MADISON STREETCAR STUDY COMMITTEE MEETING
Minutes
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
5:00 pm
Madison Municipal Building, Room 300
215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Madison, WI
1.ROLL CALL
Members Present:LaMarr Billups; Ald. Tim Bruer; Diane Buchanan; Mark Bugher; Mayor Dave Cieslewicz; Sup. Chuck Erickson; Ald. Ken Golden; Lindsey Lee; Ald. Judy Olson; Ald. Robbie Webber.
Members Absent:Curt Brink (notified); John DeLamater (notified); Alan Fish; Chris Klein (notified); Susan Schmitz (notified).
TAC/Staff Present:Brian Grady (Planning Unit); Jeanne Hoffman (Mayor’s Office); Mark Olinger (Planning and Development); Diane Paoni (Wisconsin Department of Transportation); David Trowbridge (Madison Planning and Development; Project Manager for Streetcar Study).
Others Present:Fred Bartol (Dane Alliance for Rail Transit); Sandy Beaupre (Transport 2020 Implementation Task Force); Margaret Bergamini; Kathy Biesmann (HDR); Mike Cechvala (222 Merry Street, #8); Bob Holloway (360 West Washington Ave, #212); David Layton (HNTB); Ward Lyles (1000 Friends of Wisconsin); Patrick McDonnell (Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association); Marshall Quade (HNTB); Mark Roffers (Vandewalle and Associates); Kurt Schneider; Dave Tollefson (Vandewalle and Associates); Lance Williston (KL Engineering).
2.Approval of Minutes from COMMITTEE Meeting OF MAY 24, 2006
The Minutes for the 5-24-06 Madison Streetcar Study Committee meeting were unanimously approved, as submitted on a motion by Ald. Robbie Webber/Ald. Ken Golden.
3.OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
There were four registrants for public comment. David Trowbridge noted that public comment is limited to 3 minutes.
Bob Holloway (360 West Washington Ave, #212) suggested setting up “success” criteria early on in the process to select an alignment and was wondering if the community would be involved in determining the criteria.
Patrick McDonnell referred to an email sent to Committee members earlier in the week. He had concerns with the May 24 meeting minutes which stated the Johnson/Gorham was not well suited for streetcar and that E. Mifflin Street was not mentioned. The draft Tenney/Lapham neighborhood plan is ambitious and calls for significant upgrades for Johnson and Gorham Streets. The plan is to switch from student leasing to owner occupied. Since streetcars have a calming effect it may be a great catalyst for the neighborhood to reclaim these streets. E. Mifflin is on the northern border for the E. Washington Build area. Easy access to mass transit is an integral component of the E Washington Build and streetcars could be an excellent part of the redevelopment. Both E. Mifflin and Johnson/Gorham Streets lead to an area bordered by Yahara River, First, E. Washington and E. Johnson that has potential for a world class multi-modal transportation center with possible access to the airport, high speed rail, commuter rail, bus, bike and streetcar.
Mark Olinger (Director, Department of Planning and Development) said that he is on the Capital Gateway Corridor Build Committee and re-emphasized that the area around E. Washington Street has long term plans to redevelop and densify. But a key point is to get mass transit in the area. The density planned completely dwarfs anything that is currently there. He also noted that E. Washington, east of Ingersoll, is not served at all by a streetcar alignment.
Kurt Schneider is a citizen and works for Badger Cab. He stated that streetcars are really neat but thinks they replicate the bus system and that we could take the money spent on streetcars and do some really good things for the bus system. A better use of the streetcar money would be to add late night/early morning routes, bring routes from Monona into Madison, and to encourage the fringe areas to use mass transit (dedicated bus lanes, carpool lanes).
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz responded that streetcars do have a land use impact that buses do not. Also Portland’s streetcar ridership was 3 or 4 times greater than a bus route it replaced and bus ridership on the system as a whole was greater after the streetcar went in. Kurt Schneider responded that he has ridden the streetcar system in Portland and it was not heavily used at that time. There are also other buses, like hybrid, that are neat looking too.
In addition, Bob Schaefer submitted comments via email, and his written comments can be obtained by request.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz thanked the speakers for their concerns.
4.REVIEW OF INITIAL STREET ALIGNMENT ALTERNATIVES
Marshall Quade (HNTB) reviewed what has happened since the last committee meeting where the initial corridors were approved. There have been several Technical Advisory Workshops, field review and research of the physical characteristics of the streets. The criteria that will be used to determine a 2 to 3 mile start up alignment will be ridership, pedestrian acceleration, redevelopment, relation to commuter rail, complement bus service, a maintenance facility site, traffic impact, access to activity centers, cost effectiveness, and utility impacts. There are many potential alignments to choose from and any alignment not chosen for the start-up phase could be utilized in additional phases at a later time.
