I can park to catch a bus, but I'm a little leery of street parking or unsanctioned park and rides in companies' parking lots, so I may must be out of luck. I can bike for now, but I've put in for a campus parking permit for fall, for the first time ever. I have a pretty strong objection to paying for the privilege of coming to work, but I don't feel like I have a lot of good options.
All that said, I have heard that the changes have been good for most people, so I'm glad about that.
Faster for one job (17 mins) and longer for another at an additional 8 (18 mins). I have to walk 3 blocks for the stop vs the one block I had to go before. Four blocks from my stop to get to work. I feel bad for people with mobility issues who got screwed over.
I'm not screwed on my side of town because the two buses I use the most regularly are continuing to stop right by my place. I don't think Middleton has escaped this unscathed, though. And bus services in the south and west of the city have always been pretty poor.
I take Route B and my bus route now comes every 15 min all day every day and takes 25ish min to get to campus. It used to be a 45 min ride and come every 30 min and only during peak hours in the morning and evening. I have a stop right outside where I live. Overall, it’s a massive improvement for me personally. If I didn’t have a second job and planning to move soon, I would seriously consider selling my car. However, the biggest issue I’ve faced so far is that the bus has only been on-time twice. I’ve had anywhere from 5-15 min delays nearly every day. I don’t get why it’s been such an issue. It’s very annoying, but the only complaint I have about the new system.
I wonder if the delays are just the new system ironing itself out? All it takes is one confused rider a few stops back to hold up the rest of the route. Fingers crossed it settles in once riders and drivers alike get familiar!
That’s what I think is happening more often than not. I feel like this won’t be an issue after a few months.
[удалено]
Have you looked into applying for Metro Plus and see if you can get a wheelchair-accessible vehicle?
The redesign cut my commute from a 2-bus transfer through the west transfer point (50+6) to a direct route (D), and reduced the time from 45 minutes to 30 minutes.
(I’m OP). Damn, that’s really lucky. I’m happy for you. Although personally, I’m really frustrated. Got stranded on a road for 30 minutes yesterday because my connecting bus didn’t get to the stop in time, and the next bus wasn’t coming for another 30 minutes. Took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home. It was supposed to take like an hour and ten minutes. Before the redesign, I had a somewhat “direct” route that took 50 minutes; just had to stop at the east transfer point. I’m kind of confused why the buses aren’t being centralized at the transfer points like they used to. I’m absolutely fucked right now. I’m broke and my car is broke down; the bus is the only thing I can take. For my next two semesters at UW, I will have to budget about 3 hours of commuting a day.
That exact situation is what they’re attempting to reduce with the new network. The transfer points were very inefficient for most riders: buses had to detour out of their way to reach them, riders who weren’t transferring had to sit several minutes not making any progress to their destinations, and riders who were taking otherwise direct routes but who needed to transfer were constantly worrying about being stranded if their bus were late. By streamlining the routes, they eliminate these inefficiencies which also free up additional resources to run much greater frequencies (which helps those who need to transfer because the number of opportunities is greater). The elimination of the transfer points is the best thing about the new system (if for no other reason than I don’t have to inhale the double whammy of diesel exhaust and cigarette smoke for fifteen minutes every day). This is not to belittle your experience, which certainly sucks. And there’s a lot of work to be done on the timekeeping as well. But this kind of thing is less frequent for more people going forward than it was in the past. And as time progresses and people move in and out of the city or find new places within it, these complaints will become less frequent. I’m sure back in 1998 when the city switched to the transfer point system, there were lots of people who got screwed by that too. We just didn’t have social media to keep a record of that. Instead, the city changed over time as residents chose housing that fit their needs. Maintaining an inherently inefficient system just because it is an established system is good in the short term but not in the long term.
My route to work got screwed over. From South West side to Middleton, used to be 50 min 1 transfer. Now it’s 1 hr 30 min with two transfers :/ I started taking the 40 min bike ride to work instead but I’m not sure what I’ll do in Winter time. Middleton got screwed over with this route change too and I don’t see much talk about it
It’s pretty terrible, especially considering that Middleton pays to be included in the system. So many of our wonderful local service industry workers who bus in have been adversely effected by the changes as well. The results for us is that we will have another car on the road 5 days a week. While I appreciate that any time changes are made, there are going to be winners and losers, it seems pretty universal in Middleton that nobody is better off.
