Heat, streets and leadership

Charlie Hales knows a thing or two about streetcars.
Besides being a former city commissioner for Portland, Ore., he also is the project manager for HDR Inc., which goes around the country conducting studies and working on streetcar and light rail projects in major cities.
Hales saw Portland’s streetcar system kick into action in 2001, and now HDR is looking at potential projects in Austin, Texas, Tuscon, Ariz., Sacramento, Calif., Miami, Fla., and Omaha, Neb. He’s also been active with the Madison Streetcar Study Committee and took a few minutes Wednesday to tell The Daily Reporter why the city is ready for a streetcar system.
Tell us where things stand with the Streetcar Study Committee right now.
We’re still conducting the feasibility study and seeing if it all makes sense and would function well in this city. A big part of it, of course, is transportation — giving people a choice for getting around downtown without having to get back in their cars, but with streetcars you also have to look at economic development opportunities just as much. Madison is growing right now in a big way.
So does it make sense for the city to implement a system?
Yes, it does. This city is walkable, but as I said, there’s a lot of development, and there are areas that are just a little too far to walk — getting from say, State Street to the east side of the isthmus. As the city grows, that problem is just going to grow right along with it. We’re looking at a first circle route for the system that would run from Park and State streets to Butler Street. It’s unlikely that it would stop there, of course. It’s just a place to start and would literally branch off to the east and south.
You’ve looked at streetcar and light rail possibilities in a number of cities across the country. How does Madison stack up against cities like Tucson and Sacramento? Austin, for example, draws a lot of comparisons to Madison in terms of being the state capital and a college town, but it’s not on an isthmus. Does that hurt Madison?
Actually, the geography here really works in the city’s favor. The isthmus may be a challenge for highway expansion, but streetcars fit right into the streets the city already has. If you’re looking at cities like Dallas or Houston, you’re just surrounded by tumbleweeds, and when you’re building out, it’s just a continuing question of “Why stop here?” Cities on water actually tend to work out the best. Madison’s a pretty ideal fit.
A lot of the negative talk in the city surrounding a streetcar system has been based on the fact that it would take away from the city’s bus system, which already seems to be going through a dry spell. Would a system hurt bus ridership?
I don’t think so. People here already use the transit system, so transit is already relevant here. In a lot of cities, when there’s talk of adding rail, there’s always a fear that if we put all this attention on a light rail or streetcar system, it’s going to take away from bus systems. That’s a very conservative and cost-effective mindset — “We’ve only got so much now, how much more can we afford?” From my experience in other cities, I find the more choices you give people, the more they use the entire system, because you give people an easy way to get from point A to point Q all of a sudden. It’s additive rather than subtractive.
You touched a bit on the cost-effective mindset of some people, and a streetcar system wouldn’t be cheap for Madison. Is it justifiable to spend the big money? Will the system really spur further economic development, or is it something that’s going to put the city in the hole and we may have to wait 10 years or so to see it pay off?
Streetcars support and pay for themselves, and do so rather quickly. The cities that have made investments in them all seem to say that it’s proven to be among the very best investment they’ve ever made. It is a serious cost — you’re talking $50 million to $60 million — but you find that once that first circle is in place, the extensions just keep coming. Portland’s first segment was put in in 2001, they’re now working on their fifth segment. Little Rock opened its first line in 2002, and they just opened another segment. As soon as people see the system and ride it, they get it.
Let’s say the system gets the green light with little resistance from city leaders and residents. How soon do you think Madison could have the first segment in place?
From an engineering and construction standpoint, the day the funds are in hand, it’s about a three-year process to build. So it’s a matter of just getting the money for that first segment, and it might be affordable enough for the city to pay for on its own. When you start looking for federal dollars, it slows down things a bit, but when the money is there, it’s a three-year turnaround.
And you think Madison’s in a position to start that turnaround?
Well, we always ultimately say you need three things to get a light rail or streetcar system going — heat, streets and leadership. By that I mean, you need real estate leadership and a booming downtown area, which Madison definitely has. You also need great pedestrian streets that are walkable and that a lot of people take advantage of, and you need someone in office — usually it’s the mayor — who’s willing to look into the idea. Someone has to take that political risk and look into it. Right now, Madison’s got all three.