SMART bus milliage vote.

[Danny]

This is it folks, Vote on the SMART bus milliage on August 3rd to determine the fate of our regional transit system. The Advertisements are all over every last SMART bus. A yes vote will keep SMART busses running in your area. A no vote will eliminate all SMART busses in the Metro-Detroit area. Your choice.

I'm going to vote YES, YES, YES on SMART.

[Detroitnerd]

Regional transit system? I guess you could say that [[as opposed to city-limits transit system) but it is cause for bitter laughter.

[DetroitPlanner]

I will not vote yes on this. Why? Because I can't.

[professorscott]

Regional transit system? I guess you could say that [[as opposed to city-limits transit system) but it is cause for bitter laughter.

Well, between DDOT, SMART, the People Mover, Transit Windsor, Flint MTA and Blue Water Transit, we actually do have a regional transit system. Fragmented, yes; minimalist and inadequate, yes; cumbersome to use, yes; but regional transit anyhow.

We are getting what we are paying for. Vote YES so that, at least, we don't backslide yet further. In 1910 Detroit had a transit system to die for; in 2010 metro Detroit has a transit menagerie that you can grow old and die waiting for, but at least we have that little. Let's not get any worse.

Vote YES, and post to your other blogs to vote YES, and call up your friends who don't blog [[or Facebook them, or Tweet them, or whatever the hell) and tell them to vote YES.

[hamtown mike]

I'm assuming this is a millage increase on homes and or other property. I would be curious to know what percentage of those who utilize mass transit on a regular basis own property affected by this millage increase.

Our forefathers stood up against taxation without representation. Sadly we have turned the corner and have far too much representation for those who contribute little to nothing to the tax rolls.

This August, let's ask voters to bring a valid ID and a W2 to the polls!!!

Really not a crackpot-just making an extreme statement ala Robert Burns A Modest Proposal to make a point.

[Detroitnerd]

Really not a crackpot-just making an extreme statement ala Robert Burns A Modest Proposal to make a point.

Jonathan Swift?

[Bearinabox]

I'm assuming this is a millage increase on homes and or other property.

Nope, not an increase. If it passes, the existing millage will remain in place.

[DetroitPlanner]

Even if it passes to will mean to many that the amount that they pay to support the millage will go down. This is due to the shrinking SEVs in the region.

Incidentlally I support the millage. I can't pay it because City residents are automatically opted out, though we do pay effectively three times the millage to support DDOT.

If you want better transit folks you have to pay for it. Many on this board have talk ad nauseum about issues with Detroit to Ann Arbor or Woodward Rail. If you won't pay for this, how can you support higher end services like commuter rail, LRT or BRT?

[Novine]

"Our forefathers stood up against taxation without representation. Sadly we have turned the corner and have far too much representation for those who contribute little to nothing to the tax rolls."

Getting up on your high horse? It's not like any other mode of transportation is paying its way. Our roads are a disaster because those of us who use it every day don't pay the full cost of driving.

[Zacha341]

Withstanding the lack of jobs to buss too, the ridership includes more home owners who have long since dispensed with car notes and insurance in order to keep their homes.

I'm assuming this is a millage increase on homes and or other property. I would be curious to know what percentage of those who utilize mass transit on a regular basis own property affected by this millage increase.

Our forefathers stood up against taxation without representation. Sadly we have turned the corner and have far too much representation for those who contribute little to nothing to the tax rolls.

This August, let's ask voters to bring a valid ID and a W2 to the polls!!!

Really not a crackpot-just making an extreme statement ala Robert Burns A Modest Proposal to make a point.

[DetroitDad]

You can click on the intersection links for coordinated Google Street Views of those places.

Having rode the Smart system regularly in Livonia, before Livonia decided to pull out of the system, I can say that it was a complete waste.

I used to take it from the Rosedale neighborhood on Plymouth and Merriman Road. There was no place in the area to get information, I had to dig up information on line. Back then, the official transit sites were often not working right. I had to go to one site for a map to find my route, and a completely different site for schedules.

Even in Rosedale's density, it still took several; suburban blocks to get out to the main road, and another half block to the bus stop. I was lucky I lived so close compared to the rest of the neighborhood. The bus stop didn't actually exist in any form, except for a sign in the hugs patch of grass between the narrow sidewalk and busy Plymouth Road. The bus, for most, was not actually accessible to those in wheel chairs, but the bus did have a bike rack.

Now, the bus schedule was interesting, it didn't tell you when the bus was actually expected to arrive, just that they were 45 minutes apart. So, I just knew that the bus would be arriving sometime in the next 45 minutes [[the buses in the Smart system can be spaced further apart on other routes, making riders wait for a full hour in some cases). Making matters worse, I was taking it back to my new apartment Downtown, and this Smart route stopped at seven, it was just after six. I had read stories about buses not arriving, or cutting out early. What if I had missed the last bus?

