Bus rapid transit system could boost metro Detroit, experts say

[Detroitnerd]

DN I am not talking around the point.

Sure you are. My point was a simple one. I get the feeling that you're throwing a lot of procedural and organizational jazz around, and maybe some fine semantic points, but I don't understand how you can say when it comes to expanding roads and building transit that our priorities aren't fucked.

Metro Detroit does not spend anywhere near on road congestion as most major cities in North America does. It does not have to.

Didn't we just about get done pounding a thread into the ground about a multiBILLION-dollar expansion of I-94 to ease congestion? That's what MDOT wants. It's pretty clear. And what was the expansion of Hall Road if not reckless overbuilding of roads when we don't have the money to maintain what we have?

I think you are not understanding... <snip>

Again, these points about congestion don't address the fucked-up priorities...

What you fail to understand is that there is a lot less flexibility in how federal funds are distributed.

I already know all that. You have to go back to what Lansing, MDOT and SEMCOG want and legitimize. They are the ones who decide what "transit mix" we're going to have and then when transit advocates don't get the goods, it's cold comfort to bring up "lack of flexibility." What about the priorities being totally fucked in the first place? Pay no attention to that meeting behind the curtain ...

DDOT and SMART got $100 million in stimulus funds roughly twice what you claim the M-59 project cost.

What is this "claim" shit? It has been widely reported that it cost $50 million. Hell, it was reported with PRIDE.

http://rochesteravonhistory.blogspot...r-history.html

Yeah, because the money can only go to the things we already have set up, which are backward [[split transit agencies, bus-only, money-gobbling systems). And they struggle because they are transit systems of last resort. Because nobody is seriously willing at the planning stage to invest in transit because, again, of FUCKED UP PRIORITIES.

Four years later we are still arguing about whether the train should run down the center of Woodward or the sides, where it should end, why can't it not be BRT instead? ad nauseum.

DP, you fail to understand what I am talking about: Broad, long-lasting and completely fucked perspectives on what's worth funding and what's not. You can shake a bunch of rules and regulations at me, but they dance around the real issue which is one of perception and education of the average Frank Rizzo. You're getting bogged down in the paperwork, and I'm talking about the big picture, get it?