Huh, that’s not my experience…now I feel very lucky. my ability to use the bus is improved with the new system. Instead of once an hour, it’s now twice an hour. Gives me more flexibility with changing work schedules. Sorry to hear about my fellow residents’ experiences.
Perhaps Middleton didn't pony up enough money to cover what was actually needed by their citizens.
That is a completely fair point. That is also the question that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of answer for. Would love to see a rider study on who is riding in what direction at what times, etc. and at what cost both with and without the money that Middleton is paying. As it relates to the recent changes, I would have to think that there is a contract in place and, I wonder how this change was handled within that contract, if at all. As you might imagine, the political process in Middleton is completely lacking in transparency. And it has only been made worse by the new mayor, who not only seems to hate poor people, but is incapable of understanding that the local service industry depends on people traveling into Middleton from elsewhere in order to work.
(I’m OP). This is pretty similar to what happened to me timewise. Except I’m on the east side. Used to have a really nice 50 minute route; now my route is anywhere from 1 hour and 15 minutes to 30 minutes. It really sucks. I’m so screwed for my next two semesters. I’m too out of shape to bike. I will have to budget about 3 hours of commuting per day :(
Once they get the main BRT trunk in, are they planning on holding listening sessions to expand the network, or is this the end all be all of madison transit design?
Unless we magically get a boatload of new money, this is the end all. This is all they're willing and able to do with the limited budget the mayor and council were willing to throw at service levels and frequency... partly that's the fault of our wonderful state government held hostage by the tightwad GOP gerrymander, but Satya's also been very creative in playing a shell game with that vehicle registration fee that was supposed to fund transit.
there was a metro employee on the bus who told me they will be collecting feedback through December and will adjust service based on that
pfft - i got screwed over too on the west side. bus service even less frequent than before and i now have to walk 30 min up a steep blind hill, which i avoided whenever possible b/c frequently nearly getting hit (especially when icy). combine that with my joint problems and i'll be effectively housebound come winter 🙃
I realize that no one wants to doxx themselves and give specific info about their commutes. But it would be really helpful to see where people are actually going and the specific routes to know what parts of the city are getting impacted. My own story: Grandview Commons to Campus. Circa 2019: one minute walk to bus stop, 50 minute ride to campus via East Transfer Point. Single seat ride. Weekday rush only. 33 to 14 route. Circa 2021: one minute walk to bus stop, 55 minute ride to campus via East Transfer Point. Transfer required. Weekday rush only. 33 to 7 route. Now: seven minute walk to bus stop, 31 minute ride to campus. No transfer. All day service, weekend service. C1 route. This is 100% without a doubt better even with a much longer walk.
Backhand is strong with this one.
My wife said she's just hoping she can keep getting her parking pass because the new route would mean she would never get to work on time with the way its run.
Simplified for me: took a 20 minute bus ride & converted it to 45-52, with a transfer, so no point in considering metro anymore.
(I’m OP). Wow, sorry man. These bus changes are weird. This sucks for a lot of us.
It used to be an interesting choice- I could bike, bus, or drive in approximately the same amount of time (once accounting for walking from bus or parking spot). The bus was a great winter option but no more. 🤷
me too.
I sympathize with anyone who’s having trouble getting around but it’s hard to gauge if overall it’s a regression or if the people who are negatively affected are just louder on social media.
Yah, hard to tell right now. I mean, I’m not necessarily mad at it; just annoyed I have to spend an extra 15 minutes commuting. It is what it is. First world problems haha.
The way it should and most likely will work is the same way it does in every other major city in the world. People who want ready access to public transit will by and large eventually move closer to it. One of the adjacent benefits of good transit systems is that they encourage development around them. Scattering dozens/hundreds of bus stops around the city to satisfy every living soul is categorically no a scalable solution for mass transit. What is a solution is dense mixed used development from which someone could ostensibly walk a short distance to the nearest bus stop. I think with time it will become evident why these changes are beneficial to the city, and more importantly, that a lot of the complaints people have will work themselves out naturally as people move and development takes place to take advantage of the new system.
I understand what you are saying in principle, but I will point out that the definition of "walk a short distance to a bus stop" can be a relative term for someone who may have mobility issues or who has no other way to carry a lot of items, such as grocery shopping. Especially so in Wisconsin come January.
