Report: Transit innovations needed to connect Milwaukee area workers to jobs

The distance between the end of fixed-route bus service and the doors of large employers in the Milwaukee area is a major barrier to filling job vacancies, public officials and transit advocates said in releasing a study of options to bridge the gap.

Known as the "last mile," this disconnect between workplaces and the reach of public transportation for people without cars is as much of a problem in the Menomonee Valley of central Milwaukee as it is in suburban communities, said Kerry Thomas, executive director of MetroGO!

The study by the Public Policy Forum recommends several options for eliminating the gap. Among them: flexible transit services that operate small buses or vans that make stops at scheduled locations at set times, or by request, within designated zones; partnerships with on-demand, ride-hailing companies, such as Lyft and Uber, to move people from transit stops to their jobs; and greater availability of bike sharing stations at transit stops.

Forum President Rob Henken describes the choices as supplements to traditional bus routes, and each is being used or tested in other communities around the United States.

Some of the flexible transit services allow route deviations within zones to pick up or drop off passengers.

All options will require subsidies from employers or public funding to lower the cost for workers, according to the study, "The Last Mile: Connecting Workers to Places of Employment."  MetroGO!, an organization formed to advance the creation of a regional transit network that connects communities and spurs job growth, commissioned the study.

RELATED: "The Last Mile"

While the city of Milwaukee has the region's largest available labor force, many of those workers rely on transit, and the so-called last mile is a real barrier between them and jobs, Thomas said. Fully 19% of households in the city do not have access to a car, and in some high-unemployment neighborhoods the figure reaches 29%, she said.

Employers in the region are being asked how the transit gap affects their business, and a new organization representing municipalities and industries — the Regional Transit Leadership Council — is pushing the theme of connectivity, Thomas said.

"Job growth supports our tax base, so our ability to get people to jobs impacts all of us," she said. "If we're going to be competitive as a region and retain employers, they'll need a labor force."

Bus routes are a mile or two from the Menomonee Falls Industrial Park, according to Joyce Taylor, vice president of human services for Arandell. "We need solutions to remove this barrier," Taylor said.

Half the employees at Portillo's Brookfield location are dependent on public transportation, but the bus stop is a mile away. "We are currently operating at almost 40% of our ideal staffing level even though we pay above market wages," said Anthony Austin, the company's director of human resources.

But it is not cost-effective for the Milwaukee County Transit System and other suburban transit systems to extend regular bus routes to far-flung employers in low-density areas with few riders, according to Public Policy Forum senior researcher Joe Peterangelo, author of the report.

To bridge the gap in a few places, the Milwaukee County Transit System offers three shuttle routes serving business parks in Brown Deer, Menomonee Falls, Milwaukee and Oak Creek. The shuttles use standard buses to drive a route through a business or industrial park where there is limited demand at certain times of the day.

One of them, shuttle route 223, starts from bus stops at the end of the Blue Line and extends into Menomonee Falls. This shuttle serves an average of seven passengers per bus operating hour.

While all MCTS routes average more than 26 passengers per hour, the three shuttles average between five and seven passengers per hour, the report says.

Cost, too, is higher for the shuttle routes, so their future is not certain. The MCTS cost per passenger averages $4 on its 60 routes, while the cost per passenger on the three shuttles averages between $14 and $20.

"If MCTS finances require additional service cuts in the coming years, the elimination of existing shuttle routes may be considered," the report says.

The Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum was established in 1913 as a nonpartisan, local government watchdog organization.

MetroGO! provides office staff for the Regional Transit Leadership Council. To contact MetroGO!, send emails to KerryThomas@metrogo.org.

Don Behm can be reached at don.behm@jrn.com and twitter.com/conserve.