Detroit Public Transportation: 2014 and beyond.

[Bham1982]

Where's all this OC retail being built?

All over the place. Novi Rd., Wixom Rd., Telegraph, Big Beaver, Rochester Rd., etc.

There is no point to indulging in "sprawl is on its last legs and everyone is gonna be dying to move to Dexter-Davison" fantasies. There are some good things happening in downtown/midtown, and some modest regional trends towards established communities, but the sprawl machine is alive and well, and wealth keeps migrating outward.

[Colombian Dan]

All over the place. Novi Rd., Wixom Rd., Telegraph, Big Beaver, Rochester Rd., etc.

There is no point to indulging in "sprawl is on its last legs and everyone is gonna be dying to move to Dexter-Davison" fantasies. There are some good things happening in downtown/midtown, and some modest regional trends towards established communities, but the sprawl machine is alive and well, and wealth keeps migrating outward.

Metro Detroit is becoming a series of less important fiefdoms.... this "wealth" as many put it, is only relative to the Detroit region.. Oakland county is bleeding cash.. no longer in the top 50 counties for wealth in the USA... Also over half of their public school districts are losing students... Detroit once a powerhouse in its own right; more wealthy than New York City is a shell of its former status.... Detroit Metro Airport up until 2013 was a great international airport for passengers and cargo is no longer in the top 50 airports in the world. I find it comical to sit here and read the comments about how "wealthy" the suburbs are in relation to Detroit.. In reality.. all of metro Detroit including Oakland county are mere echos of their former glory......

[Bham1982]

Metro Detroit is becoming a series of less important fiefdoms.... this "wealth" as many put it, is only relative to the Detroit region..

You're conflating a bunch of stuff, and posting some nonsense. Obviously Detroit was never wealthier than NYC and Oakland county was never the wealthiest county.

Yes, Metro Detroit, on a relative basis, has lagged the U.S. overall, both in terms of population and wealth, just like every other Midwest metro. If your metro isn't the Sunbelt, your long-term growth has lagged national norms.

But, at the same time, Metro Detroit has never been wealthier or more populous than right now. There are more high net worth individuals than in all but a handful of cities. Detroit is something like 12th nationally and 37th globally in terms of high net worth households.

[Eber Brock Ward]

Why are you measuring the wealth of the *entire region* in terms of HNW households and not median household income or some other meaningful measure of an entire region's wealth, rather than a few select individuals?

[Bham1982]

Why are you measuring the wealth of the *entire region* in terms of HNW households and not median household income or some other meaningful measure of an entire region's wealth, rather than a few select individuals?

The region has never been wealthier by any measure. If you prefer just total economic output, or median household income, you'll come to the same conclusion.

By any measure, Detroit is a laggard compared to the Sunbelt, and doing reasonably well relative to Rust Belt peers. It was never "wealthier than NYC" and never had "the wealthiest county".

I referenced HNW because the discussion centered around Oakland County and regional wealth. The county, overall, isn't particularly wealthy, it's that the county contains a massive concentration of HNW individuals in a relatively small geography.

[ABetterDetroit]

If a property tax millage increase for 100% of the funding for the RTA does not make the ballot this fall is there any chance that the tax vehicle will share any of the blame this time around or will the vilifying of communities in the metro area just continue indefinitely?

I only ask because that has not served us well in the past.

Let’s be honest, it is much easier to blame other people for a failure than examining why something failed and then fixing it and getting it right.

http://t4america.org/maps-tools/stat...ng/2016-votes/

[xrockerboy]

Big changes to DDOT in September.

"DDOT is considering a wide range of service changes, proposed to take effect on September 1, 2018.

Themes of the proposal include:

TOP TEN NETWORK. We’re upgrading service on ten of the most heavily used routes. These routes cover the entire city via major, easy‐to‐follow corridors. We are building Top Ten routes into a solid core for the entire system.

To start, all Top Ten routes will feature 24/7 service and weekday frequency of 30 minutes or better. In the near future, Top Ten routes will see improved frequency [[every 10‐20 minutes) during day and evening times on all days. Other enhancements, such as WiFi and better bus stops, will come online over the next year.

A key element of Top Ten is easy route numbers. As a proposal, starting in September, you’ll recognize Top Ten routes with numbers 1 to 10. This change will involve renumbering multiple routes."


http://www.detroitmi.gov/Government/...-Route-Changes

[casscorridor]

Ok. But 30min is nothing to be proud of.

Also, why change historical route numbers? Seems like this will just confuse existing riders.

