Report: Bus rapid transit would reduce car lanes

Establishing bus rapid transit service in the busy east-west corridor between downtown Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa will require pushing cars and trucks out of two lanes of traffic along Wisconsin Ave. and Blue Mound Road, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee urban planning graduate students say in a new report.

Automobiles would lose their dominant place in traffic throughout the entire 7-mile route in order to provide sufficient space for lanes set aside for exclusive use of buses, under recommendations in the students' report.

Even then, bus rapid transit, or BRT, service in the corridor could not be given only curbside lanes to succeed, the student planners say. They split the route into six segments with varying road widths "to implement the best BRT possible" and attract new riders while reducing impact on parking and traffic congestion, the report says.

So, alignment of exclusive lanes changes along the route, from use of both eastbound lanes on one stretch of Wisconsin Ave. west of the Milwaukee River, to taking over the center two lanes and median through the Marquette University campus, according to their vision for BRT in Milwaukee.

In July, the Milwaukee County Board joined the Milwaukee and Wauwatosa common councils in approving a bus rapid transit service route using sections of Wisconsin Ave. and Blue Mound Road. The route uses Wisconsin Ave. from downtown west to N. Hawley Road, then switches to Blue Mound Road from Hawley Road west to N. 95th St.

With support of the three local governments, the county Transportation Department applied for a federal transit grant that would pay 80% of the estimated $45 million costs of planning and building the BRT service.

One unresolved issue between the county and two cities is the final location of exclusive side or center lanes. A county consultant is expected to recommend an alignment later this month, a Milwaukee County Transit System spokesman said.

The urban planning students presented their report to county officials in December.

A public meeting will be scheduled in the spring to discuss the consultant's report before the three local governments make final decisions on location of lanes and BRT stations, said MCTS spokesman Brendan Conway. Approval of the municipalities and the Federal Transit Administration is needed before construction could begin in 2018.

Urban planning graduate student Joseph Widing said his group selected a variety of possible alignments to accommodate the interests of businesses in maintaining parking as well as providing pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

The stretch of Wisconsin Ave. from the Milwaukee River west to N. 8th St. required "nonstandard thinking," the report says. Eliminating eastbound vehicle traffic and parking would preserve about 40 of the current 90 on-street parking spaces on the north side of the street.

This design also provides for a bicycle lane on the westbound curb adjacent to BRT service, Widing said. Eastbound auto traffic would be diverted to W. Wells St. at 8th St.

There are nearly as many bus riders as there are cars — a weekday average of 10,000 a day — using Wisconsin Ave. between the Milwaukee River and Marquette University, according to Robert Schneider, associate professor of urban planning and the class instructor.

One of the primary requirements for any bus rapid transit service is the designation of bus-only lanes along the length of the entire corridor, according to the report. Without those exclusive lanes, the new service would not achieve the faster travel times needed to succeed, the report says.

"BRT in the east-west corridor is estimated to reduce the total trip time by 15 minutes," the report says.

Though BRT buses must obey posted speed limit signs, the service becomes more rapid than traditional routes due to separate bus lanes, less frequent stops, and more efficient boarding techniques, the students conclude.

Center lanes are recommended from the Marquette University campus on Wisconsin Ave. west to Hawley Road, and on Blue Mound Road from Hawley Road west to 95th St.

Don Behm can be reached at don.behm@jrn.com and twitter.com/conserve