Quote Originally Posted by antongast View Post
The systems aren't even close in scale. Besides, running high-density, high-frequency, 24-hour urban bus service is a completely different sort of administrative project than running low-density, low-frequency suburban routes, and requires administrators with different skill sets and types of experience.
Bingo. It blows my mind that people think the two are comparable systems in what they do. Even apart from the difficulty of merging the two fiscally, service-wise, this is apples to oranges. Again, SMART doesn't have the ability to assume the type of service that DDOT provides, which operates a far greater diversity of routes that SMART, which runs really only one time type of service [[low-frequency long hauls). Of course, since Detroit does all kind of hauls and SMART does a particular kind you'll have some overlap, but it's nowhere as much overlap as people think.