[stasu1213]

I had been to the last DDOT meeting. Reps discussed their plans to increase the wait time on the Gratiot and Woodward being that the FAST bus is picking up and dropping off within city limit. I think that this is not a good idea for DDOT is slowly creeping back into it's old way of operation before Dan Dirk had taken over the system and improved it. Who want to wait 30 minutes for any bus regardless of having 24/7 services. Soon the extra amenities will ceased due to budget cuts and lack of funds. The FAST bus may cease and riders waiting longer periods of time for the buses and back to the overcrowding that existed before Duggan and Dirks had improved the system. Whatever had happened to Dan Dirks? The last that I heard he was in the hospital. Is he no longer the director of DDOT?. Increased wait time is not good to the ears of riders. Don't add the wifi or any other luxury amenities but provide good basic service to get people to and fro in a timely manner and minimum wait time. DDOT have these meetings with the public after the fact not before they make these hasty decisions that will hurt ridership and decrease it in the near future. Is it true that Dan Gilbert had purchased the Rosa Parks Transit Center and planning to close it and build another transit center in another location away from the downtown area?

[dtowncitylover]

Achem, "LEON DROLET CAN SUCK IT."

https://www.macombdaily.com/news/sma...bf5ca.amp.html

[professorscott]

Achem, "LEON DROLET CAN SUCK IT."

The article I read in one of the papers quotes one of these guys as being frustrated by SMART's quite-low "farebox recovery", the amount of operating expenses covered by fares, which is quite low. The problem is, it ignores the basic, structural problem with SMART which is that, up until very recently, it covered suburbs on all three sides of Detroit, including bringing people into and out of Detroit, yet getting very little fare revenue WITHIN Detroit [[none of it inbound). So SMART operates very, very long routes, and until FAST started, all the distance in Detroit, except downtown passengers headed out, was driven with zero fare collected.

FAST will have a significant impact on this, especially once there is a full fiscal year of it to report on.

By the way, while we're here talking about buses, I'm surprised at the paucity of comments about the Detroit bus route restructuring, which is pretty significant, and not just in the renumbering of a dozen routes [[which everyone will get adjusted to in the first week). Many routes have picked up frequency, some significantly [[though two lost frequency a bit) and there are now twelve [[I believe) 24 hour routes, the most in a very long time.

[masterblaster]

By the way, while we're here talking about buses, I'm surprised at the paucity of comments about the Detroit bus route restructuring, which is pretty significant, and not just in the renumbering of a dozen routes [[which everyone will get adjusted to in the first week). Many routes have picked up frequency, some significantly [[though two lost frequency a bit) and there are now twelve [[I believe) 24 hour routes, the most in a very long time.

I think it is step in the right direction. Some of these 24-hour routes like Vernor and Greenfield are quite interesting. Just a few years ago, Vernor was a completely different route that ended at 9 pm [[its route used to have an eastside portion and didn't goes downtown). Now it is 24-hour line.

There is a route nearest me, Tireman #47, which is just pathetic. It stopped going downtown, and during the middle of the day and weekends, the route is shrunk into a short 6-mile route that doesn't even go to Rouge Park, where Tireman Avenue ends.

I don't like that the frequency of the Woodward bus will decline during some periods of the day [[But the FAST can help ... somewhat).

I would really be impressed also if they finally integrate the PeopleMover with DDOT, so that you can transfer to the PeopleMover seamlessly. You should be able to use the new $2/4-hour card on the PeopleMover if you transfer from a route that takes you downtown.

[mtburb]

I'm still surprised that the 19 Fort Street still hasn't gotten 24-hour service after all this. It had 24-hour service during that last go-around and receives quite a bit of Downriver traffic transferring off of SMART's 125 at Outer Drive except [[for the most part) during rush hours.

[professorscott]

I'm still surprised that the 19 Fort Street still hasn't gotten 24-hour service after all this. It had 24-hour service during that last go-around and receives quite a bit of Downriver traffic transferring off of SMART's 125 at Outer Drive except [[for the most part) during rush hours.

I wouldn't be surprised if, at some point in the near future, the Fort Street route gets 24 hour service, and the Tireman route disappears completely. There is a major effort underway to redo the bus routes to reflect actual travel patterns, so you will see some new routes, some routes will disappear, and, as in the current round of changes, some will get better service and some not quite as good.

Overall, I think this is helpful and should have been done long ago. I think part of the thought process behind the new focus on those particular ten routes is that, in the not too distant future, routes will be developed to connect from those routes into neighborhoods, rather than have every single route go all the way across town or all the way downtown.