RACINE COUNTY PUBLIC

TRANSIT PLAN: 2011-2015

NEWSLETTER 1 OCTOBER 2009

day off-peak periods, evenings, and weekends. Adultspay a cash fare of $1.50, or $1.25 after 7:00 p.m. Elderlyanddisabled individuals pay$0.75, andyouthpay$1.25.

The BUS also provides Dial-A-Ride paratransit service(DART) for disabled individuals who are unable to usethe fixed-route bus service, for trips made within three-quarters of a mile of a BUS route. DART is availableduring the same hours as the BUS fixed-route service.The fare for DART is $2.50.

From 2004 to 2008, BUS total annual revenue vehiclehours of service were cut by about 4 percent, and the

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional PlanningCommission (SEWRPC), at the request of the City ofRacine and Racine County, is preparing a short-rangepublic transit service plan for Racine County for 2011-2015. This study, which is scheduled for completion inlate 2010, will perform the following functions:

Evaluate the performance of the City of RacineBelle Urban System (BUS);

Evaluate other public and human services transpor-tation provided in Racine County;

Identify the unmet transit travel needs for tripswithin Racine County and to/from other counties;

Recommend alternative transit service improve-ments for the BUS that address the performanceevaluation, including unmet transit service needs;

Recommend alternative transit service improve-ments for the remainder of the County outside theBUS service area, to address unmet transit needs;

Prepare a short-range plan recommending modifi-cations, improvements, and capital projects for allpublic transit services in Racine County, to guideannual transit budgeting and programming; and

Estimate the financial requirements for public transitservices in the County, compare to existing andprojected available funding, identify funding short-falls, and considerhow toaddress those shortfalls.

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EXISTING TRANSIT SERVICES

City of Racine Belle Urban System (BUS)The BUS operates nine regular bus routes, severalpeak-hour tripper routes serving schools, and onerubber-tired trolley bus in the downtown area. Of thenine regular routes, eight pass through the RacineMetro Transit Center located on State Street, wherebuses meet at the Center on a “pulse” schedule tofacilitate transfers between routes. The regular routesoperate between 5:30 a.m. and midnight on weekdays,between 5:30 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on Saturdays, andbetween 9:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Sundays. Mostbuses arrive every 30 minutes during weekday peakperiods, and between 30 and 60 minutes during week-

The Racine County Public Transit Plan is being developed

under the guidance of a Workgroup formed specifically for

this study. Representatives from all units of government in

Racine County and a wide variety of agencies and popula-

tions with an interest in transportation in the County have

been invited to participate in the Workgroup. A list of the

agencies and organizations can be found on the Racine

County Transit Plan Summary Brochure or the website:

www.sewrpc.org/racinetransitplan

RACINE COUNTY TRANSITPLAN WORKGROUP

TROLLEY

ROUTE NO. 86

ROUTE NO. 30

ROUTE NO. 27

ROUTE NO. 20

ROUTE NO. 7

ROUTE NO. 5

ROUTE NO. 4

ROUTE NO. 3

ROUTE NO. 2

ROUTE NO. 1

CONNECTINGTRANSIT SERVICES

PASSENGER TERMINAL

BUS ROUTES

TRAIN

BUS

AMTRAK

WISCONSIN COACHLINES/COACH USA

COACH USA

ROUTES OF THE BELLE URBAN SYSTEMAND CONNECTING TRANSIT SERVICES: 2009

Source: SEWRPC.

� Travel surveys conducted by the Commissionindicate that between 1991 and 2001, averageweekday total person travel between the Countyand areas outside the County increased by 32,900trips, or about 22 percent. Map 2 shows the patternand distribution of these trips.

The study includes a detailed evaluation of the existingCity of Racine BUS service using the performancemeasures identified in the transit system objectives andstandards (see box), as well as an identification ofunmet transit travel needs in both the eastern andwestern parts of the County.

On a systemwide basis, the BUS provides good-to-excellent coverage of concentrations of population,employment, and activity centers east of IH 94.

The BUS system is about average when compared to“peer” transit systems in Wisconsin and nationallywith respect to ridership, service levels, and operatingcosts. In general, the BUS provides a lot of service forthe size of its service population, resulting in higherservice effectiveness, but lower service efficiency.

EVALUATION OFTRANSIT SYSTEMAND IDENTIFICATION OFUNMET NEEDS

Racine BUS Evaluation Findings

adult cash fare increased from $1.25 to $1.50 per trip.Despite this, ridership increased from 1.1 million to 1.2million revenue passengers, or about 10 percent.

