CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – If you live in Weston, you need a car. The community is spread out enough that getting to and from a job and doing basic shopping is impossible without one. That’s true of almost all communities around Wausau. Life in Schofield, Rothschild, Mosinee, and Rib Mountain requires your own vehicle.
In Wausau, a car certainly makes things easier, but is not required. Depending on where you live, you might be close enough to your job, or shopping, or school to walk or take the bus.
Imagine for a moment that the bus was your only transit option in Wausau. Life would become less convenient. Bus service is threadbare, operating every 30 minutes, and only on weekdays. Grocery shopping on weekends? Not using the bus. Cold January mornings? You’ll be waiting outside for the bus to arrive. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Wausau’s busses are almost always empty. If one is next to you at a traffic light, look inside. You’ll probably find one, two, or three passengers.
Wisconsin does not allow for regional transit authorities. That’s a good thing. They would have the power to tax and to issue bonds… for busses you don’t use. The alternative is what Seattle has come up with, where a public transportation tax is added to your vehicle registration. If you drive a $35,000, you’ll pay an extra $385 for your tags to pay for busses, light rail and commuter trains that other people ride.
Instead Wausau’s busses run only within city limits. Wausau is about to begin discussions with neighboring communities about extending bus service. The city has a new transit director and many surrounding towns have new leaders. But the fundamentals of the discussion haven’t changed. Why should Rib Mountain or Weston pay for bus service when almost all of their residents have cars? This is an obvious ‘no’. The only way this would happen is if Wausau offers to extend bus service to surrounding communities for free. That’s nonsensical too. Why should Wausau residents and businesses foot the bill for people to shop and work out-of-town?
The question that never gets asked is this: Why does Wausau waste tax dollars on a bus service that almost no one uses?
Chris Conley
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