Regional Transit passes Senate...now time for the house.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Most of the RTA legislation has already passed the House and Senate.

Post #76 said it was 2 votes short of passing.

[Dexlin]

No, most of it has passed. The most important parts have passed. That is correct. There is some supplemental stuff that has to be taken care of, but it's not so important that the bills passed would function without them. The formation of the authority, alone, is enough to get the Feds to release the initial $25 million for capital costs for the 3-mile Woodward streetcar. The currently bill, alone, also already allows DDOT and SMART to start coordinating its routes even better by withholding existing funds if that's what they wanted to do. So the current passed bills mean a lot.

The currently conceptual BRT proposa is what could be held up if the funding mechanism and zoning bills aren't passed, but I can't imagine them not eventually passing in the next few months if they don't get through this month.

[stasu1213]

No, most of it has passed. The most important parts have passed. That is correct. There is some supplemental stuff that has to be taken care of, but it's not so important that the bills passed would function without them. The formation of the authority, alone, is enough to get the Feds to release the initial $25 million for capital costs for the 3-mile Woodward streetcar. The currently bill, alone, also already allows DDOT and SMART to start coordinating its routes even better by withholding existing funds if that's what they wanted to do. So the current passed bills mean a lot.

The currently conceptual BRT proposa is what could be held up if the funding mechanism and zoning bills aren't passed, but I can't imagine them not eventually passing in the next few months if they don't get through this month.

Does this mean that Smart could resume running inside Detroit after 6pm. Would I be able to catch a Michigan bus going into Dearborn

[dtowncitylover]

Post #76 said it was 2 votes short of passing.

No my post, #76, said the funding bill was two votes short of passing. I believe they got the votes for that later though.

[Russix]

Does this mean that Smart could resume running inside Detroit after 6pm. Would I be able to catch a Michigan bus going into Dearborn

I really really really hope so, its been so miserable since everyone is forced to ride DDOT[[nothing against DDOT, i just don't have 4 hours to commute everyday).

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Thx for the correction.

[Dexlin]

Does this mean that Smart could resume running inside Detroit after 6pm. Would I be able to catch a Michigan bus going into Dearborn

Yes, "could" being the operative word, here. The bill makes the new regional transit authority the "designated recipient", meaning that from now on, the money from the feds no longer goes to SMART and DDOT seperately, but to the new Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority, who will then dole out the money to the two agencies. This means that they hold the purse strings and thus can withhold funding if they want something done.

In the long run, the bill kind of envisions the two entities getting bought out when their finances get cleaned up, either by the authority, itself, or by some other single entity, which is why it has provisions for the authority to aquire the system, but it makes it pretty complicated.

[cramerro]

Does this mean that Smart could resume running inside Detroit after 6pm. Would I be able to catch a Michigan bus going into Dearborn

I really really really hope so, its been so miserable since everyone is forced to ride DDOT[[nothing against DDOT, i just don't have 4 hours to commute everyday).

If you're implying that someone or something was the reason SMART stopped running off-peak service into the City, you'd be wrong. The changes were to meet the need to cut service by 20% with the least possible impact... because these routes are duplicated by DDOT it made sense [[although I'm sure was still a tough choice) to trim back those times as opposed to eliminating scores of suburban routes.

I'm hopeful the RTA will allow for more efficiecny in routes, which should result in better service between both transit providers relative to their funding levels. In the long term, an RTA-run BRT along major corridors will free up resources at SMART and DDOT to provide more service throughout the system that can feed those BRT lines. More frequency, more coverage, etc can be had across the service area when you aren't making hundreds of runs down three corridors.