Isthmus to Northside: Drop dead!

For those of us on the Northside, a trip downtown, to campus, or the west side means taking Johnson and Gorham Streets. Our transportation infrastructure is designed specifically with that route in mind. And it's not just our cars - Metro runs six separate routes down that corridor for the people of north and northeast Madison.

It's long been rumored that residents on the upper Isthmus would like to dump us onto East Washington Avenue. What's different now is that the City is studying that very idea.

When Judge Doty designed a town along a narrow isthmus between two lakes, there was no way he could foresee how geography would interact with 150 years of growth and technology. And it shows. There is such a limited amount of real estate available for getting folks from one end to the other, be it by car, bicycle, bus, or train.

The Isthmus article linked above describes a community meeting at which Isthmus residents were presented with the City's plan to simulate converting Johnson and Gorham into two-way streets. It quotes them as supporting the idea because it would enhance "livability" and reduce the number of "transient" renters.

There are valid concerns, particularly over speed. If I'm first off the line at State or Wisconsin I know I'm going to upset the people who speed to each red light, because I know they're timed for 27 m.p.h. and I make such better gas mileage than they do. And there are ways to address those concerns, such as narrowing the streetscape and increasing enforcement.

But the idea that my neighbors and I should be shunted into the ever-growing traffic jam on East Wash, just so a bunch of folks who knew full well where they were moving into can enhance their property values and drive students and poor people out of their neighborhood, is ridiculous.