Unfortunately, I was out and about yesterday at about 10:00pm, and actually couldn’t get home because of the weather. I had to borrow a friend’s vehicle with 4-wheel drive so I could get home to let my dog out. During that almost two hours of travel, I didn’t see a single snowplow. There were probably 5-6+ inches of snow on the beltline, and even more on sidestreets. There were cars in the ditches everywhere, and ton of cars hung up on the snow. I saw one car hung up in the middle of County M and Midtown Rd., which is a busy intersection. He had stopped at the red light, and then couldn’t get enough momentum to get going again. Again, where were the snowplows? At that point, I didn’t expect to see any snowplows on the side roads, but they SHOULD have been hitting the main roads, like say THE BELTLINE.

I’m puzzled as to how Mayor Dave can actually believe street cars are a good idea. My only thought is it may help the economy, but how much, and at what expense? He obviously wants downtown to boom, but not everyone wants to take a street car to get there.

The people that already live downtown, and work downtown, can easily use the bus system, which is what I did for many years when I worked on the square. Unlike a street car, a bus is relatively fast and has the ability to go anywhere the streets go. Expanding the bus system doesn’t require millions of dollars worth of new track, not to mention finding where to lay the track.

One of the major problems that doesn’t get brought up very often, is the fact there are people that work downtown, but live somewhere other than the Isthmus. Before I moved downtown, I worked on the square and had to drive from the West side. At the time, I paid $65/month so I could park in an apartment complexes parking lot. I gave up that parking spot for a few months, and then later tried to get it back a few months later. The parking spot had gone up to $80/month. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s over $100 since I know people that pay much, much more. If you don’t live downtown, and don’t mind spending a few hours each day in a bus, the bus system might work for you. But, what about the people with children or other timely obligations once the workday is over? These people MUST drive to work. I suppose they can choose not to work downtown, but that’s not fair to people looking for work, and doesn’t promote the downtown area. I’m sure parking is a big reason why local businesses decide to locate elsewhere.

As a side note, why does the state have a huge flat parking lot just off of East Washington, around the 200-300 block? Couldn’t they have about 5 levels of heated parking underground, and another 5 levels above ground? It just seems like such a waste of space.

Please, fix our roads
Before Dave should even consider street cars, I’d really like it if he’d first fix our roads. Where do I even start? How about the High Point / Midtown Rd. area. Have you seen the crack that goes through the High Point / Mineral Point intersection? How about the intersection of County M and Mineral Point? Dave was asked during the last mayoral election at a mayoral forum about problem areas in Madison, and that was intersection he mentioned. What’s happened since he’s been in office? Nothing. Traffic has increased, the roads have gotten worse, and nothing has changed.

The fact is, street cars are old technology that doesn’t fix any of the many problems Madison faces today. I could go on and on as to why street cars are bad, but I have a day job.

I was quoted by Ben Popper in the Capital Times this week. Although I used work at madison.com, Ben doesn’t know me, and actually asked me to contribute based on my postings on madison.com’s forum. Go Packers!