• GAZLO
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES
• BUSINESSES

Cities hope to explore transit options

Gene Hudson relies on the kindness of others to get where she needs to go in Milton.

The 82-year-old has failing eyesight and can’t drive. She asks friends and family to give her rides because Milton has no public transportation system.

“That puts me in a position of being pretty much trapped,” she said.

So Hudson enthusiastically supports a proposed study that would look at transportation options in and between Milton, Whitewater and Janesville.

The three cities are applying for a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to fund 80 percent of the $55,000 study. The study would examine three things:

-- The possibility of a shared-ride taxi system in Milton. The system would bring a taxi service to Milton and allow residents to call for rides at subsidized rates. It would be eligible for funding from the state and federal government.

-- The effectiveness of the shared-ride taxi system in Whitewater. Whitewater already has a shared-ride system, but the city has never studied the system to see if it could be improved, said Kevin Brunner, city manager.

-- The possibility of a bus line between Janesville, Milton and Whitewater. The line could be similar to the Beloit-Janesville Express operated by the Janesville Transit System, said Alexis Kuklenski of the Janesville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

If the cities receive the grant, the federal government will pay $44,000 toward the study. The cities and UW-Whitewater will divide the remaining costs:

-- $4,000 from Milton.

-- $5,000 from Whitewater.

-- $1,000 from UW-Whitewater.

-- $500 from Janesville.

Janesville is paying less in upfront costs, but city staff will write the grant and work with the consultant for the study, Kuklenski said.

The Whitewater and Milton city councils approved the spending at their respective meetings Tuesday night. Janesville approved its share earlier, Kuklenski said.

The cities should find out if they receive the grant by the end of the year, she said.

Hudson went to Tuesday’s Milton meeting in support of the study. She said afterward she sees a need for public transportation from all sectors of society, especially elderly people, commuters and people who don’t like to drive in bad conditions.

With increasing gas prices and a sagging economy, more and more people will be turning to public transit, she predicted.

Paula Schutt, executive director of The Gathering Place in Milton, agreed. She drove Hudson to Tuesday’s meeting and brought a petition signed by 40 people in support of the study.

Schutt lives in Janesville and commutes to Milton to work at the senior center.

“If we had a bus between Milton and Janesville, I would take it every day,” she said.

Rep. Kim Hixson helped get the study proposal off the ground with a meeting of local officials in April. He said students in his home of Whitewater, many of whom work in Janesville, often don’t have access to cars.

The travel goes the other way too, he said: Many workers in Whitewater’s industrial park live in Janesville.

“Lots of people have expressed a need, or at least a desire, to have some sort of transit hooking up the communities around Janesville,” he said.

The study is one of several initiatives to improve transportation options in Rock County and Wisconsin, said Dave Mumma, Janesville transit director. The South Central Wisconsin Commuter Transportation Study is wrapping up recommendations to improve bus and vanpool options, and the state government is looking at the possibility of regional transportation authorities.

“Public transportation is really becoming a regional issue at this point,” Mumma said. “It doesn’t stop at the city limits anymore.”