Mark Roffers (Vandewalle and Associates) reviewed the development potential within the corridors. They reviewed redevelopment and when it may occur, to what density, the revenue from taxes, current destinations, and market potential. The corridors that streetcar could influence form and density are in the South Corridor, the Wingra Build Triangle and the Villager Mall. There are many areas that are underutilized or used for parking lots and it has a population that relies on mass transit. The East Corridor also would have influence from a streetcar since the area would not get the density planned unless it has some sort of high density transit.
David Layton (HNTB) reviewed the actual streets that have been considered so far.
In the East Corridor the options include the E. Wilson Bike Path/Corridor all the way to Union Corners. There is great redevelopment potential, it is one block off of Williamson Street and connects with the existing Madison Metro site. It would be next to the bike path (not closing it) and could go down to a single track for a couple of blocks if ROW was tight. The Metro maintenance facility would have to be expanded to incorporate streetcars but there would be some efficiencies that could occur. Typically a new streetcar maintenance facility would require a 2 or 3 acre site. There were some comments regarding bikes, commuter rail and freight rail all fitting in one corridor and if there would be conflicts. Width of the corridor will need to be looked at during the next phase. Also the intersection with Blair Street is a design issue.
An E. Washington/E. Main couplet would be highly visible to the public and it connects to the Metro maintenance facility. There is mixed land use there now with plans to intensify the density. The challenges would be with parking and traffic, pedestrians crossing traffic, and utilities on E. Main Street. E. Washington was also recently reconstructed.
A Johnson/Gorham couplet has strong ridership potential but it competes with buses rather than complements in this area. The traffic and parking impacts would be great and there is a cross slope issue.
East Mifflin will be added to the alignments since it has good redevelopment potential and only parts of it are somewhat residential. It may be a good couplet with Main or Washington. The traffic impacts would not be as great on Mifflin as they would on Johnson/Gorham.
East of Ingersoll there is just the E. Wilson Corridor to consider at this point. The E. Washington Bridge over the Yahara River would be difficult to retrofit for streetcar and the new bridge is almost completed. An area of concern is if there is enough room for streetcar and bicycles side by side. Also areas of the Wilson Corridor are not a "street" at all.
The South Corridor has an option of Park Street all the way to the South Transfer Point/Villager Mall area either in the street lane or curb lane. It does connect to the hospitals and bus service, has good ridership and redevelopment potential. The challenges would be traffic and parking impacts. Traffic congestion is especially a problem along Park Street between W. Washington and Fish Hatchery Road. A combination of Park and Brooks (or Mills) could be used to lessen traffic/parking impacts on Park Street between W. Washington and Fish Hatchery. It could minimize the streetcar getting caught in traffic queues on Park Street which are common in this area.
Mills Street is another option but it does not serve businesses on Park Street. Brooks Street is another option and would have less traffic impacts than Park Street, but there could be some design constraints pertaining to the St. Mary’s buildings and campus plans.
In the West Corridor, State Street could be used through the Pedestrian Mall to Park & University Avenue and returning on Johnson. This alignment could serve the University, State Street and Capitol Square areas. The challenges would be traffic and parking impacts. If there are two tracks on State if would affect bikes, delivery trucks, buses and some special events. It is possible that there could be a single track on State for some sections.
It was stated that tearing up streets that we have just re-built does not send a good political message. The trench for a streetcar is just 18” deep and it is a low impact usage.
Broom Street could be used in combination with Johnson Street so that only one block of State would be affected. The 2 blocks of State that are being designed right now could have consideration for a streetcar to avoid utility conflicts.
Old University to University toward Hilldale is an option and it stays off of Campus Drive which is not a pedestrian friendly street. There are challenges at the Highland Avenue connection. LaMarr Billups asked that Campus Drive be looked since it has a good deal of space.
Another option is to access the Hospital/Clinic area through UW Campus on Linden Drive and back downtown along Old University. There would be a conflict with buses in this area. La Marr Billups noted that there is a major research center (Center of Discovery) going in east of Camp Randall that should be served as well.
If the streetcar does go to Hilldale, the freight rail corridor is also an option but commuter rail and freight rail would be a challenge.
Also a Regent/Bluff/ Kendall alignment was looked at as an alternative. But this route is mostly residential with no real current destinations.
The South Campus Area Neighborhood Study has Regent Street being densely developed. Ald. Ken Golden said Regent Street has a wider ROW with commuter parking and a real good redevelopment possibility and should get another look.
