I’m the wrong side of tracks kid whose father always had an old car. In the late 40s after the war, when the new models would appear like Robins in the Spring, - Dad was still driving a 1928 Graham Paige and I was probably old enough to be embarrassed.

For the kids, tho, getting around in Hales Corners was bicycling and walking. And our several paper routes meant several bicycles. Church was a mile away; and we were devoted Catholics. But Dad did not go to church, so the car did not go to church.

Being on the wrong side of the tracks was educational for the future, you live near to Commuter rail. The rich kids did not.

Out front door was a station served by Milwaukee’s fantastic commuter rail service. I remember downtown to Waukesha, East Troy, Lake Geneva, Racine, Kenosha. The old maps include Madison and points between.

The Hales Corners express which I rode many times, was 10 miles to downtown in less than 15 minutes. (For a ride into the past, see http://www.thetransportco.com for many old photographs of this rail system.)

The Rapid Transit or Speedrail as it was known died after a couple of serious accidents. Its last owner was a model railroad hobbyist who arranged for Model Railroad conventioneers to ride the line as a convention tour. There was an error - in schedule, signal or a distracted driver, but 10 fatalities in one accident and another lesser accident brought insurance companies to abandon the line and us, its passengers.

I remember seeing this on the (new then) national TV News and in our living room we cheered probably out of vanity that we were so important to be in the national TV news, but not really understanding (as the mayor of Milwaukee did) that this loss was a disaster to the metro area, a disaster that would bring us the freeways, leaded gasoline, ozone, and sprawl. Memory tells me that Mom missed the fatal train by minutes, so perhaps our cheering was understandable.

Today there is mindless cheering over the absence of commuter rail like those wrecks had ushered in some kind of urban utopia. And powerful interests fighting any sign of rail life. We can hope that the cheering will subside before the cost of modern transit is truly beyond the means of an economically gutted Milwaukee County.

After I left the Catholic priesthood in 1970 I was unable to find that sweet job that many of my ex priest friends landed, so when my car died my spouse, son and I rode the bus. I got a bicycle and used it to get around, living near Marquette, then on Pulaski Street. I bought a Rabbit Volkswagen when my mid-1970s sweetheart was on her way to medical school in Lansing. It was the way to stay in touch – no email, no cheap long distance phones, lots of cheap gas.

East Lansing, located in car-industry Michigan was an automobile paradise. It was all roads, no sidewalks, and I remember no buses. Having a car in Michigan, as having a beer in Milwaukee, was a badge of citizenship.

After 9 years with the Volkswagen I got a Corolla twice over a period of 18 years. By the 90s, however, I found it was kind of fun to bicycle to work once in a while. It was not comfortable at first to step onto the bike. It was a bit of a pain, and I found every excuse – like, Relief was spelled: Today! I “have to” use the car.

One day during this time I got a call that Wis DOT was starting a study of a bicycle path between Bay View and Downtown. We knew this was about biking on the Hoan Bridge, but WisDOT in its wisdom took over 6 years and forced us to study roads, rail right of way, a marsupial bridge under the Hoan, even a ferry across the harbor, to come to the conclusion that the Hoan idea was the best - only to reject it in a press conference by disowning ALL the findings from the Study Committee.

During the study the Committee took bikes on the Hoan as part of the study. 10 years earlier I had already been on the Hoan, on a bike, when Bill O’Donnell was County Exec.

On Irish Fest weekends he opened the bridge to walkers. Oh, the thrill of being on top of the city, with the massive waters to one side, and the huge spread of an old industrial city on the other. The enchantment is not there at 50 mph.

We did not get that bike path but the meetings did something for me personally. I began to meet bicycle commuters who were serious and found myself getting more serious about bicycle commuting. The sweet young people from Madison invited me into the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. David Schlabowske was hired as the first BFW Milwaukee coordinator and suddenly – for better or worse - bikers who are commuting all winter were in my life.

David and others actually bicycled home the night the buses were cancelled in February. He says studded tires, so I am definitely experimenting with studded tires in the snow next winter. How far I will go I cannot say, but I feel I must try it. At my age the results of falling become more serious. However, on a bicycle I am less likely to fall than on foot, especially with snow or ice. Other than the icey roads I bicycle all winter and have gear appropriate for a medium rain.

We lost the bid to get on the Hoan Bridge, but I had started a web site and we continue to keep the issue alive, but it’s a bit off point here. If you have questions about it later, I will be happy to talk about the Hoan.

In 2003 two events finally moved me to go carless. I had been thinking about it for quite a while, but opportunity emerged: the Corolla’s lease would expire in September, and we Americans started a war for oil in Iraq. I wanted to be as free from that decision as I could make myself be.

