Poetic Tongues/Fabu
Equity in Bus Transit?
For almost four years, before the pandemic hit, I travelled to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital by Metro bus. One of the reasons I chose the house where I live is because it has a bus stop at the end of my driveway. So throughout the seasons, I would cross the street to go to work and then be dropped off right in front of my house. I used the East transfer and could stay on the same bus. When I interviewed for the job, I didn’t know parking was not included and that I would spend difficult, snowy winters travelling by bus. Since my home is on a bus route, the street is always cleared early and every morning, the closer we travelled to the Capitol, the more crowded the bus became with government workers. As we neared the V.A., regular community people would get on the bus.
My office has now moved and I can drive to work. I would have been considered a choice rider, one who chooses to ride the bus out of convenience rather than drive, instead of a captive rider, a person who depends on the bus for their independence. I am African American which means, according to the recent transit survey, I fit into both categories since I don’t have to ride the bus, but most African Americans need bus transport to travel the city. I also know plenty of people in the South Madison community who depend on the buses for their transportations: elders, families and teenagers. Madison transit serves choice riders better, just ask these workers who depend on the convenience and frequency of the routes to get them to work and back on time. Madison transit doesn’t serve poor people and bus riders who don’t have cars, especially those who live in South Madison, with the same devoted attention
It is politically correct in Madison to always include references to inclusion, equity and fairness in services and organizations. It it amazing how words seldom get translated into actions. In 2021, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway introduced “a plan to make a major investment in transit” that would “improve access and provide transit equity to those that live in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color with more service to periphery areas of the city during more times and days of the week.” This quote is from a 2021 circulated “Metro Forward” flyer and it indicates a desire to promote inclusion, equity and fairness in bus transportation.
It is 2022 and now we are told the system must cut service along some existing neighborhood routes, such as routes 13 and 4, for guess who, captive riders in South Madison. The new trend is to go for more frequent service on lines, despite eliminating service to low-income users and communities of colors. This means that current users will have to walk longer distances, maybe even close to a mile, to the new bus stops. The idea that Metro Transit promises to expand the paratransit service is a “joke” to those who currently use it because I know many elders who never get transit to pick up or if they do use these services, they get stranded at medical appointments because paratransit services doesn’t have a driver to return to pick them up.
The website states that the Metro Transit Network Redesign will design a route system that will better meet the needs of Madison area residents and businesses. Service will not be cut in low-income neighborhood to fund the rapid transit systems. Words but no actions. There has always been high levels of service in Madison’s east-west and north-south corridors. This is not transit equity, inclusion or fairness. Can we have a Madison where the people who most need to ride the bus — be they workers or community members — can have accessible locations with timely routes? Can all the bus riders in South Madison, for once, be given the priority and respect they deserve? I’d like to see alternatives for routes 13 and 4 that are improvements in services and not a reduction in services. I’d like areas that have never had bus service, but have the populations to serve them, adequately served. I'd like to see true transit equity.
