Detroit bus system major impediment to students graduating from high school

[Tig3rzhark]

http://michigancitizen.com/print_thi...6&sdetail=7950

As a Cass Tech graduate, I can sympathize with the frustration of trying to get to school on time with the lateness of these buses.

I would like to offer an alternative:

Many schools are within biking distance of residences. Those that are currently dependent on the bus to get to class, should instead, ride their bikes to school. Also, the schools should have bike racks available, as is already made available at the Detroit Public Libraries.

[lilpup]

What is the longest distance a high school student has to travel to get to their local school?

[Hypestyles]

interesting.. with the latest closings & consolidations, that will again re-arrange the distance various students travel..

and with the issue of bike-riding, Detroit needs to have more bike paths throughout the city.. I suspect that many in the city neighborhoods and city gov't don't even think about this, it's looked as an issue for "white hipsters"..

[Diehard]

I'm sure biking would work for some [[I know I did it as a kid), but there are lots of "what ifs": What if the kid doesn't have a bike? What if he/she is disabled or otherwise unable to ride? What about those 10-below-zero days? What about dangerous characters lurking along the way? What if the kid needs to carry a tuba? It's a great idea, but not one the schools can rely on.
I can't load the story to read it, but can someone answer this: I know I've seen lots of Detroit Public Schools buses out and about. Does the school district provide any transportation for students? Or are they on their own?

[EastsideAl]

Cass Tech students at least, and probably a number of others now, come from all over the city. When I was there I had a relatively short ride from the near east side, and even back then the buses were so undependable I had to give myself well over an hour in the morning. Friends of mine who came from up the Kelly Rd. area took forever to get there, and were out in the very early, very cold, very dark morning every school day for much of the year.

[Bearinabox]

What bothered me about the article is this:

Detroit Department of Transportation [[DDOT) buses are refusing to pick up students under the guise buses are full, leaving students as sitting ducks for violence.

They're making it sound as though DDOT is conspiring to get students attacked by refusing to pick them up. Believe it or not, there is a limit to the number of people you can cram onto one city bus, and that limit is routinely reached on routes that serve DPS high schools. Try riding the Fenkell near Cooley just before school starts, or the Grand River near Northwestern. You won't be able to breathe.

What the Citizen should be saying, if they were interested in making the situation better and not just rabble-rousing, is "our bus system is so underfunded that they can't even put enough buses out there to get our kids to school on time. This is ridiculous. Here is how we should go about increasing the revenue available to DDOT so they can provide adequate bus service for our city." Instead, they make it look like DDOT's management is the problem, when DDOT is more or less exactly what we, the electorate, have made it.

[313WX]

I can't load the story to read it, but can someone answer this: I know I've seen lots of Detroit Public Schools buses out and about. Does the school district provide any transportation for students? Or are they on their own?

I remember hearing Bob Bobb this past summer saying they would only be used for the pickup and drop-off of handicapped and special ed students.

I'm not sure if that's still true.

[DetroitTeacher]

DPS buses are not used for all students [[at least not in high school). My students need to catch public transportation or walk/get a ride to school. I do see a DPS bus picking up some younger kids along Chalfonte, near Cooley, in the wee hours of the morning [[before 7am) on my way to work. Many of my kids are late to 1st hour because of bus issues. Many kids say the bus never came or drove right by them. I can't fault the kids for that, at least they continued walking and actually came to school.

[Danny]

What ever happen to Detroit school busses picking up students from main roads for from their homes? There has to be a solution.

You all folks remember the shooting problems on the corner gas station at W.Warren Ave. and Southfield Rd. cause by a gang war between the Clown Squads and Joy Roads. It was very horrible to see more Detroit kids die in the streets before they get home.

[Todd_Scott]

and with the issue of bike-riding, Detroit needs to have more bike paths throughout the city.. I suspect that many in the city neighborhoods and city gov't don't even think about this, it's looked as an issue for "white hipsters"..

We [[Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance) are working on more bike paths in Detroit. We expect about 9 bike-related projects will start or be completed within the next 12 months. Things are progressing.

As some who works with the city of Detroit on a regular basis, I can assure you that biking is not seen as just a white urban hipster activity. The only color associated with this effort is green.

[English]

When I was attending Renaissance HS in the early 1990s, I wouldn't have biked if the racks were outside. I would have been worried about it getting stolen... is that no longer a problem?

[Detroit Stylin]

When I was attending Renaissance HS in the early 1990s, I wouldn't have biked if the racks were outside. I would have been worried about it getting stolen... is that no longer a problem?

Makes Much sense to me especially when one considers what schools in what areas are involved.

[DetroitTeacher]

Bikes wouldn't last 2 minutes outside of Cooley. I wouldn't be worried about KIDS taking them so much as the neighborhood people who keep breaking into cars in our parking lot and who keep stealing our fences!

[lilpup]

bike lockers

[Trainman]

Public bus service only works when it is convenient and easy to use compared to driving. The politics, large freeway expansions, high existing transit taxes and greed in southeast Michigan are all good reasons to defeat the SMART Property Tax Renewal next August 2010.

The time is right for Michigan to get rid of both SMART and DDOT and let others do the job that are willing to fight the dirty politics in Lansing, fill the buses up and get federal transit grants by fighting the road lobbyists.

Top transit managers are doing nothing today despite the need to get people to work at the many suburban jobs that many inner city workers want or need. These managers only care about raising local taxes to balance their budget and they know it. It’s time for them to leave the transportation industry because they are dinosaurs of a long time ago when fuel taxes and local taxes were plentiful with good union jobs.

It’s time for Wal-Mart to pay and to go after the MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION by means of force which means to vote NO. My neighborhood is turning into a slum as a result of the SEMCOG plans that took away much needed state funds for existing transportation needs to match federal grants for NEW needs of expanding freeways. My Civil Rights of 1964 complaint was turned down because the large expansions are considered existing needs by the Federal Transit Administration and the large Livonia buses are not considered an existing need because SMART is a now local charity cause to get Grandma to the doctors office while top Wal-Mart officials make Millions of dollars per year, drive big cars and live in Mansions by turning Livonia into a ghetto. They destroyed a large bus shelter and got big tax breaks by our city.

Take a drive along Plymouth Road and see the big trucks with Chinese goods made by slave labor and look at the boarded up stores and abandoned cars and even a few boarded up homes. This is what corporate greed and the slashing of federal and state funding does and why we all need to say HELL NO to SMART unless they support my cause in Trainman’s save the.. in DETROIT LINKS to go after corrupt government officials who won’t give the working class people an honest decent chance to earn a living.

The bulldozers are coming in full $2 Billion force and they will rip apart what is left of Detroit and Livonia and the rest of the inner suburbs without your vote of NO next August 2010