Tommy Washbush
The Dane County map as a puzzle with an intertwining roadway.
As Dane County grows, we face a choice. We can continue approaching transportation, housing and homelessness one municipality at a time, or we can recognize what many residents already know: Dane County functions as a region, and our biggest challenges require regional solutions.
That conversation is especially important as the Greater Madison Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) develops Pathways to 2050.
What exactly is Pathways to 2050? It’s a federally required blueprint that will guide transportation investments across the region through 2050. The plan covers municipalities throughout Dane County and helps determine priorities for roads, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, safety, and access to federal funding. More importantly, it provides an opportunity to think about how the region itself will grow over the next quarter century.
MPO is leading the process, but the plan is not being developed in isolation. Public surveys, community engagement efforts, stakeholder meetings, and future public meetings are designed to gather input from residents, businesses, and community organizations. A draft plan, built from recommendations based on public feedback, surveys, Q&As, and conversations during public meetings, is expected in January 2027, to be followed by a public comment period. In many ways, Pathways to 2050 asks a simple but important question: What kind of region do we want to become?
Every day, thousands of residents cross municipal boundaries throughout Dane County. People travel from Sun Prairie to Madison for work. From Stoughton to Fitchburg for health care. From Middleton to Verona for school. Workers commute throughout the county. Employers recruit talent from multiple communities. Families seek housing wherever they can afford it. Our economy already functions as a region, yet too often our public policies do not.
Housing is perhaps the clearest example. Rising costs have pushed workers farther from their jobs. Families move where housing is attainable, only to face longer commutes and fewer transportation options. Employers struggle to fill positions while workers struggle to reach them. Housing is no longer simply a housing issue. It is also a workforce issue and an economic development issue.
Homelessness follows the same pattern. Although many services are concentrated in Madison, housing instability affects communities throughout Dane County. Rising rents and shortages of affordable housing in one municipality create pressure across the entire region. Madison cannot solve homelessness alone because the problem does not begin or end at Madison’s borders. Stable housing supports employment. Reliable transportation expands opportunity. Regional coordination strengthens the entire county.
These challenges are interconnected. Transportation affects housing. Housing affects employment. Employment affects economic growth. None of these issues stop at municipal boundaries, and neither should the conversations about how to address them.
The Pathways to 2050 process allows us to think bigger.
Local governments must recognize that competition between communities often produces worse outcomes for everyone. Housing production, transportation investments, and supportive services should be viewed as shared responsibilities rather than burdens to be shifted elsewhere. Counties, cities, villages, and towns should align transportation planning with housing and economic development strategies that acknowledge the interconnectedness of our communities.
Transportation presents one of the clearest examples of why regional thinking matters. Residents regularly travel between Madison, Sun Prairie, Middleton, Verona, Fitchburg, Monona, Oregon, and other communities for work, education, health care, and daily life. Yet transit systems and funding structures remain largely organized along municipal boundaries.
Dane County cannot currently establish a true regional transit authority with independent governance and dedicated funding mechanisms. Communities can cooperate voluntarily through agreements and partnerships, but there is no permanent regional structure capable of coordinating transit investments and long-term service across the metropolitan area. The result is a system that depends heavily on cooperation between municipalities, even though they live and move throughout the county as a single region.
As Dane County continues to grow, that challenge will only become more apparent. The success of our economy depends on workers being able to reach jobs. The success of our housing market depends on people being able to live where they can afford to while maintaining access to that opportunity. The success of our social services system depends on recognizing that housing instability is a regional challenge, not one confined to a single city.
Pathways to 2050 should not become merely another transportation document shelved. It should become a framework for regional thinking. Transportation planning should be coordinated with housing, workforce development, economic opportunities, and access to services. Success in 2050 should mean that residents can access jobs, afford housing, move easily between communities, and find support when they need it, regardless of where they call home.
Dane County’s communities are interconnected in ways previous generations could scarcely imagine. Residents cross municipal boundaries every day for work, school, health care, housing and services.
If we want to address transportation, housing affordability, homelessness, and economic opportunity effectively, we must embrace a simple truth: we rise or fall together. The future of Dane County will be determined not by how well individual municipalities compete with one another, but by how well they work together. Regional problems require regional solutions.
Your opportunity to weigh in
Upcoming public meetings (virtual) on the draft recommendations are scheduled for Nov. 9, 6-7 p.m. and Nov. 11, noon-1 p.m.
On the draft report: Jan. 25, 2027, 6-7 p.m. and Jan. 27, noon-1 p.m.
Xavior Yarn is a member of the City-County Homeless Issues Committee and serves as co-chair of the Voices of Dane County Committee.