There was a mention that the Southwest area of the Madison Metro area (Verona, Fitchburg) should not be forgotten since it has some redevelopment potential. There have been studies that just show a first phase and then they lose the interest of those areas. There should be a 50 year vision shown with streetcars extending out from Madison.
The downtown area has many options depending on what other alignments are chosen. The inner loop (Fairchild and Doty) can be used in conjunction with State and King Street. The challenges would be the numerous special events on the Square. Currently buses are detoured 50 or 60 times a year to accommodate events.
Main St. (along the Square) could be used to King St. and would have manageable traffic and parking impacts. Doty St. to King St. would have some traffic and parking impacts. In addition, when buses are detoured off the Square they use Doty.
If Johnson/Gorham are used they could go all the way to through downtown or could cut over toward the Capitol using Hamilton Street.
Another downtown option is to use Wilson Street to Broom, then to State Street.
Ald. Robbie Webber said that there seems to be a piece missing from the matrices, namely bike impacts, both good and bad. State St., Mills St., Kendall/ Bluff/Regent, and King St. are all very heavily used bike routes. How safe are these routes if a streetcar is put in them? Johnson/Gorham, Brooks and Park Street have great alternative bike routes that are one block away.
David Trowbridge noted that the consultant team and staff strongly considered bike impacts, although it is not clearly reflected on the charts. He said that Dayton Street, for example, was eliminated as a route because of bike impacts and the 1-track State Street option was advanced due to bike impacts (as well as delivery impacts).
Lindsey Lee asked if there are any real life examples like Portland that use medians for boarding/alighting? There are medians on Park and E. Washington, and he wondered if they could be used. David Layton said that streetcars are able to use medians if they are wide enough to protect pedestrians/passengers while they are waiting for the streetcar. The preference would be to use a curb lane or to bump out the sidewalks for stops. David Trowbridge said that many staff prefer leaving parking on-street, using an outer lane for streetcar (shared with autos) and use intersection bump-outs for streetcar stops, where practical.
Mayor Cieslewicz said another option would be to not use Library Mall and turn left or right (off State Street) onto Lake Street. If you turned north on Lake, the streetcar could go directly in front of the Memorial Union and back to Park Street.
Ald. Judy Olson said that the E. Wilson neighborhood is not planned to be high density whereas if the streetcar is on E. Washington/E. Main it would be more in line with the neighborhood density plans.
Marshall Quade said that as more analysis is completed, some of these alignments will emerge as better choices than others for a streetcar, that is to say the other are not bad, just some will be better.
Ken Golden said that Dayton Street was once being considered for a pedestrian mall but dismissed in the past. The Streetcar Committee strongly felt that the Bluff/Kendall route should be deleted from further review but that the public should still know that numerous options were considered.
5.OVERVIEW OF ONGOING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ACTIVITIES
Mark Roffers (Vandewalle, Public Participation Coordinator) noted that stakeholder meetings with large businesses like MGE, Meriter, and St. Mary’s have been held. Upcoming meetings include UW Hospital and Madison Chamber of Commerce. A summary of the June Public forum was handed out. In addition, a guest editorial from the June Forum participants (for publishing in various local newspapers) was also distributed to Streetcar Committee members.
Ward Lyles (1000 Friends of Wisconsin) said that the Madison Streetcar Coalition has been doing neighborhood outreach to educate the public and hopefully streamline the process. There have been 4 meetings throughout the City where a fact sheet and PowerPoint presentation were given. There are 500 people on the mailing list and hopefully more as the process continues. There was a disappointingly low turn out in the South Corridor but that does not mean they are not interested in the streetcar. Some people are skeptical about having the Coalition group that is already pro-streetcar answer questions; they may feel more comfortable with a consultant team. The next step may be to get the business community involved.
Ald. Robbie Webber said that it may be helpful to have a 200-300 word article with streetcar routes to give to the neighborhood associations for their newsletters. Also many neighborhoods are planning their annual/semi-annual meetings for Spring when they typically have speakers. A possibility would be to talk about streetcars at that time.
LaMarr Billups said that some ways to improve communication within the South Corridor would be to point out that the streetcar will improve the quality of their housing stock, and give access to employment and training centers and also medical areas. They can only attend so many meetings when you are trying to put food on the table.
Roffers said that, on December 14, the team is planning a Streetcar Directions Open House/Neighborhood Workshop where the team will have a short presentation and have maps on tables and get detailed input on routes, stations, etc.
6.STREETCAR COMMITTEE SCHEDULE/Next Steps
David Trowbridge noted that the following meetings have been scheduled:
- Technical Advisory Committee: Wednesday, October 18, 1:30 p.m., Room LL 110 MMB
- Streetcar Study Committee: Wednesday, November 29, 5:00 p.m., Room 260 MMB