New "One D" Detroit Progress Initiative

I recently stumbled upon a really cool initiative called "One D" at www.OneD.org .

It seems like a great initiative[[led by Edsel B. Ford II) that is focused on the progress being made in Detroit. It appears to be a place for discussion about the City and its surrounding areas. It also has some great information at www.OneDscorecard.org which looks at the status of the region and has some great statistics comparing it to other major metropolitan areas.

As described by One D:

One D is collaborative initiative that supports regional progress in Southeast Michigan by connecting, convening and influencing change. One D focuses on five overarching priority areas: Economic Prosperity, Educational Preparedness, Race Relations, Regional Transit and Quality of life.

One D strives to connect the community of Southeast Michigan for the purpose of:

•Increasing awareness about the state of the region
•Providing a new and comprehensive way to understand regional Detroit
•Encouraging an informed public discourse about the region
•Communicating how the region is progressing against itself and against other large metropolitan areas in the country
•Increasing collaboration and reducing redundancies
•Increasing awareness of important programs and projects in the region
•Sharing best practices
•Encouraging local foundations, businesses, civic and other organizations to focus on regional priorities and a common path

One D's mission is to keep the focus of Southeast Michigan on regional challenges and progress and to encourage collaboration and action toward change.

Wow, I like the site focusing on progress in detroit, we could really use some more organizations like this.

I found on the scorecard site that out of 54 major metropolitan areas studied that Detroit ranks 1st for percentage of people who drive alone to work.

This begs the question, do we need more mass transit, or should we do something like instituting carpool lanes like I have seen in some other states?

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Originally Posted by James

This begs the question, do we need more mass transit, or should we do something like instituting carpool lanes like I have seen in some other states?

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Neither we just need wider roads.

Well, I guess that would solve some of the traffic issues, however, having all of these people driving alone to work not only creates traffic, but it is also hurting the environment. Shouldn't we create some incentive for carpooling? I mean it would help people save gas money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by James

Well, I guess that would solve some of the traffic issues, however, having all of these people driving alone to work not only creates traffic, but it is also hurting the environment. Shouldn't we create some incentive for carpooling? I mean it would help people save gas money.

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Wouldn't the incentive be what you mentioned, saving money?

If that doesn't work we could get a petition going.

Saving money is obviously one incentive, however, from the stat itself and from the traffic on our roads, you can see that it is not working. What else could we do to encourage more carpooling or use of public transit? The only thing I can think of is like I mentioned above, carpool lanes. Any other ideas?

Maybe the reason so many people ride to work alone is that it works pretty well for them. Better than carpooling, better than taking the bus. It'd be great to have a vast transit system that works well, but failing that, most people seem to be dealing with their commutes alright.

Traffic in Detroit really isn't much of a problem relative to other major cities. If it was you'd see more people deciding to carpool on their own initiative, and we'd have a more robust transit system.

Relative to other big cities like New York or Chicago, you are correct. but also according to One D "The Detroit urban area ranked 8th of 85 urban areas in annual delay per traveler due to traffic congestion".
http://onedscorecard.org/ScoreCard.html#view=4

That seems pretty bad to me, I know I personally have issues driving to and from work and so do many of my peers.

I would love to see some type of carpool lanes or reliable public transportation like Illinois has. The only question is....will we ever see this?