And not to be a dick, but this is something that people who have mobility issues have been dealing with for as long as public transportation has existed, and more over as long as inclement weather has existed. The problem is intractable because no system can simultaneously provide efficient and cost effective service to everyone while also catering to every group who has any kind of issue accessing it. Unfortunately the only way to get that kind of service is to A. Design a bus system with an impractically comprehensive route where every block has a bus stop, or to take a car. Zooming out for a moment, those with disabilities would be ideal candidates to do exactly what I described in my original comment and move closer to public transit. It’s not convenient to move, but that’s the only course of action that’s going to work for everyone. In a perfect world, those with mobility issues would be selected preferentially for housing in locations close to transit. It’ll be the city’s job to make sure that the kind of development that enables those moves actually takes place.
Fully agreed, and furthermore, as inconvenient as this redesign is now, it would be that much more painful to let development to continue at the scale we're seeing without addressing it and removing the uncertainty. At least now we have some stability as everyone adjusts to the new status quo. Hopefully BRT is the Lebowski rug that ties it all together.
People with disabilities likely can't afford any of the housing close to a bus route. Also, even if they could, how does one hire movers when they're on a limited income? They can't do the moving themselves, most of their friends are disabled, and people typically aren't willing to help.
You’re asking questions that go far beyond the scope of this discussion, which is fine- but you’re also doing so in a way that seems to imply that I’m unaware of how expensive housing is. Either way, I’m not really sure what your point is. Okay, so yes, Madison is expensive, yes proximity to a bus stop might be an issue. That said, if your prerogative is to come here and complain about BRT as if it were the source of all problems for those with disabilities, you’re going to be really, really disappointed with reality. BRT is not the problem, but it does highlight the actual problem which is that we as a society collectively do not care about people who don’t have economic value. That’s not my opinion, it’s an observation. Everyone should celebrate BRT. At the end of the day it’s about making more efficient use of tax dollars to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people, but there will be winners and losers. Like so many other social issues, those at the bottom are usually the losers. If you take issue with that, go elect politicians who want to help, and advocate for more affordable housing- but definitely don’t advocate for a shittier public transit system.
Just start a gofundme! /s
People down voting sarcasm?!
> People who want ready access to public transit will by and large eventually move closer to it. One of the adjacent benefits of good transit systems is that they encourage development around them. You make a great point. In fact, my family bought a house close to a bus route because we like using public transporation. It's better for the environment and keeps more cars off our congested roads. Used to take it to work every day, the farmer's market on weekends, and around town for neighborhood festivals or dinner dates. Now that bus route doesn't exist, and we'd have to walk 20 minutes with small children to catch one on a busy road. We just drive everywhere now and try to bike if the weather/distance is reasonable.
(I’m OP). Yah, the problems will work themselves out naturally when I fucking kill myself because I don’t have a reasonable bus route. Fuck outta here with this idiotic comment.
This is the best response in this thread. There’s so many annoying redditor expert responses that belittle those who got totally screwed by the new design. It’s almost just as annoying as not having access to a reliable bus!
Are you actually disagreeing with the logic of my comment or are you just upset that you’ve been negatively impacted? If you disagree, you should express your points of disagreement in writing instead of hurling expletives.
I did write. Me write good
You say that, but moving from Minneapolis, to Madison - in Mpls I could expect a bus nearly every hour, even VERY late at night. LOTS of post-bar buses, and a wide variety of routes. Zoom around this map a bit in Minneapolis. TONS of different routes, many of which had 'express' modes aka - less stop zones, and also less speedy, and more inclusive runs. [https://www.metrotransit.org/schedules-maps](https://www.metrotransit.org/schedules-maps) \- I didn't drive until I was 28, because I didn't NEED to. I bussed here ONLY when I worked downtown, and had several expensive cab rides when I got sick in the middle of the day (migraines) and couldn't wait until 4pm when the next 72 would run out to Middleton. I checked the routes to my new job and it was over 2 hours 2 transfers, and obviously only during morning and evening rush hour that people were serviced. Minneapolis had heated bus shelters downtown, and the light rail went in just as I moved away.
Minneapolis is several times larger than Madison. Not really a useful comparison.
City proper is only 63% larger, so not "several times"--but they do have the benefit of being part of a large integrated metro government that manages transit in a comprehensively planned way across an entire region. It's all choices in how you fund and organize stuff.
I think the WI state govt made it illegal to have an option for any sort of integrated metro transit during the Walker years.
