The bus rapid transit system championed by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway has gotten a lot of press of late. But there’s a bigger change coming much sooner for bus riders: The entire Madison Metro transit system is set to undergo a complete redesign by August 2022. That is two years before BRT will be implemented.
The city’s Transportation Policy and Planning Board has been working with consultants since March to create the new bus network. Ald. Grant Foster, a member of the committee, says the redesign of all Madison Metro routes is needed to make BRT a reality.
“Instead of tweaking around the edges, we did a deep dive, full analysis to come up with a whole new network that’s based on BRT being the backbone of service,” says Foster. “Our goal was how do we deploy our existing resources, most effectively, to have the best, most effective bus network for the city.”
Get ready for significant changes to how buses operate in Madison. Tom Lynch, city transportation director, says the redesign may be “even a bigger thing than BRT.”
“This is a fundamental reorganization of everything,” says Lynch, who notes the city’s pursuit of bus rapid transit means that “we have to make this change.”
Guided by input from the public and the transportation board, consultants released two “network alternatives” in August 2021. Madison Metro emphasizes on its website that “both alternatives are realistic, but neither is a proposal. They are intended to show the extreme of what might be possible.” The public is encouraged to take an online survey to give feedback on the alternatives.
The “Ridership Alternative” condenses nearly 50 existing routes down to just seven and eliminates the need for bus transfer points. The benefit would be that 47 percent of Madison residents would have access to buses that run every 15 minutes; currently only 11 percent do. But more riders would have to walk farther to their stop: now, 78 percent of all residents are within a quarter mile of all-day bus service; this would drop to 43 percent under the ridership alternative.
The “Coverage Alternative” more closely aligns with the current bus network but also eliminates routes, particularly — but not exclusively — those that overlap with BRT service. More residents would be within a quarter mile of all-day bus service (81 percent). But only 43 percent of residents would be within a quarter mile of buses that run every 15 minutes. That’s still a significant increase compared to the current system.
Lynch predicts the new bus network will be an amalgamation of the two alternatives. He says the city will release a draft proposal for the network redesign in early January and then seek more public input. The Madison Common Council will ultimately have to approve the network redesign, with a vote expected in March. The new bus routes would be operational in August 2022, with traditional buses mirroring BRT routes while the infrastructure for that system is built.
Lynch expects the network redesign to cause controversy because “change always causes controversy.”
“I think there will be quite a few people who are disappointed with it. But there are quite a few people who are disappointed with the bus system right now,” says Lynch.