I calculated: The car was costing me about $4000 a year and I figured I could lease a car two weekends a month for major shopping and still be ahead financially. In fact, my first car rental came about 6 months after giving up the car. I had the good fortune of a year of bartering with James Godsil offering my computer skills. Currently I’m renting about once every 3 months, with an overall car & bus expense of about $400 to $700 a year. I have worked my way down to 15 degrees with proper clothing. And no wind. Twenty degrees with some wind.

The bus and the bike make me more optimistic about life. It is like going to human school again. People sit still and you can observe detail. I observe, of course, the young women – one in particular who is always sad-faced - gray skin; one day while she pawed through her purse I saw the evidence, cigarettes.

A one-legged African American vet who boarded while I was on my way to dance at Timbuktu. He was so chipper and chatty that I bounced in my step off the bus.

The child who stares and wants adult contact, like she is asking some profound question of us. Her mom, ever so stoic, wary about men.

And the youth, with their noise, banter, earthy jokes, games and laughing. Most about sex. Of course, I’ve stopped reading now. I love this sound of youth; it delivers confidence in the future, in spite of the mess we are leaving them. If they knew, wouldn’t they throw me off the bus?

And then there’s John, the driver who always recruits a passenger to stand nearby and chat.

Winter clothing. I never buy bicycle-specific clothing other than head gear. In cold weather I wear: two t-shirts, cotton shirt, sweater, double-lined large winter coat, scarf, sometimes doubled gloves, long johns. The head requires detail because you cannot wear a hat AND a helmet. I put on a balaklava and an ear band, then the helmet, and over the helmet another balaklava that is more stretch.

Supposedly this CREATES dead air space above the scalp.

Being warm is NOT a problem. You dress pretty much like you would when you go cross country skiing, and you are warm as soon as you start being physical. Warmer sooner than someone in a cold car sitting, waiting for the heat to come on. Also, when you dress for winter you set your mind to the task and by doing so you prepare yourself psychologically.

It is a spiritual energy that I call upon. And when the driver wraps himself in a thin coat and runs to a cold car, it’s no wonder that he thinks bicyclists are cold. We would not be found dead - Or maybe we would be found dead - in a spring coat when the temperature goes below 20.

Here is how I perceive sustainability: I have had experiences that maybe I was a Plains Indian in a previous life. I have often thought how did these people survive winters? I know from experience, tho, that stepping into the weather that mother earth offers me grants me a deep peace with my surroundings. Think how skinny dipping in the summer makes us happy. Bring mother earth close to your body. Not every day, but I sometimes take deep joy in seeing, feeling, reading, walking, bicycling, and breathing the cold air. It is easy to greet people when you share a common effort. I recall the 60s poster, child leaping for joy on a beach “you have a right to be here.”

When I gave up the car I planned a ritual so I would remember the day. It was late September and I had to fork out some money to get the car fixed for its immaculate return to the dealer. I drove to the dealer on S. 27th Street, and signed off on the car.

Of course, They asked me “Mr. Sell, can we put you into something new?” Of course, I was going to say No, Thanks. And I took my receipt, walked out the door to the bus stop across the street. It was the #27 northbound taking me to the #14 which used to stop at my office building.

The next morning, as I got ready for work I thought that this next bicycle ride was significant, and decided this called for a moment that I would charge to my memory. So, When I opened the garage door to this empty space, I sang TaDa! And remember the feeling of stepping down into the garage, and into a new life.

I have never since regretted this move. I have not even regretted it while I waited for a bus on a cold or rainy night. It is a light feeling to know I am not responsible for a ton of metal, a noxious gaseous machine, and probably a war where my neighbors are dying.

Winters are EASIER! One night as it stormed outside I was changing clothing in my office to go to the bus. I looked out the window and saw my office neighbors scraping and shoveling their cars out of the parking lot. And again I had this compelling vision of my personal freedom: My chauffeur will be along in a few minutes. And like a rental car, when I’m done I leave it behind for my servants to look after. I am wealthy because I own my comings and my goings.

If you own a car when it snows, you dare not leave it in your own street for fear of having it buried; so you drive. You drive home because the parking lot has rules during a storm. Why not a year-round chauffeur?

Rain. The first time I got caught in the rain. I was at WPCA (about 2 miles from home) for some theater and came out to my shackled bike in a medium rain. I took side roads home as I was inexperienced about rain and the road oils and how they might affect braking. Well, I got fairly wet, but I did it. I rode, I came home, I changed clothes and put on that wonderful feeling of accomplishment, of having spooked the fear of being wet while dressed. It’s no big deal; I even have a change of clothing at work. Most rain is light and requires no special clothing.