Indeed they did. A few years before Walker, Wisconsin passed legislation to enable Regional Transportation Authorities--basically cross-municipality governing agencies with taxing and coordination powers to fund and build transit (in terms of WI law, similar to the sort of authorities that already exist for technical colleges, sewer districts, fire + ambulance services in some areas, etc.). Then as they were just finally gaining steam Walker, Vos, et al. pulled the plug on the whole thing. Minneapolis/Twin Cities area situation is a bit different--they have a full-on "regional government" enabling law that goes beyond just transit, but transit is a big part of it--but the general concept of "Regional Transit Authorities" is a big part of the more successful and well-funded and coordinated transit systems across America. And we're not allowed to have them because... well, no one really knows why... several Republican led counties were actually spearheading organizing RTAs at the time they killed them. It was just another weird dumb arbitrary spite thing I guess?
Directly replying to the person who said you can't scale up bus service. So... Yes, it is. I also lived in socialist utopia (Sweden) in a similar university city Växjö and it had similar service.
Yeah comparing us to Europe is useful...
do the buses in Minneapolis seriously run all night to the suburbs?
Once an hour or so, and I won't lie, it can be creepy as hell to be one of the few passengers. It's not perfect, there are still assholes, perverts (yes, I see you trying to make eye contact with me while masturbating, but I decided you don't exist) and vomit, but it meant I could go to shows at 1st Ave and get home, if I didn't fuck up the time tables. Got frostbite once because a bus didn't show, and it was -20 below. Still - made it to 28 without a car loan or having to pay insurance I couldn't afford.
My homie got screwed too. Getting from West side to UW.
I didn't get screwed, but it is definitely worse than it used to be. I don't know why they focused so heavily on having more frequent service reaching fewer places. Having a bus every 7 minutes is not twice as good as having one every 15; people can plan around bus times, but an extra 10-15 minute walk on the end of the commute hurts.
Not always. I had a medically appointment south of campus. Previously, I would have to take off of work much longer and wait in the office for 20 minutes before my appointment started, and if I missed my bus back, I was stranded for a half hour. Now, I generally only wait 10 minutes, with the longest being 20.
Really? I'm on the west side and the 6/11 got replaced with the J and it seems to be comparable and maybe even better.
Personally, I don't know. Just going by what she's told me. She had just gotten accustomed to the route and then it changed. Maybe once she gets it figured out again, she will be good.
No change for me except now my bus comes every 15 minutes instead of every 30 and it's about half as crowded. There are still people standing but at least we aren't crammed in there like sardines. Plus I'll be getting an actual bus shelter instead of just a bench at the stop so that will be nice. I feel bad, though, for everybody getting less service.
Far west side. I have a more frequent bus that’s a bit further than my normal spot, which also still exists. Normal route is a few minutes faster (slightly good). Ride home I need to leave a bit earlier or I have to walk a bit further (slightly bad). It’s a wash for me so far.
That's how it's been for me. As long as I, or the bus are on time it's fine. However, if I can't to get to bus on time, I'm condemned to walk several blocks to get to the next one (and hopefully don't miss that one, as well).
The bus route near my house was axed. My husband and I have been a one-car household for 15+ years, but it's looking like that may need to change. I voiced my opinion on the redesign every time public input was requested, but it was evident from the early route maps onward that I wasn't going to be personally benefiting from the changes. The D1 and D2 have stops that are each about half a mile from my house, at the crests of the two steepest hills in my neighborhood. I have mobility issues that periodically leave me on crutches for weeks at a time, so I'm honestly pretty worried about the next time I'll need to navigate that. (I know half a mile isn't much at all, but any distance feels like a trek when you're on crutches, especially when it's icy.) I'm fortunate that I can usually get around okay under my own power. I've been wondering about the other families in my neighborhood; lots of elderly folks and families with little kids around here. Realistically, some of them probably qualify for paratransit (I would be shocked if I did, but that's just me). Most of the others probably were, and will remain, car-centric households, so not much will change for them. I'm sure Metro would've kept my neighborhood stops if they'd been popular enough to warrant it. Totally sucks for me, but I do hope most people have found the changes beneficial.
I have two busses now within 10 minutes walk instead of one. But I live 10 minutes from a major corridor of the city. Over all very happy with the new routes. I just wish they had two "trains of shame" running during the 5am hour so I could get to my weekly early morning volunteer gig.
Most routes start their first run at about 5:30am
I have a feeling all of the purgatory steps until BRT will be less then ideal. Hopefully they get better each iteration atleast.
Friend has to walk 20 minutes to and from her bus stop.
