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Finance committee recommends confirmation of Christophe Spieler as Madison transportation director
Summary
The Madison Finance Committee voted unanimously June 9 to recommend Christophe Spieler for a five-year term as director of transportation. Spieler discussed his transit planning background and support for reviewing the city's BRT and redesign work.
The Madison Finance Committee voted unanimously June 9 to recommend Christophe Spieler for confirmation to a five-year term as the city’s director of transportation.
Council President Vittiver introduced Spieler and asked him to speak. Christophe Spieler, the nominee, described a 25-year career in transit planning and consulting, citing time as a Houston Metro board member, teaching at Rice University and authoring the book Trains, Buses, People, an opinionated atlas of US and Canadian transit. "I'm very, very happy to be here," Spieler said. "I've spent the last 25 years as a consultant, working with cities and counties and agencies across The United States, doing transit planning." He added that he is a licensed professional engineer and a certified planner.
The committee discussed how the new director should approach recent service changes. Alder Evers said some residents whose walking distance to a bus stop improved in the redesign nevertheless feel they "lost good coverage" and asked how the city should respond. Spieler said network redesigns necessarily involve trade-offs and emphasized transparency, data and community engagement. "If you want to make things better for the vast majority of riders, you nevertheless are going to end up making things worse for somebody," he said, and urged reviewing operations after implementation to identify adjustments.
Alder Madison asked a more personal question about what Spieler looked forward to in Madison. Spieler replied that he appreciated the city's activity, history and setting between the lakes and quipped that he was "also actually really excited to get to know Wisconsin" and noted, "another thing I'm looking forward to is no hurricane season." He also said he supports returning to the community after implementation to learn what is and is not working and to make targeted changes.
A motion to recommend confirmation was moved and seconded; the committee recorded a unanimous vote in favor. Committee members congratulated Spieler and noted the recommendation will move forward to the full council process per the city's appointment procedures.
