As far as where people are going, check out this link. Stations are sized by total entries, and you can click any station in the system and see where people went from that station. [[FYI it wouldn't work for me in Firefox.) Pretty neat to play with.
https://public.tableau.com/profile/p...9_0/Dashboard1
As to the second point... idk, I think I have to agree with what someone [[Bham?) said earlier. If you're going to drive to New Center and park, why not just stay in your car for 2 more exits and park by the arena/stadium? I would think this would add more time to the trip and with a family the M-1 fare two ways will eat most/all of your cost savings on parking. To me it goes back to the streetcar vs. rapid transit split: rapid transit would be good for this, but a streetcar probably won't be.
What I think M-1 will be excellent for:
- Local residents of downtown/midtown.
- Tourists who want to spend a couple days seeing what downtown/midtown have to offer. I can imagine a great weekend taking in sporting events/concerts, DIA, DSO, fun restaurants etc. and there is already a lot to offer along the route. Much easier without worrying about parking and car security. Take the new airport shuttle to downtown whenever that happens, or Amtrak, or leave your car parked in the hotel garage.
- "Extension" for formerly single-purpose trips. I was just meeting a friend downtown for dinner, but as long as we're here why not go check out that new bar in midtown? The family was just going to go to a Tigers game, but why not park a couple hours early and hit a museum and lunch too? Etc.
- And the knock-on effects for businesses of having more people exploring more of the area because it's opened up to them by M-1, rather than simply getting "in and out" with a single destination.