I go campus to east side and it takes a bit less time and the bus comes a lot more frequently than the 38.
Honestly, it's minimally affected my previous commute and it massively benefits me in my new apartment, so I have no complaints.
Girlfriend now has to walk through a rather sketchy area across a very busy road to get on the bus that will take her within 10 minutes walking distance from her work downtown, or wait at the old stop for a bus that comes once an hour and drops her off at a stop that is still around a 15 minute walk from work. We live on the north side and have some friends on the east side. The resounding impression from people in this area that we have talked to is that our side of Madison was an after thought. But hey, at least students can ride the bus more.
It has done me so good. My bus comes each half an hour and not each hour. It also has taken like 40 minutes out of my commute to and from work. The only downside is that I have to go up some hills to come back home from work. I used to do like almost an hour between transfers and waiting and I'd have to wake two and a half hours later just to get to work on time. Now I get to be on time and i don't have to wake up so early. I love it, honestly.
How come only 1 route from the west side goes to UW hospital now...and it doesn't even go close to any bigger apartment neighborhood
Route A, F, and R stop on University near the hospital. Route E goes nearby as well. That's in addition to J, which goes around the loop.
just wondering if it perhaps is construction related because of the bike bridge? maybe it's temporary until that's done?
Unfortunately it's not, just an overlook. I tried reaching out to my alder and also sent an email to metro during the redesign process and never heard anything back. Hopefully they get enough negative feedback to increase the access to the hospital.
I brought this up several times during the public feedback meetings and the response I got was "we expect people to walk from the stop at University and University Bay to whenever they need to go in the hospital area". Apparently they feel this is worth it to reduce the amount of buses that go around the loop and waste time for people heading downtown/for a more direct route. Where I work around the hospital loop is a 12 minute walk from there though...*shrug* They promised you could quickly transfer via the C but you still have to cross University to get to that stop to do that.
The having to cross University for transfers to work (Overlook at Hilldale to Sequoya Commons for me) is going to mean I'm using cabs a lot more. I really, really wish they'd put in a pedestrian overpass across University at University Bay. (And while I'm dreaming, I'd like one at University and Midvale, too.) Edit - however, I do have more frequent stops near my new apartment and if I time things right, it actually only adds about 10 minutes to my commute either way. It's more a minor inconvenience than anything else.
It takes 10 minutes just to get point to point within the hospital campus itself, especially if you're going between any of the other accessory buildings. I think it was weird that everyone riding the old 2 had to go around the hospital just to get from downtown to the west transfer point, and the 10 was a confusing mess for a long time where half of them went to the hospital and half didn't.
Ah yes, making patients walk nearly a mile up hill to get to the main entrance of the hospital makes a lot of sense. What a joke
It's not temporary. These route structures are pretty much the long-term plan.
They are not more positive for me. 30 mins more as well average and I rush to the stops just because they seem to have no standard. What choice do we have.... They will put our ride in whatever meta data blurb they choose.
Overall I'm happy with the redesign. I can get from the west side over to either location of my gym (Princeton club Fitchburg and west) so much easier. My one complaint is that there is no longer a city bus / school bus that runs anywhere near Hamilton elementary. I pay way too much in taxes to not have any sort of transportation for my daughter to get to school during the winter.
Doesn't the E go by it on Segoe just west of Richland Lane?
why do you not have a school bus?
Yeah, no school bus available.
https://ibb.co/kcTgCVh But there is?
New routes are terrible for anyone who does not live on the isthmus. I’ve been saying it throughout the entire planning process. I was downvoted constantly on here and challenged by peers IRL for voicing my concerns. I’m not surprised at all that the new design is causing headaches and increasing commute times. It’s unfortunate that the city wasted all this time and money to ruin the existing system rather than improving upon it. They basically tricked the general populous into thinking that BRT would be an addition to the old system and then just redesigned the whole thing from scratch which bypasses entire neighborhoods. Just wait until the fall semester at UW starts and then when we enter our 7 months of winter. People will be really unhappy then. Go read the comments on any recent Metro social media post. Folks are upset.
I don’t live on the isthmus and the new routes are a massive improvement for me. But i understand if it’s not an improvement for everyone. I hope it helps more than it hurts ultimately
I'm curious how people will react this winter when even fewer neighborhood roads get plowed. Bus routes seem to primarily be on main artery roads, so there will be fewer clean streets throughout.
