Why the SMART Bus System is the Worst in America [[After DDOT)

[esp1986]

One thing we dont often read on this forum though, is the fact that lacking proper transit, detroit probably suffered more blight than other cities. I wonder what your thoughts are on this. Do you think better bus or other transit options would have stopped decline or was the decline parallel to other blighted services.

Transit, undoubtedly, played a major role in this for Detroit.

Sure, people were already leaving when Detroit pulled up the streetcar tracks. But that's when the exodus really began. With such high property taxes to pay for those services, and some people now forced to own maybe not one, but two cars, people realized that there was no sense in paying those high property taxes if they weren't getting any services for them, so they left for the suburbs in greater numbers.

Like it or not, some people are just above taking a bus, and that played a big role in this.

Cars are not cheap to own, so it has never justified paying high city income/property taxes if you are forced to own one anyway. Now is a little different, as there is not even a reliable bus system to take, but it was much the same back then. People were used to the trains, and didn't want to ride the bus.

[Al Publican]

I thought about taking the Smart bus from downtown where I was staying over Labor Day weekend to the Grosse Pointes but service after around 7pm has apparently been curtailed. While still living in Detroit around 2002, I sometimes took the Smart bus to the Mack and Vernier Rd area. That seems more difficult now. Metro Detroit needs one bus system, not two.