The total annual expenditures for BUS transit systemoperations and capital projects average about $8.77million. Of this amount, operating revenue (mostlyfares) covers an average of $1.22 million. The remain-ing $7.55 million in annual average expenditures isfunded through Federal and state transit-assistanceprograms and local property taxes, of which the City ofRacine provides about $1.41 million.

Other transit services for the general public whichoperate in Racine County include:

A commuter-oriented express bus operated byWisconsin Coach Lines, Inc./Coach USA betweendowntown Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha.

Intercity bus routes operated by Coach USAbetweenMilwaukee and Chicago, with a stop at IH 94 andSTH 20.

Intercity passenger train operated by Amtrakbetween Milwaukee and Chicago, with a stop in theVillage of Sturtevant.

Commission staff gathered information on historic andcurrent population, employment, land use, and travelpatterns in Racine County. Key findings include:

East of IH 94, the City of Racine has the highest con-centrations of population, transit-dependent groups,and major shopping, education, medical, andgovernment centers. West of IH 94, these concentra-tions are mostly found in the Burlington, Waterford-Rochester, and Union Grove areas.

The highest employment concentrations are in theCity of Racine; however, most of the increase inemployment in the County since 1970 has occurredoutside the City, along WashingtonAvenue (STH 20)and Durand Avenue (STH 11) in Mt. Pleasant andSturtevant, as well as in Burlington.

Racine County Human Services DepartmentRacine County contracts with private, for-profitcompanies to provide door-to-door transportation totransportation handicapped persons within RacineCounty outside the service area for the City’s DARTparatransit service. The County also contracts with theGoodwill Industries and the Racine County Oppor-tunity Center to provide subscription transportation fordevelopmentally disabled individuals participating intraining and employment programs.

Other Public Transit Services

LAND USEAND TRAVELPATTERNS

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5,2

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5,9

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14,10014,100

7,6007,600

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20

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0,4

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3,0003,000

3,3003,300

4,7

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1,3

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11

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6,3

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6,3

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4,6

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4,6

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4,8

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3,0

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3,0

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4,4

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4,4

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2,6002,600

2,3002,3003

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1,6

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1,6

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6,6006,600

2,3002,300

6,5

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6,5

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2,7

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2,7

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1,9

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1,9

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4,2

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1,8

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1,70

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Source: SEWRPC.

NOTE:

LEGEND

ANALYSIS AREABOUNDARY

DIRECTION OFTRIP TRAVELFROM “HOME” TO“NON-HOME”DESTINATION(SEE NOTE)

TRIPS ARE DISPLAYED BY THE NUMBER OF TRIPS MADE BY RESIDENTS OFEACH ANALYSIS AREA LEAVING FROM AND RETURNING TO THE ANALYSISAREA. FOR EXAMPLE, A CITY OF RACINE RESIDENT COMMUTING FROMEASTERN RACINE COUNTY TO THE CITY OF KENOSHA FOR WORK ANDRETURNING HOME AFTER WORK IS COUNTED TWICE IN THE ARROW FROMEASTERN RACINE COUNTY TO THE CITY OF KENOSHA. TOTAL TRAVELBETWEENANALYSISAREAS LESS THAN 1,500 TRIPS PER DAY IS NOT SHOWN.

APPROXIMATELY 400,400 TRIPS PER DAY AND 66,100 TRIPS PER DAY WEREMADE ENTIRELY WITHIN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN PORTIONS OF RACINECOUNTY, RESPECTIVELY.

DISTRIBUTION OF AVERAGE WEEKDAYPERSON TRIPS BETWEEN RACINE COUNTY

AND SURROUNDING AREAS: 2001

mance evaluation; from facilitated discussions withhuman services agencies, employers, and BUS users;and from

A need to improve BUS service to some areas inSturtevant and Mt. Pleasant by extending routes orincreasing service frequency;

A need to connect transit services in KenoshaCounty, possibly via UW-Parkside and/or via GreenBay Road (STH 31).

A need to add BUS service on holidays, and toextend BUS service hours on weekends;

Aneed for more bus shelters;

A taxi service in the City of Racine with reasonableresponse times;

Affordable, wheelchair accessible service, withouteligibility restrictions, such as subsidized taxi and/orshuttle routes, especially in the Burlington-Rochester-Wind Lake area.

Ser ork and medical trips to and fromadjacent counties, including Milwaukee, Kenosha,Walworth, and Waukesha Counties.

