DOT UNDERCOUNTS S.27th EXIT TRAFFIC BY OVER THIRD

CALL FOR ACCURATE NUMBERS

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

[Update: Monday, March 31st, 2008 -- Mayor Tom Barrett wrote an op-ed piece for the Small Business Times today on the subject of the proposed ramp closure. He appears to favor a compromise by which the ramp will remain open and will spare any demolition of residences. This will require the Department of Transportation to modify its plans to accommodate both goals.--Ed.]

At the end of January, 2007 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran an article by Tom Held about opposition by the neighborhood business organization to the proposed elimination of the I-894 ramp at S. 27^th St.

According to the article, “of the roughly 5,000 cars that get to S. 27th off the current I-894 exit each day, only 1,000 are traveling from the south.”

That number 1,000 has popped up from time to time and has always seemed suspiciously low to Todd Reardon, head of the South 27^th Street Business Preservation Association who is fighting to keep the exit open. Minimizing the number of vehicles using the exit, he says, will make it easier for it to be eliminated by bureaucrats. He says the exit must remain open if S. 27^th Street, Milwaukee’s longest street, is to remain a vital commercial corridor.

So, Milwaukeworld decided to investigate the accuracy of the traffic estimate.

First stop was the reporter himself. According to Held, the 1,000 number was provided to him by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation [WisDOT] which provided no independent documentation of the number or how it was calculated.

A search of the WisDOT website turned up one study of traffic counts at freeway exits conducted in 2006. It showed a total of 4,600 cars exiting westbound daily at S. 27^th, including both those traveling from the north, and those from the south. However, there was no way to determine from the map which came from the south and which came from the north. So where did this crazy 1,000 number come from?

Milwaukeeworld decided to approach Robert Gutierrez of the department to ask him to verify the 1,000 number, and to cite his sources. After all, he was the guy who fed the numbers to Held. So I sent the southeast freeway chief a request by e-mail on February 4^th 2008 and asked for “the figures -- and source of figures -- you gave to Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel so I may reconcile it with the figures on the traffic count map.”

Gutierrez responded on February 11^th 2008 with this message: “Thank you for your email regarding traffic volumes on the 27th Street ramps.

“The traffic count map you refer to shows the total volume on the westbound exit ramp. The 4600 vehicles per day includes vehicles from the north (downtown) and from the south. The percentage of vehicles from the south using the westbound exit ramp at 27^th Street is 32 percent in the morning peak hour and 27 percent in the evening peak hour. Averaged throughout the day, the portion traffic using the 27^th Street westbound exiting from the south is approximately 30 percent. With an average of 4,600 vehicles per day using the exit in 2006, approximately 1380 vehicles per day would be from the south.”

So, in the course of one e-mail, 38 per cent gets tacked on to the original estimate of 1,000 cars per day, and Gutierrez can quote morning and evening traffic percentages.

However, the observant reader will note that he does not provide any documentation for his calculations, as was requested.

Since the department was content at first to grossly underestimate the traffic count by more than a third, and because of the continuing concerns about eliminating this exit, perhaps it is time to ask for an actual, verifiable count of the traffic on this interchange. It should no longer be business as usual at WisDOT. We simply can’t afford it anymore.

SUNDAY MEETING SET AT ST. ROMAN’S ON S.27^th RAMP CLOSURE

[Update: Monday, February 18th, 2008 -- The meeting was canceled due to the weather. --Ed.]

Sen Jeff Plale, whose district encompasses much of the proposed I-94 North / South corridor, has scheduled a meeting Sunday, February 17^th, 2008 at noon at St. Roman’s Parish, 1710 W. Bolivar Ave. to discuss the S. 27^th street exit closure with his fellow parishioners. Plale has not signed on in opposition to the closure, largely because it might be tough to go to mass each Sunday with people whose homes will supposedly be destroyed if the exit must be saved, which is the WisDOT draconian line. However, we have seen above that WisDOT data can be fanciful to the point of fiction. There are those who say the exchange and the homes can both be saved. According to parish staff, reached Friday afternoon, the event remains scheduled, despite the threat of a heavy snowstorm. –Michael Horne