At night, I use five LED lights, flashing – three whites in front, two reds in back. When I stop somewhere I lock up the bike and usually strip the lights off the bike and carry them.

I lock the bicycle, even in my garage as I lost one from a locked garage a number of years ago.

I consider this helmet mirror more important than the lights. I want to know what’s coming at me, tho my bike guru says that bicycle accidents from the Rear are the most rare of all – if you are observing safety rules.

The mirror brings me information. Confidence while riding is the best attitude – new bike commuters usually complain more about drivers, as I did. Riding builds confidence. And confidence is signaled to the motorist. I was honked at more in the first year of bicycling than I am now. I move to the left when I need the whole lane. I do not surprise drivers; and I stop for red lights.

Dependence.

I find good souled people need very much to rescue me from the bicycle, as if I had come upon bad luck. In fact, I can afford a car, but I no longer have that desire that would make me shop around. I have tasted freedom from one of the prisons of modern life, and I have no plans to go back unless I go lame and need a car to compensate. When I’m in a car and see a bicyclist, I want to get out.

I quickly sensed a downside of my situation. Folks would offer me a ride – or more likely INSIST. I accept or not. I feel I need to barter in some way. My social life would take a dive if I was perceived as “that Bill guy who needs a ride so we can’t invite him.”

My plan this summer is to get myself a second bike – a road bike, with the skinny tires. Sometimes I’m just the boy who does not like to be passed by the girl. One bike will have studded tires so I have a choice when it snows.

Being carless gives me a more intimate view of the city. I see details – details help me take possession of my city. One morning after a snow which was not yet plowed, I walked the road to the bus stop, which is across the street from Svens. As you may recall, there is a triangle there formed by a three-road intersection. I walked in the street looking with eyes all around and realized that this space could be pedestrian-based all year round, as it is during the Bay View Bash; it actually is the center of the Bash. With little shops and kiosks, benches and maybe a fountain it could easily be a gathering place.

There already is a high-density residential area with more than one apartment building which would serve local stores. Cars would be slowed and would defer to all pedestrians around that intersection. There is at this time plenty of parking within two blocks, inviting drivers to stop and walk, too. And! There has been an outcry to slow down Kinnickinnic Avenue traffic. Pedestrian oases are just one way of doing just that.

Allow me a few words about my transportation politics – something to trigger discussion, or bring me into your discussions of sustainability. I wish to engage drivers. Because I am really a good listener I find myself often listening to a driver who goes on something like this: I drive to work because it’s cheaper. They add up the bus costs and compare them to the parking and gas costs and, bingo, they believe they are saving a dollar a day or something. Never mind that illusive wear and tear on the car cost, which we ALL like to pretend does not exist. Or my company GIVES me parking. OR I NEED the car for x y z. What I am not arm-twisting people to do is to copy what I do but encouraging you to find your own way to divorce the car, maybe see the car on a less than regular basis, tell the car maybe you need to be seeing other wheels. And that it will have a long and happy life if it spends its young years in a garage.

Not easy because our transportation policy is all about cars and driver comfort; social and environmental values are sidelined.

I was standing on the corner of Water and Wisconsin at a peace demonstration with my partner holding a sign and we watched as a mother got off a bus and struggled with three very small children, and their shopping, to cross the street and catch the next bus. Of course the kid dropped something in the middle of the cross walk, and she rescued child and bag while carrying the baby. It was a remarkable performance - over before we could even think to be out there helping. I said to my companion, maybe our transportation policy should give every single parent a car, and make the rest of us ride buses. Public policy is screwy when you think about it; cars are available for the healthiest in the community; buses for anyone marginal.

Seriously, What I am asking drivers to do is to look at the dollar bill as a vote. Each dollar you pump into your car is a vote for highways – in fact that is State law. Each dollar you put in a fare box is a vote for public transportation. Even if you never take the bus, you NEED a bus system to make the city work for you.

Public transportation is the ONLY transportation mode that we have that is run strictly by brainless market forces; as usage drops service drops, which is the opposite of how we use brains to run any business. I am a businessman; if usage of my business drops, I don’t shorten my hours, I work longer hours. We need to run transit with the sharp eye of a business for which we demand success.

There is some money from taxes for buses, but never enough. There is always enough for cars and planes; and in some transportation corridors like the NE, for trains. No one will start a pre-emptive war on New York to capture some trains for Wisconsin, or to force Illinois Metra to run on tracks north of Kenosha. But The Car is the widely subsidized out of Each One of our income, sales and property taxes.

You can save the buses by voting with your dollar. Ride one once in a while. Having a party? Start out ON the bus as a group, put the bus stop in the invitation and bring your party to the site. Hassle your boss to let you buy a bus pass with your parking allowance. Parking spaces should not be subsidized but sold to the highest bidder and the increased revenues plowed back into transit that works, reducing our overall energy outlay. These are visionary moves of an intelligent city; they are not entitlements.