So there I was, standing all alone, with no other pedestrians in sight, next to a sign pole on the patch of grass between an unused sidewalk and one of the regions busiest suburban feeder street, unsure that my bus was even coming. I felt so out of place too, like everyone who was driving by must think I had a DUI or something.

The bus finally did come, it was five minutes late. The buss made a few stops, one at the mall, where a senior got on, and then again at the Telegraph McDonalds, where the driver got out to grab something to eat [[we were allowed to "stretch our legs", but were instructed to be back in ten minutes), and again at Detroit Diesel, to pick up some employees trying to get home. The Plymouth Road SMART Line terminated at Grand River, a somewhat desolate corner in the late evening, but everyone on my bus happened to be waiting for the DDOT bus to Downtown, at the Grand River bus stop, just a couple blocks from where we got dropped off.

The DDOT line was great, only five minutes apart, or ten to fifteen at night or on weekends. The DDOT lines on the radials operate 24 hours. That DDOT Grand River line was busier though, stopping every couple blocks to let people on or off. I noticed that the bus tended to pass people who didn't frantically wave their arms, or stand in the middle of the lane we were in.

I made that trip regularly enough. Some days it would take over two hours to complete that commute, in a car it would take about twenty minutes, or maybe thirty at rush hour.

I was very careful about being on time for the buses, and taught my friends the system. Unfortunately, all of us were eventually marooned at the Grand River and Plymouth stop , or at the Detroit boarder, as it turns out some DDOT routes duplicate some SMART routes [[resource waste), usually because the Smart schedule had changed without notice, quit early, or because it was a holiday [[DDOT, SMART, and the People Mover change routes or close for almost all holidays, a problem if you want to be with family for the day, or have a job that doesn't acknowledge holidays like President's Day, 4th of July, or Memorial Day).

I never had any other problems with crime or strange encounters during those trips, but have been stuck walking from Telegraph to Merriman, or picking a marooned friend up from a West side urban prairie.

[Detroit500]

Should be interesting to see if this passes. For some reason I don't see it happening.

[fryar]

As a renter, I am under the impression that I pay the property tax. I'm under no illusion that I am legally liable for it, but I have a pretty good idea that the funds for it are taken out of my rental income.

I would vote for it, but I also would be living in Detroit, so I would not have a say. I agree that the system did seem to pretty much suck, but what are they going to do, just drop busing entirely? This wouldn't be some kind of clever scheme to start over or operate a more unified service with DDOT, I take it? This sounds like a way of making it minimally less painful to continue with business as usual instead of shrinking intelligently [[like smart growth, but the other way around).

[professorscott]

I'm surprised there's any discussion about this at all. It's just a millage renewal, nothing more or less.

If any county doesn't pass the millage, I think the result would be that all SMART service in that county would end almost immediately.

[Danny]

The SMART milliage renewal is VERY, VERY important to our regional transit system in the Metro-Detroit Area. A yes vote will keep SMART bus system going. A no vote will SMART busses dissapear.

What the Metro-Detroit do without its SMART bus system? Loss of jobs mean increase in unemployment, less consumer confidence in Detroit and suburban areas. More traffic congestions in our roads means more ozone humid and haze pollution that could lead to more health problems. People who are disabled and live the suburbs or Detroit will not be able to go anywhere in long distances by themselves.

In 1990s Canton TWP, Northville TWP, Northville and Novi opt out SMART and loss fewer regional dollars. Now they rely on people who use their cars to get those big boxes and or their homes.


In 2007 Livonia opt out SMART and loss a whole lot of regional dollars. Today their downtown is no town, more manfacturing plants are closing. Quicken Loans WHQ is tired of Livonia and plans to move to Downtown Detroit.

In 2009, D-DOT authorities want to eliminate Sunday bus services. But the Detroiters say NO WAY!

The State of Michigan and its cities are still suffering a long 10 year or more ecomonic recession with NO end in site. Detroit and its suburbs are also in the mix and leaders are blabbing their mouths on national T.V. saying 'We are going to do this and we are going to do that.' Instead our leaders are playing happy talk show horses instead of getting up from their offices and take action for regional growth.

I and the People of Michigan don't want to see a Metro-Detroit Area without a mass regional transit system. Therefore on August 3rd. get yourselves from own places and vote for leadership and decide if you want regionalization or isolation for the SMART busses.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Becuase Metro-Detroit needs regionalization and public transit for Neda's sake.

[fryar]

Because Metro-Detroit needs regionalization and public transit for Neda's sake.

Dude! Neda might or might not think it so totally lame that SE Mich can't friggin' coordinate itself and get along well enough to pay for a regional bus system, those spoiled hateful little sons-o-guns, but I don't imagine it would touch her, personally.

I think you should all vote yes, guys, I mean obviously, but whatevs, it's your boat that's sinking, not mine, know what I mean?