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A recently released Master Plan by UW-Milwaukee offers a detailed plan to deal on how to transport its 30,000 students to campus. With barely 3,000 parking spaces on campus, and no mass transit line, UWM ranks among the most parking-challenged urban universities in the country, studies show. “Frankly, the parking around UWM is the toughest place to park in the city,” says Ald. Nik Kovac, who represents the area.

After the UWM Master Plan was released in April, most of the attention was paid to sexier issues like the new schools of Freshwater Sciences and Public Health and Innovation Park, a research and development park proposed in Wauwatosa. But the issue of transportation of students did get considerable discussion in the plan, with particular emphasis on reducing solo driving and increasing walking, biking and bus riding.

(illustration by adrian palomo)

The campus currently has 3,050 parking spaces, plus 1,750 at two remote lots (“UPark”) where free shuttles take drivers the rest of the way to campus. A UWM study comparing the parking-to-student ratio of 13 urban universities in the U.S. ranked UWM dead last, though the comparison didn’t include the university’s remote parking. In a broader ranking that included 27 universities, UWM ranked fifth lowest. “The only lower ratios are urban campuses that are generally in the East (Coast) and in densely populated downtown areas with mature transit systems such as Columbia (in New York City) and Boston College,” the study notes.

A variety of campus improvements called for in the Master Plan could lead to the elimination of as many as 650 spaces, further squeezing drivers and possibly prompting the construction of a new parking garage on the campus. Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital, located on a city block adjoining the Kenwood Campus, is expected to close in the next couple of years, however, and significantly reduce traffic in the neighborhood.

According to Claude Schuttey, UWM director of planning and transportation, faculty governance and the school’s Transportation Committee, which is composed of faculty, administration and students representatives, the committee hopes to begin discussing ways to put the plan’s transportation recommendations into action this fall.  “It’s a very dynamic plan with great suggestions,” Schuttey says.

More bikes and buses

The Master Plan sets the following goals for student transportation – a 6 percent increase in walking, a 3 percent increase in biking, a 2 percent increase bus riding and an 11 percent decrease in solo driving.

Short term proposals include adding bike racks to the entrances of university buildings that lack them and improving the connections between UWM and city bike routes. Currently, only one bike lane – one along Kenwood Boulevard along the southern edge of campus – borders the university. City officials are considering adding a bike lane to Downer Avenue, however, which borders campus to the east.

Relationships with the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin and the city’s Bicycle Master Plan will be pursued in hopes the campus will be included in the new paths, bikes lanes and bike routes under development. Jessica Weinberg Binder, education manager at the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, is optimistic about working with UWM. “I think the outline of the Master Plan is right on target. We can’t wait for this partnership to develop,” she says.

Once bicyclists reach campus, in the long term, UWM proposes to offer them better facilities, including covered or indoor parking, lockers and shower and changing facilities. The Master Plan also recommends increasing funding for the school’s bike rental program (“UBike”), and adding a bike repair, supply and information station somewhere on campus.

One of plan’s more ambitious proposals is the development of a centralized campus transit center that would incorporate all means of transportation to reach the university, including an extension of the planned Downtown Streetcar, if it’s built. The center could be added to a planned expansion of the UWM Union, but a location on Oakland would provide easier access to the Streetcar light rail system.

The University already maintains the UPass program — a bus pass given to all students and included in the price of tuition. With service reductions looming, the university is considering paying MCTS, if necessary, to not reduce service on routes that serve UWM (15, 21, 30, 40U, 44U, 49U, 62), a process known as “buying up” routes.

UPass has an already been a success for UWM. The Master Plan says bus use “is relatively good” with  33 percent of students using buses and  with most transit activity occurring from Kenwood Boulevard. The campus’ three busiest bus stops lie on the street. The plan, however, has a few issues with county bus service, including its  reduced service in the summer, schedule inconsistencies and a lack of express routes serving the school.

Calming traffic and neighbors

A vital concern is that plans don’t infringe further on neighborhoods surrounding the campus. Street parking by UWM students is a long-standing issue in the area. In 2006, it prompted a state law creating 721 “residents only” parking spots on streets adjacent to the campus to open up spaces for homeowners.

“It’s a large balancing game,” says Gerard Capell, president of the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, the neighborhood just south of the campus. “And it’s a matter of hopefully not reliving the issues that we’ve already been able to put behind us with residential parking, which has been a major win for the local neighborhoods.”

In the short term, the school proposes partnering with city government to develop a strategy to calm traffic on Hartford and Maryland Avenues – main routes for university traffic. Maryland Avenue, which runs down the middle of campus, saw an average of 9,000 cars a day in 2008, according to Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates. Hartford Avenue saw 6,400 – though the figure is estimated to drop to 4,000 or less once Columbia-St. Mary’s closes.

University planners have proposed building curb bulb-outs in some areas in and around the campus to slow traffic and make it more neighborhood-friendly. Bulb-outs are typically extensions of sidewalks and green areas that narrow roads but widen sidewalks at crossing or other pedestrian-heavy areas. They wouldn’t reduce parking but would “prevent parked cars from encroaching into the crosswalk area,” the plan notes.

Ald. Kovac see the plan as critical to the neighborhood’s future. “I applaud (UWM’s) long-term plan and realize that the city and county and region need to step up to the plate and support what UWM is hoping for,” he says.

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