Out Of Service: Milwaukee Budget Cuts Hit Bus Lines - Keep Residents From Jobs

[peestandingup]

Anyone wanna take bets on when they start doing this in Jax?? Huge sprawling land mass = impossible to maintain transit system.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- Peggy Schulz was fed up. In March, after being unemployed for nearly two years, she performed an experiment: She went to a job-search website, limited the search to the Milwaukee area and typed in a simple term: "bus line."

The results displayed what had long been plaguing her. Job posting after job posting featured similar caveats: "this is not on a bus line," "need reliable transportation not on bus line," "positions are NOT on a bus line," "our client that is not located on a bus line is interested in having you work ..."

"Here it was in black and white," she later recalled with a bitter laugh. "It's been very frustrating to look through the want ads, look online, think about places I could work and realize, 'Nope, can't get there on the bus.'"

Schulz is 53. She has years of experience as a legal secretary. But she does not own a car.

Over the last decade, as Milwaukee County has inflicted relentless cuts to public transit, she has watched her primary means of transportation decay. After she was laid off in June 2009, a pattern emerged: She'd find what seemed like the perfect job opportunity, only to discover that bus service cuts had rendered it inaccessible.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/05/milwaukee-budget-cuts_n_844551.html

[Doctor_K]

i still think they should reduce the number of lines and thereby increase the number available buses to shrink headways on the remaining lines.

[peestandingup]

i still think they should reduce the number of lines and thereby increase the number available buses to shrink headways on the remaining lines.

Maybe, but then what about the people on those outter lines who rely on the service?? Trust me, there's a lot of them.

This is sorta what happens when your city grows outwards to such extremes & they throw condensed infill out the window. Jax is the worst because we have the most ground to cover.

How this city expected to keep up with all of this I'll never know. If they couldn't provide basic services like transit to all corners of the city, then it should have never gotten to this point.

[peestandingup]

Oh, and you can bet that when our transit-hating teabagging Mayor gets here, this'll be one of the first things to go.

"Bah! Only poor people take public transit & don't contribute much anyway. Cut it!"

[johnnyroadglide]

Oh, and you can bet that when our transit-hating teabagging Mayor gets here, this'll be one of the first things to go.

"Bah! Only poor people take public transit & don't contribute much anyway. Cut it!"

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't JTA a STATE run authority? The mayor can pick a board member or two but doesn't the State of Florida actually oversee the JTA?

[buckethead]

Ya... Rick Scott would never cut transit.

[tufsu1]

Oh, and you can bet that when our transit-hating teabagging Mayor gets here, this'll be one of the first things to go.

"Bah! Only poor people take public transit & don't contribute much anyway. Cut it!"

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't JTA a STATE run authority? The mayor can pick a board member or two but doesn't the State of Florida actually oversee the JTA?

neither...it is a state-created independent authority...with a Board comprised of Mayoral and Gubanotorial appointees

[johnnyroadglide]

Bottom line is though Jacksonvilles mayor cannot just wave his hand and make it go away.

[Dog Walker]

Bottom line is though Jacksonvilles mayor cannot just wave his hand and make it go away.

Oh, what a wonderful thought!  If only he could.

[peestandingup]

Bottom line is though Jacksonvilles mayor cannot just wave his hand and make it go away.

Maybe not, but he'll sure give it hell trying & be very influential in the process. And I'm sure his buddy Scott will give his blessings too. Jacksonville's not a transportation town & is extremely car-centric, so the general public probably won't care either. Most people in this city likely see public transportation as a handout anyway.

I bet within his first year they'll cut a bunch of bus lines. And maybe shutdown the Skyway too (since he's already made it clear he wants to). All in the name of "saving tax payer money".