I am proud to write you about the Coalition for More Responsible Transportation and our mission.
We are the face of this fight. We can prevail. We need your help.
This note is longer than my usual. Read to the point where you can write an email. Then please write. One, two, twenty emails. Recruit others. Please do not copy/paste my words; your own words will be better, I assure you. However, CC: me at sunrise@bikethehoan.com (we don't want any Public Comments to "disappear" as they have in previous times).
Email: *WisDOT Project Manager, Jason Lynch, jason.lynch@dot.wi.gov, PE, WisDOT Project Manager, Southeast Region,141 NW Barstow St., P.O. Box 798, Waukesha, WI 53187-0798,
(414) 750-1803 or click here to take action (deadline Jan. 13)
We can stop the insane proposal to widen I-94 in Milwaukee. The deadline is close. The issue has several facets, many reasons to say No to The Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Their huge mistake is planning an unneeded wasteful highway expansion before their public hearings.
As I am today, 30 some activists are pushing colleagues to write emails. We could use hundreds of emails to push this proposal back a few months and give WisDOT time to reconsider. Our goal here is to have the Federal Highway Administration reject the WisDOT proposal so we can get a transit proposal from WisDOT. And, yes, we are working with our congressional reps.
We are active statewide. We're going after the billions of tax dollars that will be wasted, that obnoxious call for new taxes by WisDOT.
Recall yesterday's email: Transit Wins a Civil Right - about WisDOT losing a lawsuit.
After losing the Zoo Exchange civil rights court case, The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is now digging in to fight an army of community representatives calling for a transit option in their Proposal to widen I-94 in Milwaukee. We can stop the widening. WisDOT can provide a transit option. To be clear: we advocate for a safety-oriented rebuild of the highway on the same footprint; no expansions.
Email: *WisDOT Project Manager, Jason Lynch, jason.lynch@dot.wi.gov or click here to take action (deadline Jan. 13)
We formed the CMRT in May to bring together taxpayers and neighbors to set the record straight about the way the State is wasting billions of dollars with unnecessary spending on highway widening. The I-94 widening in Milwaukee is one of several projects that are driving the Walker administration to talk about raising taxes (!no kidding!) to fund these expansions.
We are opposed to new taxes; we believe transportation is changing, our mobility habits are changing, WisDOT's priorities must change with the times.
We can save the state billions of dollars and still have money for the real transportation needs of the future, not the transportation needs of the past.
Here are the problems with WisDOT's proposed I-94 widening:
- Traffic is not growing as WisDOT claims; in fact traffic growth is slowing down
- State funding for potholes and road maintenance is decreasing while local governments are seeing a freeze on property taxes, leaving gaps in roads, and maintenance headaches
- Less money for growing transportation needs that will serve all citizens
- Child illnesses associated with living near a highway will increase
- Land use that tears down homes and businesses and shrinks the tax base for for all cities in the state
- Racism, classism, depriving the poorest a bus while lavishing the well-off with opportunities to speed
- Housing segregation, no one likes to live near a noisy highway, home values drop
- Less neighborhood access to the highway; one WisDOT proposal takes away Hawley Road ramps, reducing access for Milwaukeans
- We are driving less, and those trends see no sign of changing
Email today: *WisDOT Project Manager, Jason Lynch, jason.lynch@dot.wi.gov or click here to take action (deadline Jan. 13)
CMRT advocates repair and rebuild I-94, but No expansion.The Rehab-Transit Option, A Better Solution for Milwaukee's East-West Corridor
CMRT's alternative transportation map:
To help WisDOT do its job, we now have an alternative concept: four fast bus routes plying city streets parallel to I-94, to the west edge of Milwaukee County. To build this map, CMRT identified the problem and then retained Marc Stout, a Department of Transportation executive with 30 years experience in the New Jersey DOT, to draft a concept of a transit plan. This map shows four express bus routes that will, for starters, run on city streets. And may one day grow into Bus Rapid Transit or (many of you hope) Commuter Rail service. Read Marc Stout's Op-Ed.
Email today: *WisDOT Project Manager, Jason Lynch, jason.lynch@dot.wi.gov or click here to take action (deadline Jan. 13)
For their part WisDOT designed and built meticulously crafted dioramas of the 3.5 miles of highway, before any public hearing. Requiring the space of four to six ping-pong tables just to spread out. For all their claims about being "thorough" WisDOT deep-sixed any transit option, any "rebuild as is" option - all before presenting only two (each costing taxpayers approximately $1 billion) proposals to the public.
Apparently, they hope to wear us down until we will succumb to their two miserable choices. Nonsense.
If you wish to read the WisDOT Proposal itself, kindly check it out. WisDOT Draft Environment Impact Statement If you have questions, please contact me or another CMRT member. We are reading the DEIS and can be helpful.
