Gilbert to widen 375 off-ramp

[Scottathew]

What is never ever discussed on these forums, though, is how an excess of roadway capacity, parking, and general ease of driving directly undermine investments made in transit. You can't build a city for cars, and then expect people to utilize transit [[no matter how gold-plated it may be). Things don't happen just because one wills it so. This is where objective, factual analyses help.

Detroit has an excess of lane-miles on its roadway network. Vehicle Miles Traveled have decreased. These two factors suggest that additional pavement in any form is a waste of money.

This is where I think instead of making road options worse, we need to make mass transit options better. That needs to start with investment in the regional transit authority that runs lots of buses on time, predictably, and reliably.

This is a pie-in-the sky project, but I'd love to see a subway line going up Woodward that turns into elevated rail north of 7-Mile. It'd like to see that elevated line continue all the way to Pontiac where perhaps it would finish as a subway.

In that magically, but very expensive scenario, people who live and work close to the line would find the non-grade rail to be faster than cars. No stop lights and traffic to contend with. If we could just roll the dice on an all-in investment like that it would pave the way for similar projects on Gratiot and Michigan.

But closer to reality, if we can implement light rail and BRT and give them green lights using technology, it would make them start to approach the time-efficiency of a car.

[Gpwrangler]

...

I think this board is made up of a lot of folks from the first two categories, and I've rarely seen folks from the third.

Only 3 categories of people? And the ones who don't favor mass transit are for the reasons above?
Sounds like bullshit to me.

How about we simply fix the roads we all use, so those of us who drive do not destroy our vehicles? If you have a ton of money left over you can fund more light rail and offer car drivers a cash subsidy to leave our cars at home? I mean, everyone on here is throwing my tax money around. Can I please keep some?

Let's get the damn off ramp built and move on. Want expensive mass transit that can have green light priority while the roads suffer and drivers pay for it? Find an investor willing to fund it.

I'm guessing a few may be in this "fourth" category, and there may be yet others.

[DetroitPlanner]

In summary:

Private money for a train on a bus route: Yes!
Private money to improve access to parking: NO!

[That Great Guy]

The restoration of $40 Million per year for operating costs to SMART would be a much better idea and make much more sense.

Too bad the vast majority of voters support drastic cuts in public bus service. If we demanded mass transit leadership at the voting booth, Mr. Gilbert could hire more people and pay them more.