Rail and bus service both are the basis for urban economic development that works for the entire metro area. Rail attracts dense development within a quarter mile of a station, and these developments spin off higher tax revenues which should be plowed back into running the trains.

Milwaukee made one same mistake twice.

Second time. The Park East freeway tear down was funded by federal transportation dollars and the benefits of that development should have been allocated to improving Milwaukee’s transit. We got that wrong on the first bounce, but it is an issue that must be revisited again and again until we get it right.

The First Time we made this mistake. The Stadium is exactly where our transportation funds went, at a time when the national economy was bright and the State foisted this arrangement on the local folks while taking the decision away from the local folks. The State could/should now take over the stadium debt with bonds and let us use the sports tax revenue for buses.

But our strategy should be to fight for ALL public transportation with ALL of our arguments. If you run a sales tax up the flag pole, you will get a flag burning. Or a car rental tax – oh, those poor car renters!! Really, tho, tax policy should be to make car renting more expensive WHILE offering renters the option to get around on a modern public system. Rearranging taxes to get a healthier city is sound policy.

Car renters (and I am one of that ilk) should be required to pay the entire cost of the car including the costs of roads that come out of our income, sales, AND property taxes.

I offer a subtle distinction here.

First of all, if we get an improvement in transit, take it. This is a war against urban living in which city dwellers must prevail.

Nor when you are in a war do you send one soldier at a time to fight. You strategize, you organize, and your goal is victory. Most arguments against public transportation are not rational arguments; they are coded messages about race, class, and how CARS earn entitlements for their owners. Transportation is being fought not to find a sensible public policy but as a cultural war. For some the city is a dumping ground of great dangers, which must be contained by restricting the movements of the dangerous, with a liberal distribution of guns. Urban containment is the cold war of our times. And WE are being contained.

My suburban brother who has worked out of suburbs for the past few years announced grimly that his new job is on 86th and Bradley, but he says, he will be carrying his gun on the dashboard. I tell him to get treatment for his paranoia; it’s an illness. But it is against these mind sets that we must rally to save urban life as we love it.

Third, broaden the war. It’s about multi-modal transportation. I am a big KRM fan, but we also need modern local transit. When I speak up for KRM I am argued down by folks who say we should fund buses first, then KRM. The fact is we are closer to getting KRM than relief for buses. Rail between Milwaukee and Madison is on the State agenda. KRM is widely supported by major businesses and is only one small step away from a deal with the Feds. Take it and run with it. KRM will bring people to our central bus station. These riders will pressure County Transit.

Look. Some ten bus routes pass near the new Milwaukee Intermodal Station, but only one stops in front. Slight deviations in the other 9 routes will make Intermodal a practical destination, spurring dense development in the immediate area, and making arrival in Milwaukee by train a pleasure.

Bay Shore. Bus layovers are distant from buildings. Five bus routes serve Bay Shore but there is no central bus stop where a person can connect with the other four routes. Route #15 my personal favorite lays-over 3 blocks from the nearest store - Sears - and you have to walk across parking lots to get to the store. There is no bus map of this complex. Was there a plan? I would suggest there IS a plan but it was NOT designed by transportation experts in County Transit. That the planning for this town center was deliberately made to encourage automobile access – filtering clients? In a word, a political plan? Or, Why are automobiles favored right down to front door access to the stores themselves?

The administrators at Transit are not dopes, but in my conversations with them it is clear they love my advocacy but word their own answers carefully; I submit they are tongue-tied by the Scott Walker politics of failure.

We should always be fighting for everything: not just a bus route, or a transit system, but for the varieties of rail, for bicycles, for subways if you think so. This is an exquisite war we can love, conducted only with nonviolent tactics. We need to keep our goal in mind, which I would describe as a system that is so attractive that people will leave their cars at home and ride the system. But we can’t get there if you THINK we can’t get there; or if you think we can only get half way. Or if you think we only need to restore the bus cuts of 2007, or the bus cuts of 2003. Or if only we have KRM, or bike racks, or a subway, or FlexCar, or biodiesel, or. The word “OR” is a concession to dark forces that do not wish to comprehend what a city needs to function.

How do we change that? Buy into transit. Take back the bus, ride the bus, vote for the bus, and speak your mind from the back of the bus. And for our good personal health, there is the bicycle.

Finally, enlarging our vision – back to your main topic: there is global warming versus sustainability. We make our local contribution to global warming in three areas: multi-modal transportation, water stewardship, and local agriculture. All of these issues fit together; and we must prevail, for the sake of our kids.