DDOT Bus Stop Art

[Wheels]

Why are we still at 80%? I see DDOT buses all the time now without bike racks STILL. What gives? Wasn't there some mandate that they all had to have them? It has been years now.

Unless it's 100%, they're not really useful.

Let's say I'm waiting for the 8:08 southbound Conant bus at 7mile and Conant with my bike to get to my hypothetical job on Jefferson. If that bus happens to be part of the 20% that doesn't have a bike rack - Russian roulette, here - I have to wait till 8:58 and hope that the next bus does, or I'm fucked. In fact, I'm already fucked since I have to wait 50 minutes for another bus.
Transit needs to be reliable. There also seems to be a lack of knowledge of how to fit a fleet of buses with bike racks in less than a decade.

And yet another rant with the you owe me attitude in Detroit. Why should they spend all that money to fit every bus with bus racks when it only serve a very small percentage of rider's? If a large percentage of rider's had bicycles there would be no rack big enough to suit. Are you going to pay an extra fair to carry your bike? Or are all the other riders going to subsidize you? Spend the money to benefit the majority not the minority. The system needs a lot more then bike racks!

[poobert]

And yet another rant with the you owe me attitude in Detroit. Why should they spend all that money to fit every bus with bus racks when it only serve a very small percentage of rider's? If a large percentage of rider's had bicycles there would be no rack big enough to suit. Are you going to pay an extra fair to carry your bike? Or are all the other riders going to subsidize you? Spend the money to benefit the majority not the minority. The system needs a lot more then bike racks!

What the hell? Yes, I absolutely am saying they owe the riders simply a functional, dependable system. Either do bike racks correctly or don't do them at all - I don't think that's too much to ask. Yet of course to you it is - why? because the riders are the invisible to you - poor and black. Maybe we should just eliminate the bus service altogether since such an insignificant number of insignificant people use it?

A minority of Americans are handicapped - but by your logic we should also take away their wheelchair ramps and accessibility, too.

And you have the typical "I've got mine so fuck you" attitude of suburban Detroit, and that's the main reason why it BLOWS here.

[Mark Smiles]

What the hell? Yes, I absolutely am saying they owe the riders simply a functional, dependable system.

I would say the riders are simply getting a gift that is subsidized by others.

I would say the gifts some are reciveing are not as good as the recivers had hoped for.

Charge the riders what it costs to maintain the system, then they will be owed what they have purchaced.

It is not anyone elses responsibility to haul my sorry rear, all over town.

[j to the jeremy]

I would say the riders are simply getting a gift that is subsidized by others.

I would say the gifts some are reciveing are not as good as the recivers had hoped for.

Charge the riders what it costs to maintain the system, then they will be owed what they have purchaced.

It is not anyone elses responsibility to haul my sorry rear, all over town.

All transportation including roads is subsidized by all taxpayers. The gas tax covers less than 10% of road projects. By your argument, public transit riders shouldn't have to pay for the miles and miles of road and large majority of federal transit funding you get for your car.

Here is a quick story for you to read:
http://www.transportmichigan.org/201...their-way.html

[poobert]

I would say the riders are simply getting a gift that is subsidized by others.
It is not anyone elses responsibility to haul my sorry rear, all over town.

Ok, well as a taxpaying citizen I have to subsidize freeways, roads, water, and other assorted infrastructure hooked up to Sterling Heights when I can't imagine a more horrible place in hell. But hey, that's how society works! See you on the bus, buddy!

[Wheels]

What the hell? Yes, I absolutely am saying they owe the riders simply a functional, dependable system. Either do bike racks correctly or don't do them at all - I don't think that's too much to ask. Yet of course to you it is - why? because the riders are the invisible to you - poor and black. Maybe we should just eliminate the bus service altogether since such an insignificant number of insignificant people use it?

A minority of Americans are handicapped - but by your logic we should also take away their wheelchair ramps and accessibility, too.

And you have the typical "I've got mine so fuck you" attitude of suburban Detroit, and that's the main reason why it BLOWS here.

And i suppose to want those busses to run on time wile you fuck around with your bike and bitch about how the rack is not how you would have designed it.

I would love to see a working transit system in the city and the suburbs too, However being able to bring my bike with me is secondary to building a system that works for the masses and would not be much of a benefit for most.

You don't know me or anything about me. I rode the bus in Detroit probably longer then you have been around. I understand how bad the system has become and realize it has to be fixed. Carrying your bike is far from a concern until the system is working and on time.

Comparing it to being handicapped is an insult to you not me.

[antongast]

I would love to see a working transit system in the city and the suburbs too, However being able to bring my bike with me is secondary to building a system that works for the masses and would not be much of a benefit for most.

The racks on the DDOT buses seem pretty well-utilized to me, even though there are still a lot of buses without racks. I can imagine a lot of cases where it would make more sense to ride one bus and then bike the rest of the way than to transfer and wait for a second bus to go a relatively short distance.

Also, it's not an either-or. Installing bike racks doesn't make the service worse, and not installing them doesn't improve it.

[Parkguy]

I would love to see a working transit system in the city and the suburbs too, However being able to bring my bike with me is secondary to building a system that works for the masses and would not be much of a benefit for most.

Every transit trip begins and ends with a walking or a biking trip.

[poobert]

Every transit trip begins and ends with a walking or a biking trip.

Exactly.

I don't know if there is a general lack of understanding here, but in large cities, bicycles are a mode of transportation far more than they are for recreation. Of course in places like China and Europe but even in Detroit, where 1/3 of the population lacks a personal vehicle.

By adding bike accesibility to DDOT buses - which the suburban system has had for as long as I can remember, but nobody is complaining about what a waste that is - you are increasing the servicable area and usefulness of the buses for relatively little cost. In a city plagued by unemployment and desperately lacking localized employment, this is providing a means of increasing the range people can go to reach their jobs [[and thus be productive citizens) even if they currently lack a personal vehicle.

DDOTs buses may stop largely at the city limits or near them, but a healthy person can easily ride 5 miles in about 25 minutes on a bike and do the same on the way home. Without a bike, a walk that far would take 3 hours each way.

Bringing a bike isn't "secondary" for many people. It is essential to get where they're going. This isn't at all like riding your bike down the bike path in Sterling Heights. It isn't a frill. Try to think about the world outside your front door, please.

In one breathe you will decry Detroiters for not working and being lazy or criminal - then when they're given the slightest boost to give them better mobility and access to employment you scream and shriek about how money is being wasted on them. I know you'd like them to either die quietly or become middle class overnight, but that isn't going to happen.

[KJ5]

I thought they were a friendly suggestion to anybody depending on the bus: better get a bicycle.