Last weekend my girlfriend and I rode Milwaukee's trolley, so I could experience for myself the trolley. I often find that firsthand experience serves me best. I had heard that weekends were busier times for the trolley, so we chose to go on an early Saturday afternoon.
After driving past the homeless campground underneath the Marquette interchange, paying $3.50 to park downtown, and walking several blocks, we reached the trolley platform and my adventure began.
I ultimately started at one end of the line, at 4th and St. Paul. From there, I rode the trolley to the end of the line and back. As I describe my experience, I'll true to be honest about the good and bad that I observed, along with the rather strange.
The Good
- Ridership was much higher than I expected. I did deliberately pick a busier day, and maybe a weekday would be much slower. I also happened to pick St. Patrick's day weekend, which might have increased ridership. I thought a busier day meant that there would be 10 riders instead of 3. When we got on at 4th and St. Paul, there were about 12 people already on board (which was a surprise since there were only about 5 people waiting for the trolley). When we reached the 3rd ward, another 15 or so people got on (most of whom got off at or before the end of the line). When we reached the end of the line and prepared to come back, a ton of people got on, and the trolley car was full. I counted about 35-40 people in all. Around 20 of those people got off when we reached the third ward, with others getting off at various stops. Of course, riding the trolley is free, and parking in the 3rd ward is not free. Once people have to pay, ridership may fall off significantly, but at least for now free ridership seems to be strong.
- It ran on time. It left 4th and St. Paul at exactly 12:20, right on schedule, and was back a few minutes before 1:00. the trolley was ready to leave again at 1:00. Two trolleys are running at the same time, in opposite directions, so a potential rider should never wait more than 20 minutes. Assuming it always runs on time, that reliability increases the potential that it will get used. A basic of any public transportation is that it has to run on time, by the schedule, and the trolley did that during my visit.
- I never felt unsafe. We've all heard the horror stories of the New York City subway system in the 80s, where rampant crime made the use of public transportation a risky proposition. I felt completely safe on the streetcar, as there were no riders who made me feel uncomfortable. Of course, when the route only visits trendy neighborhoods, the criminal element won't garner much interest in the trolley.
The Bad
- There was a stop every two or three blocks. One of the stops made no sense, on 1st and St. Paul, where there is literally nothing nearby. I don't think the trolley ever went more than 4 blocks without stopping, and it stopped even if nobody was getting on or off. As a result of all of the stops, it took twice as long as it would have taken me to just drive the route (minus the time spent looking for parking).
- It didn't go very fast. If the number on the dashboard was the speed, it topped out at around 12-14 MPH. The route is 2 miles long and takes 17 minutes (including stops) which works out to an average speed of 7 MPH. It seemed like it was going a little faster than that, but certainly not at the speed of traffic, nor was it going as fast as the cars behind it would have preferred. Part of me now wants to follow it in my car so I can get an honest measurement.
- Driving on the tracks was strange. On my way out, I drove the trolley route, and while I can't explain it, it didn't feel right driving on a road with tracks in it. I kept trying to make sure none of my tires were driving directly on the tracks as it seemed to make my cars handling less stable. Maybe that's psychosomatic, but that was my experience driving part of the route.
- Bicycles and motorcycles. The trolley tracks are not bicycle or motorcycle friendly. For a few of the platforms, in order for them to extend out to the trolley, they went over the bike lane. Bikes had to zig behind the trolley platforms (there was a gap between the platform and the pedestrian sidewalk). As well, I saw a bicyclist do a well-practiced hop over the trolley tracks while riding down the road, when a platform forced him to ride between the tracks. There have been stories about bikes and motorcycles getting their front tires stuck in the tracks and flipping over.
- Noise. The trolley had a frequent and relatively constant high pitch whine that I found to be very annoying.
- Trendy Neighborhoods. The tracks did not go through any poor neighborhoods, but instead visit all of the trendy neighborhoods on the east side.
- No left turns (except for the trolley). There was a least one spot where the trolley tracks were in the left lane, which became a left turn lane. Consequently, signs were posted that limited use of the left turn lane to only the trolley. While driving this part of the route, I had to drive straight for a block, pull a u-turn, and then make a right turn to continue following the tracks.
- Short route. The full length of the route is 2 miles (and it takes 17-20 minutes to traverse that distance).
- Limited Seating. There were 14 seats at each end of the trolley, with a big empty space for standing in the middle. It seemed odd that there wasn't more seating. With 10-12 people staying on the trolley for more than a complete lap, and many taking 2 seats for themselves, this left only a few seats for other riders. When we had 40 on the trolley, more than half of them were standing in the middle section.
The Rather Strange
- Riders who stay on the trolley. Several of the people (maybe as many as 10-12, but at least 6) who were already seated on the trolley when I got on stayed on for the entire round trip, and didn't even get off after completing the entire circuit (plus whatever they had already ridden). My girlfriend noticed this too. Neither of us had planned to watch for this, so I don't have an exact count. None of these individuals looked like homeless people, and many seemed to know each other. Either they were really clean homeless people or the only explanations left are rather far-fetched. Still, when realistic and plausible explanations have been exhausted, you have to start considering far-fetched explanations. I won't speculate any further on what was going on here, but it is odd. I will say that I personally would not ride more than 1 complete lap at a time unless someone else was paying me to do it, but that's just me.
- Bus Seats. The seats were essentially the very same hard plastic seats that are used on the buses. Of course, that leads to the big question, why not just have a bus run this route and save millions of dollars, especially if everything on the trolley is going to be just like a bus? On the outside, it looks somewhat sleek and slightly futuristic, why do you want it to look just like a bus on the inside?
- Platforms in the center of the street. This was genuinely weird. At a few spots, the platform was in the center of the street, so potential riders would have to cross traffic to get to the platforms. There was room on the side of the street, and this did take away a traffic lane. This was also on one way streets, so there didn't seem to be a logical reason the have the platform in the center of the road. It just didn't make sense to me.
- Riding backwards. If you stay in the same seat for an entire lap, you'll spend half that time riding backwards, which came seem qeird and uncomfortable. For us, we spent the first half of the trip facing backwards.
Final Conclusion
- How is this better than a bus? While the trolley had good ridership, one burning question remains---What can the trolley do that a bus can't. The trolley cost a ton of money, more than a thousand times the cost of a pair of busses. It also had a ton of infrastructure that buses don't need, including raised platforms, overhead wires, tracks in the street, etc... Since buses have a much cheaper price-tag on them, this is a critical question. The only answers I have for that aren't very satisfying. It looks sleaker than a bus, so if your primary concern and motivation when designing public transportation is aesthetics no matter what the price, then that's one advantage. Otherwise, from a value added perspective, I couldn't give you any explanation of how this is better than a bus, or why a bus driving this exact route would be inferior.
- Doesn't help the city's poor. The trolley seemed focused on getting trendy east-siders to the 3rd ward and back. The busiest stops by far were the stop at the north end of the route, and the stop in the 3rd ward. The city's poor don't live along the route, and it does absolutely no good for them. They are the ones who depend on public transportation to get to work each day, and they are left without help from the trolley. In fact, the trolley may take away public resources from their neighborhood.
- Possible Market Fulfillment. It is possible that the trolley does fulfill a market desire/need (albeit in the most massively expensive way possible) for public transportation between the east side and the 3rd ward. This doesn't mean that a bus couldn't serve that need every bit as well, for a small fraction of the cost and maybe at a faster speed than an average of 7 MPH, but it does mean that there is a market for some form of public transportation between these two points.
I still believe that in the long run, we will come to realize that the best name for the trolley will be the "Boondoggle Express."
