Tips

• Track The Hop in Real-time:
  1. Track The Hop in real time: get an app for iOS or Android, TransLoc at transloc.com/app. You can also use the Web-based interface at thehopmke.transloc.com.
  2. You can also send the text message HOPMKE to 41411 to get a list of stop numbers, then text "HOPMKE #" where # is a stop number to 41411.
  3. Sign up for Hop Alerts on twitter so that you have real-time notices about the route and service
• If you wander from the streetcar route, you can take a Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) bus back. Get the Umo App on your phone so that you can use it to pay for a fare to get back downtown.
• To remember which direction the streetcar heads on either N Milwaukee Street or N Broadway, you can remember: DOWN on Broadway (Broadway has an D in it) and UP on Milwaukee (Milwaukee has a U in it). Or, "UP on Milwaukee" in the sense of "positive feelings about Milwaukee."
• North Broadway is neither a street nor an avenue.

Explore

• The Hop vehicles: Brookville Liberty Modern Streetcar Information Page; PDF Brochure
• TheHopMKE.com official site.
• Much More: there are many more attractions, offices, services, apartments, condos, lawyers, accountants, and other businesses along the route:
  • Check this Google map with the streetcar routes at tiny.cc/mkesc and zoom in to see features.
  • As another example, check Google Maps centered on N Milwaukee St and E Wisconsin Ave and check the "Nearby" button.
• Visual: Downtown by day MKE at night
• MKE blue
• Visit Milwaukee

My Blog I've utilized The Hop in Milwaukee since its opening in 2018. During that time, I have learned more about transit and streetcars. I've written about my observations in my blog.

Footnotes

1. This independent guide is not an official publication of nor is it endorsed by The Milwaukee Streetcar, The Hop. This guide is designed so that it can be read on mobile devices, or you can print this guide and have it for reference as you go about. You may print and use it for personal use. For commercial redistribution or publication of this guide, please contact me.
2. I'm using the distance of 400 meters as guideline for how far from a streetcar stop to a destination I list. This would be about a 5-minute walk. This corresponds to a commonly-used distance to define the "walkshed" for transit (see for example Ped Shed: walkable urban design and sustainable placemaking and Introduction to the MBTA Walksheds Atlas ).
3. As you go about taking transit, you will be asked for money by people. Don't show them where you keep your money or that you have cash. A good option is to donate directly to resources such as Key to Change MKE or the Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative, and truly help people permanently and sustainably change their lives for the better. I politely decline to give money to people in the street, but I give to the above two organizations. If you want to show off that you care as you are going about in downtown, you can put your spare change in the Key to Change MKE meters that are at various downtown sites. Take a selfie of yourself doing that and post it online.
4. I've lived in the area the whole time without owning a car. Milwaukee has some great Walk Scores approaching 100 on the East Side. Indeed, it is possible to live car-free in Milwaukee (and many people do out of economic necessity.)