Last summer Madison and Dane County citizens, with petitions, appeared in opposition to bus wraps. The City Council approved the wraps.

That fall droves of citizens appeared at the Transit and Parking Commission's Monona Terrace public hearing. Of those present, 95 percent disapproved of the bus fare increase. The majority who testified opposed the fare increase at a later budget hearing. The council approved the budget with the increase.

The council told the commission to make the increase happen with no regard to air quality or citizen consideration. Statistics at hand, this expert commission could not, in good conscience, pass an increase. Madison Metro was constrained to propose the sole alternative: service cuts.

Why fight the fare increase? Stigmatism, greater gap between fortunate and less so, and increased financial burden on environmentally and socially conscious riders of choice.

What do we want from our city?

• No increases in fares or cuts in services.
• Transit budget sent back to the council to amend the budget, possibly transferring monies from the capital to the operating budgets, as has been done in the past.
• Use bus wrap money to increase ridership, similar to cities that have chosen to be socially conscious.
• Work with state and federal officials to reapportion transportation monies to mass transit.
• Application for grants from the Department of Energy, similar to Eugene, Ore., for free student transportation.

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