The People Mover at 25 years

**sg9018** · July-31-12, 09:46 AM

Today is the People Movers 25th birthday, it open in July 1987. Today is the last day for special events and deals around downtown to celebrate the people movers 25th birthday.
Here a link to Neal Rubin's Detroit News article,
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...Mover-turns-25
Here a link to the special events and deals happeing today from the People Mover's website,

Starting on Sunday, July 29, look for the Detroit People Mover Partners logo at these 34 participating businesses and take them up on their offers for great food, services and merchandise. Also beginning July 29, those who show they've checked in on Yelp.com qualify for a special gift [[while supplies last) courtesy of the People Mover.
July 31 is our anniversary date, so stop by Campus Martius Park for Lunchtime Arts from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

http://www.thepeoplemover.com/Detroi...ic.id.2876.htm
Today from 11am to 2 pm there is art in Campus Martius Park.

**Wesley Mouch** · July-31-12, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by sg9018

Today is the People Movers 25th birthday, it open in July 1987. Today is the last day for special events and deals around downtown to celebrate the people movers 25th birthday.
Here a link to Neal Rubin's Detroit News article,
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...Mover-turns-25
Here a link to the special events and deals happeing today from the People Mover's website,

http://www.thepeoplemover.com/Detroi...ic.id.2876.htm
Today from 11am to 2 pm there is art in Campus Martius Park.

It may not be perfect, but its ours.

Hard to believe its been 25 years.

One can debate whether it was the best way to spend transit dollars [[capital and operating), but regardless... I think its a positive contribution to downtown Detroit.

**Det_ard** · July-31-12, 12:40 PM

Well, my kids like to ride and look out the windows. That's worth something, I guess.

**artds** · July-31-12, 03:37 PM

**downtown_racine** · July-31-12, 03:56 PM

^ Have not watched for 15 years but that was one of the best episodes.

**SMRJim** · July-31-12, 03:56 PM

Can't believe it's only been 25 years, seems like it's older than that. I was thinking it had been around since the early 80s. While it is handy, I'm not so sure it was the best way to spend $200+ million. Call me cynical, but I imagine a few people lined their pockets with a fair amount of that money.

**Wheels** · July-31-12, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by SMRJim

Can't believe it's only been 25 years, seems like it's older than that. I was thinking it had been around since the early 80s. While it is handy, I'm not so sure it was the best way to spend $200+ million. Call me cynical, but I imagine a few people lined their pockets with a fair amount of that money.

I don't know nothin bout no damm krugerrands!

**eno** · July-31-12, 04:56 PM

When solicited by the Freep for a local monument that should bear the name of Coleman Young upon his death, I suggested the People Mover since most of the people who once lived in the City had moved since he became Mayor and those that are left were led around in circles.

**Lowell** · July-31-12, 05:28 PM

If you work downtown, it is a great convenience. As downtown continues to recover its importance will become even more relevant.

Just as a conveyance to show a newbie downtown, it is an outstanding starting point.

**eno** · July-31-12, 05:59 PM

And it's only taken 25 years to approach it's hoped for revitalization of the downtown area while the rest of the City goes to Hell.

**Vic_doucette** · July-31-12, 06:11 PM

The People Mover ... Letting folks from the suburbs run around in circles and look down on Detroit since 1987!

**Rocko** · July-31-12, 09:26 PM

Anyone who has visited Detroit with me has gotten a complimentary 50 cent [[oops, 75 now) loop or two around on the DPM. It's a great way to jump across downtown and just see what the city has to offer from a different perspective. The integration with other modes of transit [[both public and private) it still not complete, but I do believe I recently saw ridership figures which show that more people are taking the People Mover. I've happy to toss my 75 cents into the turnstile when I'm back in Detroit to take a ride just to have a look around at the new developments in various places around downtown.

**rb336** · July-31-12, 10:10 PM

1987???? really? I swear I road around on it well before then.

**DetroitPlanner** · August-01-12, 07:01 AM

I remember coming down as a youngster to ride the people mover on opening day. I got all sorts of people mover swag including a paper people mover. Actually I was not all that young, I was about 20. It seemed to take forever to get that thing built and opened.

A lot of folks don't realize this but the project was originally SEMTA's [[the predecessor of SMART). Detroit took it over after the project was bankrupt and completed it.

**catch22** · August-01-12, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

I remember coming down as a youngster to ride the people mover on opening day. I got all sorts of people mover swag including a paper people mover. Actually I was not all that young, I was about 20. It seemed to take forever to get that thing built and opened.

A lot of folks don't realize this but the project was originally SEMTA's [[the predecessor of SMART). Detroit took it over after the project was bankrupt and completed it.

I was working downtown at the [[now)AT&T complex at Michigan and Cass at the time, and I was another opening-day rider. I still have my fold-up paper People Mover around here somewhere.

**downtownguy** · August-01-12, 11:16 AM

I was a first day rider before it opened! I was working in the David Whitney Building at the time and also a member of the Grand Circus Park Development Assn. Our president back then was a very proper, somewhat conservative executive at Detroit Edison. In the morning, I went downstairs to scope out the Whitney station and ran into him doing the same. The cars were running although they wouldn't open to the public until later in the day. I convinced our pres to jump over the turnstiles with me so we could get a closer look. I figured, if we got caught, he would get some kind of "diplomatic immunity" for both of us. He was clearly nervous but was also digging his new bad boy role. So, when the first car came along, I convinced him to jump on. We rode one stop to Times Square with nary an incident but we couldn't help but brag about it to our association colleagues later that day at the opening festivities.

**Joseph C. Krause** · November-01-12, 06:06 PM

Zelda and the Unibrows just put out a video celebrating 25 years of The Detroit People Mover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y22JpVbwcCA

**wolverine** · November-01-12, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by Joseph C. Krause

Zelda and the Unibrows just put out a video celebrating 25 years of The Detroit People Mover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y22JpVbwcCA

Oh man, I remember they did that "City Kids" video awhile back..hilarious.

While having conversation today at lunch about the CTA not using the door chimes on new vehicles, we all agreed that we greatly missed the out-of-tune Detroit People mover chimes since we've moved.