happy and sad at the same time

[Ltdave]

the family and i were out at Willow Run for the air show yesterday and decided we wanted to stop in and get some Pizza Papalis for dinner on the way home [[we live north of detroit a quite a ways)...

got off the interstate to head over towards Greek Town and with ALL OF THE EVENTS going on [[Tiger game, U-2 concert, Jazz Fest) traffic was HORRENDOUS and way too many streets blocked off, every time i figured i could turn one way to get to Greek Town i had to go straight or turn the opposite direction...

so, i was tickled to see the foot traffic downtown but kind of upset the streets were blocked and we had to drive another hour to get home for dinner...

[bust]

Your anecdote illustrates the need for mass transit. Now that we have the Q Line could that have provided a solution? What do you think of the idea to park up Woodward, North of the crowds, take the Q Line to Campus Martius, and walk a few blocks to the restaurant? Or was the Q line terribly crowded and/or affected by traffic too?

I understand if the thought never entered your mind, especially if you live far North. I grew up in Grosse Pointe and my family never used Detroit mass transit. And I mean never. The last in my family who did were my great grandparents, who rode Detroit streetcars daily, and later the buses -- but not since the 60's.

However as anyone knows who has read my previous posts, I've lived only places with good or great mass transit since Detroit, and now I'm a huge proponent. I hope Detroit vastly improves its network. Not only could it have helped you in your situation, it could have helped everyone else stuck in traffic downtown too. And thereby greatly reduced traffic overall.

But riding mass transit is definitely a learned behavior, and so many locals are not accustomed to it. I wonder how open people are to trying it.

And I wonder if in this case a streetcar could have provided a good solution or of it is hampered by its design. It sounds like it could have helped you, as long as there was room to get on it and it wasn't stuck in traffic itself. But for a comprehensive solution, an infrequent streetcar line, the people mover, and a thin network of infrequent and unreliable buses is far from enough.

[401don]

The Q Line was jammed yesterday, probably lots of joyriders for the last couple of freebie days. You should be glad you didn't get a park because the Greektown rests. were jammed at dinner time. We waited a half hour at Fishbone's. At least you hopefully enjoyed the Air Show and, unlike me, didn't sit through the air show the Indians put on at the Tiger game yesterday.

[emu steve]

[QUOTE=401don;532513]The Q Line was jammed yesterday, probably lots of joyriders for the last couple of freebie days. You should be glad you didn't get a park because the Greektown rests. were jammed at dinner time. We waited a half hour at Fishbone's. At least you hopefully enjoyed the Air Show and, unlike me, didn't sit through the air show the Indians put on at the Tiger game yesterday.[/QUOTE]

Interesting thread.

In a sense downtown is getting to be a victim of its own success.

OTOH, so little was done to prepare for the success [[QLine is a baby step).

To do a [[related) pivot, a friend in D.C. had an extra ticket for the Eagles @ Redskins. Many said, "Thanks but no thanks. Too much a hassle. I'll watch it on TV."

And to continue... This is email from a friend from work, "How about that? Maybe you saw me on tv, had pretty good seats. Nightmare of traffic. "

He went to the Va Tech / WVU game last night at Fedex where the nearest subway station is about 3/4 mile.

To paraphrase a stock broker: "No free lunches on Wall Street."

Any city which wants sports, entertainment, restaurants, etc. etc. has to handle infrastructure issues like roads, parking, mass transit, etc.

The old 'field of dreams': build it and they'll come. [[If they can get there...)

[Shai_Hulud]

Your anecdote illustrates the need for mass transit. Now that we have the Q Line could that have provided a solution? What do you think of the idea to park up Woodward, North of the crowds, take the Q Line to Campus Martius, and walk a few blocks to the restaurant?

With the Qline, there is very little parking on Woodward and most of the surrounding area is metered. The remainder is out of the way and very at your own risk.

A park and ride garage for the Qline somewhere around the blvd would probably be a good investment if we're willing to accept another parking garage.

[emu steve]

With the Qline, there is very little parking on Woodward and most of the surrounding area is metered. The remainder is out of the way and very at your own risk.

A park and ride garage for the Qline somewhere around the blvd would probably be a good investment if we're willing to accept another parking garage.

Agree.

Like it or not, a lot of mass transit [[QLine is 'mass transit' at 5K / day???) is built on the notion that patrons will probably drive or take a bus to a station,probably a terminus, with significant parking, surface or garage, and complete the trip on the subway/streetcar, etc.

When I talked of a "JLine" down Jefferson it would be to have a terminus beyond Belle Isle with either surface or a parking garage and customers could drive say a couple miles to it, park and hop on the JLine to downtown.

I have experienced what LtDave described in the first post in D.C. I had to go to downtown during rush hour and ended up spending one hour and put 3 miles on the odometer. No left turns, one way streets, fighting with pedestrians walking against Don't Walk lights, etc. etc.

Total awful experience.

I flat out refuse to do it anymore.