So the first tangible thing people will see come out of the RTA is the new "Reflex" service, a new Woodward express route 498 operated by DDOT, and a new Gratiot pair of express routes 598/599 operated by SMART. The information is available at www.rtamichigan.org/reflex.

Couple things to ponder. First, because of the limited funding available, the new service is only going to operate about every 45 minutes at best. Thoughts on that? Obviously a true and fully-funded BRT in the future will have much better headways, and amenities this will, of necessity, lack. Second, the downtown stop is a short block off the northeast corner of Campus Martius Park, which puts it almost a quarter mile from the "main" downtown bus stop behind the City-County building. Interestingly, it is a very short distance from the Cadillac Center PeopleMover station, and also a short walk to Randolph Street where many of the east side inbound SMART buses have a stop. But it's not "right downtown" the way many people would style it.

Curious what people think about all this. I think of it more as a demonstration project - the RTA saying, basically, we can do this, and we could do a lot more of it even better if you vote for our millage. Also, importantly, it restores some all-day, if infrequent, service along the two most heavily transited corridors between Detroit and the northern 'burbs.

Just as a side note, I'm not in town, but I would LOVE to be at Somerset early next month when DDOT buses start arriving, just to catch people's reaction.