Quote Originally Posted by Hermod View Post
Normally when you look at REGIONAL rapid transit, you look at origins and destinations of traffic. You then try to provide rapid transit for the most traveled routes. If these routes happen to run along I-696 and M-59, so be it. Possibly a very much needed route runs from downriver up Telegraph to the northwestern suburbs.
I think planning this way is problematic.

One, people who ride transit are often going to and from very different destinations than people who only ride cars. Just because M-59 or Telegraph Rd carry very large amounts of auto traffic, do you think they have the capacity to carry transit? I doubt it, due simply to the surrounding urban form. Why ride take all these transit trips within burbs when it is easier to get around via car? And I doubt there are many without cars in northern Oakland and Macomb.

Two, transit creates new destinations as development concentrates around stations. I can see the value in connecting destinations such as suburban malls and office parks and such, because large amounts of people use them. But, eventually those stores and offices will gravitate toward urban areas as they become more popular. After all, it is the suburbs that were build to last not much more than a generation. Strategic planning would concentrate development in areas that have the urban "bones"... the inner city and inner-ring suburbs that are built along the grid and have much a more resilient and well built housing stock, not in far flung areas on the edge of the metro area.

Three, I don't think this is the way transit is planned anyway. I think it has to do with transit ridership, not auto traffic. There is a pretty large ridership on the suburban sections of both Woodward and Gratiot, as many office workers downtown take the bus, but this simply is not the case for M-59.

Four, when resources are tight, it just doesn't make sense taking a gamble on something like this, especial when there is very good alternatives. Consider that a Gratiot line a Woodward line extending in the the suburbs would cover suburban Oakland and Macomb counties, but not Wayne. Consider the length of routes:
M-59 from Gratiot to Woodward -- over 20 miles
Jefferson Ave from Alter to Downtown -- aprox. 6 miles
Michigan Ave from Downtown to West Dearborn -- aprox 10 miles

So for the length of M-59, we can have Michigan Ave AND Jefferson Ave. Wow, incredible. I don't think people realize how spread out the suburbs are compared to even a medium to low density city like Detroit.