We believe we can stop WisDOT's plan. With your help. Before January 13, 2015. Your voice, your emails, your conversations with friends to do the same, all this is incredibly helpful.
Email today: *WisDOT Project Manager, Jason Lynch, jason.lynch@dot.wi.gov or click here to take action (deadline Jan. 13)
Please CC: to me at sunrise@bikethehoan.com This will help us keep WisDOT honest in their report to the Federal Highway Administration which holds the keys to approving the plan.
Please do NOT copy and paste my exact words. Take a minute, choose your words.
I know you're busy, so to help you cut to the chase, below I have posted information with links for your perusal. Why we say the WisDOT I-94 plan is a terrible idea for Milwaukee.
CMRT FINDINGS
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation wishes to spend as much as $1.1 billion to widen I-94, but no transit component. None. Nada.
Milwaukee needs more buses to take unemployed city residents to jobs in the suburbs. Unemployeds can't buy cars. If the state wants the poor to work, then please build the infrastructure carless folks can use.
Unemployed city residents need express buses to the burbs, and leave time for them to be with family. Long hours at work do not a family build.
Traffic counts do not justify widening this highway - 1000 Friends of Wisconsin
Laying more concrete means draining more toxin-laden rain water directly into Lake Michigan.
Children living near highways have higher incidences of "asthma, nonasthma respiratory symptoms, impaired lung function, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular morbidity" according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More cars at high speed will make the current problem worse.
Question. Is an enormously high concrete wall between north side and south side the best we can do for Milwaukee with a tragic reputation of being the most segregated city in America?
An extra lane will give commuters 4 minutes faster travel times; but zero help to the high unemployment of the central city; to those who should not drive.
Listen to the first 15 minutes of this blog for a quickie lesson in congestion: WisDOT's answer: speed, move cars at all costs, more sprawl, more isolation for our city.
Finally, the CMRT campaign. At this point CMRT has garnered 120+ press reports around the state. WisDOT is nervous because we call for better transit without increasing the budget. We are aiming straight for the governor's No Tax Increase base.
We are alerting out-state Wisconsin citizens that Milwaukee does not want a billion dollars spent on 3.5 miles of highway here when there are pressing needs all over the state: potholes everywhere, neglected maintenance of existing roads means higher costs when the maintenance is done later, failing transportation services everywhere.
We are saying to out-state Wisconsin PLEASE TAKE this billion dollars and use it to fix local roads.
The Old
I am going gray along with my fellow senior citizens. While I drive a car occasionally, surviving (lucky) seniors will one day give up his or her keys; public transportation demand will soar – and not just in Milwaukee.
The Young
The younger generation is now stepping into a bus rather than a car dealer's showroom. Paying off the student loan, finding a mate, and moving to a transportation-rich and job-rich city – three life-settling goals that are more important than owning a car.
Wisconsin Drivers
We are ALL driving less. But WisDOT's tone-deaf ears have not noticed this change and continues to build with extravagant expenditures on concrete, utility relocation, real estate acquisition, and, now a double decker proposal that comes not from real numbers but from fantasy numbers, old formulae from old demographics, faulty predictions of future traffic volume.
See report from 1000 Friends of Wisconsin which has studied WisDOT statistics. They looked back to see how the predictions panned out. WisDOT is proud of its sour record on getting these numbers right. Yet WisDOT continues to use those formulae to bring home the federal bacon. The Wonderland of big highways is driving us over the debt-cliff because the highway no longer is the universal cure for an economic slump. 1000 Friends of Wisconsin: Getting Transportation Priorities Right.
Local Policy on I-94
The Milwaukee Common Council and the County Government is on record opposed to this widening. The Mayor has spoken emphatically opposed.
Email today: *WisDOT Project Manager, Jason Lynch, jason.lynch@dot.wi.gov or click here to take action
YOU can help push the I-94 proposal off the edge.
If you wish to help, the timing is now perfect. Your email, joined with friends of transit all over the state, could make the big difference how Wisconsin spends transportation money for the next generation. Join, Make a chorus of resistance.
Your email is important. Ask your friend. This is a fight that a strong, vocal minority can win because the alternative is higher taxes which can threaten Governor Walker's popularity.
Please write that email today. Do another tomorrow and all through the week until January 13. I plan to remind you. CC: me at sunrise@bikethehoan.com Your words can help stop this plan and bring needed reform to State transportation priorities. We have allies all over the state; they need to know you are pitching in. They are waiting to hear from Milwaukee. Do we really want this money spent here for that Plan?
Together we can do this. I Thank You.
Bill Sell, Member
Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter
Beyond Oil to Clean Transportation Subcommittee
sunrise@bikethehoan.com