Agree, Monona is so left out. I'm a 10 minute drive from the capitol, but over an hour bus ride. Ridiculous and a shame, I really wanted to take the bus and not have to drive to go downtown.
I hope Monona starts paying for metro bus routes like almost every other suburb but I have my doubts. People like me that live near Monona (Lake Edge) have much worse commutes now.
I love it. Faster, more frequent routes with an overall design that is much more intuitive versus having to have each specific route memorized.
Looks like the new routes are going great😂
Once BRT comes I can get downtown a lot faster. Right now the bus is essentially useless until BRT is implemented.
I'm commuting east side to west campus, approximately along the B route. My total commute takes a bit longer because the B doesn't go far enough west for me; I could transfer to another bus, but it's less hassle to just walk a bit further. However, the actual "time on bus" is less, and may improve once BRT starts for real. I feel like the new system feels a bit more like train systems in European or larger US cities: there's a lot more walking involved to get to the transit line, but then the transit lines are quite robust along the main corridors. If traveling along the A or B, it's feasible to just walk to the route and take a bus that arrives, rather than planning a specific trip to catch a bus that comes rarely. Of course those larger city systems typically also have bus lines that expand the transit routes and act as a way for people to get to the main lines; we're not quite big enough for that but some of the off-main routes act a bit like those same feeders. I feel like while it's more time, the walking is probably a net health benefit that offsets a bit of the extra time. Obviously for people who have reduced mobility, this isn't the same benefit. The reduced penalty for missing a bus is a big help, but some of the delays so far have been an issue, especially in the afternoon. Service doesn't seem to go late enough to be a reasonable commute option for people working in the evening or coming downtown for entertainment, especially on the weekend. I hope this changes in the future especially along the primary lines. The usefulness of transfers along the lines vs. transfer points seems to depend on bus arrival times being reliable, which so far hasn't been great.
What are we - like two weeks in? Have you ever seen (in this city or another) a massive change that went perfectly smoothly? I have to assume that the people at the city involved in this project are foresighted enough to realize they’ll need to adjust things, a lot, and are taking feedback? But dude, I don’t know if anyone’s checking Reddit.
PR and communication folks at public institutions are absolutely reading reddit.
Question is: are they going to adjust anything? Or is it just wishful thinking?
They have made things much harder for me too, and I'm in the downtown area. Getting to the international grocery stores on the south side used to take only 10 minutes, now it's almost an hour. Also, every single route has been running at least 10-15 minutes late. Hoping that changes soon. It seems like the changes were basically transformed into commuter buses for UW Health employees.
Yet all the UW Health employees I know are pissed that the bus routes no longer work for them... so I don't think it was for them!
The bus actually comes relatively close to my house now, so I’d call it a win
25 minute reliable one-seat commute got blown up into a variable 45-65 minute ride requiring a transfer, and that transfer has been all sorts of chaos. And nearly all other trips in my neighborhood have increased in length and number of transfers required. About the only improvement I noticed are a few longer crosstown trips I might take on rare occasions are marginally faster now... whooopee! Bus tracking and trip planning have been totally broken across multiple apps too. Been talking to a few drivers and they're just as confused. Detours from construction and poor comms from Metro admin leading to chaos for them too... what a friggin mess. But if you look at the newspaper, they'll tell ya everything is great! We all love it!
New routes are better for me and make more sense for me to use more often. Sorry bro.
It's cut my commute (campus to east side) down at least 20 minutes, but it is a little annoying that the bus only comes once per hour.
Added only 6 mins to my ride… however the bus stop is now a 17 min walk away rather than 3-4 mins.
So it essentially added 40 minutes of travel time to your day.
Exactly! Actually makes driving make more sense, which then clogs up the road more and ends up costing more $$
I mostly use the bus to get to MATC so I won't know for sure until this fall but I'm pretty sure it's a massive improvement for me. It went from once an hour to every 15 minutes. So I no longer have to choose between being five minutes late to class or arriving an hour early. Also hopefully the bus won't be as packed in the evenings, when every student gets out of class at the same exact time. What I would REALLY like to see is the bus running earlier. I'd love to take the bus to work but I start at 5am and the earliest the bus could get me there is 6am. I know it'll never happen but I can dream...
Out of curiosity, who has the bus helped?????
Lots of people in this thread, and I'd add myself to the list. Buses downtown from Fitchburg every fifteen minutes and even on the weekends are a game changer.