A need to consider work-related transportationservices that, although currently not in demand dueto the weak economy, may be needed by the end ofthe five-year planning period.

the 2008 Public Transit-Human ServicesTransportation Coordination Plan for Racine County.

vice for w

Eastern Racine County

Western Racine County

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map on this page graphically displays the resultingtransit need levels in terms of high, moderate, and lowtransit needs throughout the County. There are hightransit needs throughout the City of Racine and parts ofMt. Pleasant and Sturtevant. West of IH 94, UnionGrove and Burlington also have areas with high transitneeds.

The following unmet transit travel needs for RacineCounty residents are derived from the BUS perfor-

Summary of Unmet Transit Travel Needs

The route-by-route evaluationidentified Routes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 asthe best-performing routes in thesystem. Routes 5, 20, 27, and 86 arethe worst-performing routes in thesystem, and have many segmentswith low passenger activity. Routingand service changes to these routesshould be explored.

The evaluation also found that transittravel times are significantly longerthan automobile times for some trips.Long transit travel times are causedby indirect route alignments on someroutes, or the need to make severaltransfers to complete a trip by bus.

Commission staff developed a transitneeds index to identify the areas ofgreatest potential transit needs inRacine County, using U.S. Censusblock group population data. The

Transit Needs IndexNOTE:

TRANSIT NEEDS INDEX FOR RACINE COUNTY: 2000

HIGH (18 TO 24)

MODERATE (12 TO 17)

LOW (4 TO 11)

TRANSIT NEEDS INDEX LEVEL

THE TRANSIT NEEDS INDEX IS CALCULATED BY RANKING CENSUS BLOCK GROUPS BASED ON THEPERCENT OF POPULATION OR HOUSEHOLDS IN FOUR CATEGORIES: ELDERLY PERSONS, PERSONS INLOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS, DISABLED PERSONS, AND HOUSEHOLDS WITH NO VEHICLE AVAILABLE.EACH RANKED BLOCK GROUP IS ASSIGNED A SCORE FROM 1 TO 6, IN EACH CATEGORY, WITH A 1 FORTHE LOWEST PERCENTAGESANDA6 FOR THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGES. THE TRANSIT NEED INDEX ISEQUALTO THE SUM OF THE SCORES FORALLFOUR CATEGORIES.

PUBLIC TRANSIT SERVICEOBJECTIVES AND STANDARDS

The following transit service objectives provide a basisfor measuring the performance of the transit system,identifying unmet transit service needs, and designingand recommending improvements:

1. The public transit system should effectively serve theexisting land use pattern and support the implementa-tion of planned land uses, meeting the demand andneed for transit services, and particularly the needs ofthe transit-dependentpopulation;

2. The transit system should promote effective utilizationof transit service and operate service that is reliableand provides for convenience and comfort;

3. The public transit system should be economical andefficient, meeting all other objectives at the lowestpossible cost.

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1,9

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1,700

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2,5

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1,5

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1,70

0

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census and SEWRPC.

You are invited to attend one of three upcoming publicinformational meetings on the Racine County PublicTransit Plan.At the meetings, you can learn more aboutthe plan, discuss it with Southeastern WisconsinRegional Planning Commission staff, and comment onthe work performed to date.

If you are unable to attend one of the meetings, you canvisit the plan website to view the informationpresented, request a briefing by project staff, or com-ment on the project. You can submit written commentsvia mail, e-mail, or fax through November 20, 2009.

Website:E-mail:Fax: (262) 547-1103Mail: P.O. Box 1607, Waukesha, WI 53187

Kenneth R.Yunker, Executive DirectorSoutheasternWisconsinRegionalPlanningCommission(262) 547-6721

Sonia Dubielzig, Senior PlannerSoutheasternWisconsinRegionalPlanningCommission

FOR MORE INFORMATION

(262) 547-6721

www.sewrpc.org/racinetransitplanracinetransitplan@sewrpc.org

PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS

The public meetings are in an “open house” format,allowing you to attend at any time during the two-hour timeframe for each meeting. A shortpresentation will be made at 5:45 pm at eachmeeting. Attendees will have the opportunity toleave written comments, or speak to a courtreporter or Commission staff for oral comments.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 4:30-6:30 pmRacine Railroad Depot1409 State Street, Racine

Burlington Town Hall32288 Bushnell Road, Burlington

Ives Grove Office Complex14200 Washington Avenue, Sturtevant

Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 4:30-6:30 pm

Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 5:00-7:00 pm

All meeting locations are handicapped-accessible. Personswith special needs are asked to contact the SEWRPC office at(262) 547-6721 a minimum of 72 hours before the meetings sothat appropriate arrangements can be made regarding accessor mobility, review or interpretation of materials, activeparticipation, or submission of comments.

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