Should the Regional Transit Authority leave those behind that don't want transit?

[313WX]

It looks like there's going to be a war between Amtrak, and all of the freight train companies to get a commuter rail project started.

Considering the history of the metro Detroit's politics, I'm pretty realistic that it may take many years for such a project to happen.

Politics in Oakland and Macomb county would have to change for the better and the only chance we have for it to change to support the RTA, would be to play at the construction projects and the years of long traffic that are on the horizon. We could play at the reality that should the RTA's proposal fail a second time even with some modifications to satisfy these counties, that their future will be spent waiting in long traffic for the next 12 years.

The reality is we must change the way we look at mass transit and our commuting pattern.

After 40+ years of unprecedented collective economic disvestment, part of the problem with building a rapid transit system in Detroit is that [[relative to other metro areas) you have a very small share of workers commuting to a specific center of employment [[this hurt our census numbers compared to places like Atlanta or Houston as well, but that's a different topic). In fact, until Dan Gilbert located his umbrella of companies downtown, the city would witness a net decline in daytime population.

When you have one huge group of workes going to Troy, another huge group going to Auburn Hills, another huge group going to Southfield, another huge group going to Warren and another huge group going to Dearborn, you have to convince all of these individuals how strategically built transit lines in/out of Detroit will benefit them.

However, the fact is is even if people eventually get pissed off at the sheer amount of construction traffic they must sit in, it would simply be unrealistic [[and unaffordable) to invest in rapid transit lines that takes everyone to the front door of their office parks in these suburban micro centers.