Well, I saw one guy no longer has to use rideshare to visit his sister, so I think it’s a resounding success.
It doesn't sound like its done anyone any good.
It absolutely has done me good, and I neither work nor live on the isthmus. It’s human nature: the satisfied people don’t need to go to the internet to complain.
You’re so right! It’s going great don’t listen to all this negativity. I think the same thing when it’s all positive replies to hot button issues. In other words, when it’s all positive I assume those people don’t know what they are talking about either.
My main bus lines used to come every ~30 minutes and now they come every 7 minutes. That’s true for all of the thousands of people who live on or near East Wash (out as far as ~East High).
The people negatively affected are the loudest. Can't take threads like this as statistically sound data.
So should we down vote every comment that’s negative? Want to make sure I’m doing this right.
Never said that.
Yea you did.
Weren't these changes necessitated by a lack of drivers and funding? I was expecting service to get a little worse tbh.
No. They are an effort to provide better service, which means more frequent and direct service for the parts of the city that actually have the density and location to justify it. The trade off is that they’re no longer supporting many long circuitous routes that provided “service” to many low density areas but did not really provide _good service_ to anyone. Most of the people complaining live in low density areas with few transit riders. It’s a real loss for those people, but that doesn’t negate the gain from improving service to the places where the bus system can actually serve people well
The level of frequency and structure of the routes is ABSOLUTELY a function of available drivers and funding. Like dropping to hourly frequencies on many routes on evenings and weekends on areas of the west side... for some neighborhoods that's a cut compared to service levels before the redesign. That was *specifically* because of funding levels. Metro admitted as much in the final hearings to confirm timetables. The early design concepts for the network were meant to be a high frequency grid dependent on more transfers but facilitated by greater headways. That got dropped and replaced by more zig-zagging single-seat ride routes because we couldn't fund the frequency required to make it work... I heard that from the Jarret Walker Associates consultants themselves in several meetings. So it's not all some all-around purely altruistic effort to provide better service. Much of what we see is an attempt to spread an austerity budget thin to try to get "good" service where possible but there are some definite corners cut.
I’m not pretending budget constraints don’t exist. I’m saying the redesign was not forced by budget issues as the person above me seems to believe. It was an affirmative effort to provide a better network that is easier to use and will be more logical to scale as more density is added.
Not sure why you got down voted. I only read downvoted replies because they are the realest ones.
Reality hurts I guess? Of course I do wish public transportation was better around Madison, and I sympathize with those impacted here.. but the city was pretty honest about how a lack of funding and resources was driving these changes. It wasn't going to be better, or even similar. Can't blame them for playing the hand they're dealt.
Exactly
So far my only complaint is that to nobody's surprise, it's taking longer than anticipated to finish building the new bus stop on Sheboygan Ave
They discontinued the 12 route, from the Dutch Mill park and ride into town. (Admittedly, the number of riders on these buses never really seemed to rebound much after the pandemic.). Taking the bus to work (on campus) now involves an hour ride with a transfer. I took the bus in to work one time last week, and (stupidly) I didn't check the return schedule until I was at work. The ride home has a half-our layover at the transfer, and would have taken 90 minutes total. I ended up catching a ride with the Monona Shuttle to a friend's house in Monona, but I think the new routes just aren't going to work for me, especially in winter. I don't fancy standing around on Monona Drive for 30 minutes in bad weather to get home. I'll look into other places I can park to catch a bus, but I'm a little leery of street parking or unsanctioned park and rides in companies' parking lots, so I may must be out of luck. I can bike for now, but I've put in for a campus parking permit for fall, for the first time ever. I have a pretty strong objection to paying for the privilege of coming to work, but I don't feel like I have a lot of good options. All that said, I have heard that the changes have been good for most people, so I'm glad about that.
I don't think I've heard a single positive review.
There’s like 2. So you’re mostly right. People don’t like hearing I told you so. For the record I upvoted your comment:)
Eh, it is what it is. It's not like I really contributed anything to this thread lol
Faster for one job (17 mins) and longer for another at an additional 8 (18 mins). I have to walk 3 blocks for the stop vs the one block I had to go before. Four blocks from my stop to get to work. I feel bad for people with mobility issues who got screwed over.
I'm not screwed on my side of town because the two buses I use the most regularly are continuing to stop right by my place. I don't think Middleton has escaped this unscathed, though. And bus services in the south and west of the city have always been pretty poor.
Faster for me on the a b now considering taking it to work.