Detroit Public Transportation: 2014 and beyond.

[DetroitPlanner]

All agencies have less money to operate transportation due to the gas tax being a poor revenue generator. Unless we switch to another formula [[say 1.5 cents per mile driven) we will all be living with worse transit, more battered roads, fewer nonmotorized options. Chopping support is not the answer. AAATA's millage is almost 4 times larger than SMART's. Blue Water's is more than double.

MDOT does not slash any transit funding. Funding mechanisms are state law courtesy of your elected officials. As I have said earlier, all transit agencies are losing money based upon the gas tax being such a poor revenue generator. When you tax per gallon, and trends show people drive less in more fuel efficient cars; it has a negative impact on revenues. Combine this with inflation and every road commission, transit agency, and city are looking for other revenues. MDOT can't look for other revenues. It is a department of the State and is beholden to its master.

Selling transit is a hard sell for any gas tax increase. People do not see the relationship between the gas tax and transit. A lot of this feeling has to do with people selecting the billion dollar solution when a $100 million solution could do the trick. Increasing the gas tax would just be a band-aid and will not solve the problem of decreasing revenues.

http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/resear...s-roads-bf.pdf

If you think that changing Michigan Law so that MDOT gets less money at a time where they have a hard time matching federal funds and cutting grass/melting ice. You are kidding yourself. You act like there is no need for I-94 or I-75 to be improved. It is almost like you have never actually looked at these facilities or tried to see what the benefits of a High Occupancy Vehicle lane will have on moving people and goods more efficiently. You would be surprised at how much current delay on these roads costs our society and puts us at even more of a disadvantage when folks are looking to site manufacturing facilities.