Freeway Removal in Detroit

[Gpwrangler]

When your transit "system" is as half-assed as DDOT and SMART, *of course* it's going to be the means of last resort. If you go to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, DC--you know, cities that consciously *invest money in transit*--you'll find people of all stripes riding transit...

Agreed. In the Chicago office I worked at, a very large percentage of people from all levels of the company rode the buses and trains to work. Many also owned very nice cars but chose transit for the savings vs fuel usage. Many rode more than 20 miles one way too. They had nothing but good things to say about it.

[Hermod]

Use of public transit for commuting

Such transit must be safe, convenient, and not too much longer than auto commuting.
Such transit must also have extended hours for when you have to be in the office early or have to work late.

[Wesley Mouch]

Sure! Hopefully this won't sound condescending.

Cars and trucks both use the same roads. The roads are designed to accommodate both types of vehicles.

Trucks move goods.

Cars move people.

If our region invests heavily in mass transit, and people started favoring using mass transit instead of cars, then less people would use cars.

If less people use cars, then that means that less people are using freeways and streets, or at the very least using them more efficiently.

When there is less demand for our road network, then it doesn't need to be so robust and wide.


So, mass transit means less cars, less cars means the need for less freeways. We can get rid of some the redundant freeways, while still providing freeways for trucks to move goods. Many of the freeways in Detroit are very redundant, the trucks don't need that kind of redundancy because their goals are more long term, and the convenience of I-96 vs I-94 doesn't matter as long as it can get them to Chicago and beyond.

Nice try, but here's what we really want to happen.

1) More mass transit means Detroit becomes more vital.

2) More vitality results in increased demand for Detroit, and more traffic.

3) Mass transit fills to capacity and riders demonstrate against the State for withholding funds,

4) Freeway use goes up because Detroit's the place to be, and drivers recall state legislators who refuse to spend the excess income tax revenue money created by Detroit's increased economy on roads.