Time Magazine: Will Light Rail Lay Tracks in Motown

[mogo]

From the Time Magazine Detroit Blog: Will Light Rail Lay Tracks in Motown. Interview with Sandy Baruah, President and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber.

He makes the point that you cannot analyze this through a simple cost/benefit analysis. The benefit to the region is in the business that it helps create along those corridors.

[Crumbled_pavement]

Will light rail lay tracks in Motown? Short answer, not in our lifetime.

[dtowncitylover]

It's not that if Detroit doesn't do this, we'll never have another time around, I'm just afraid that if we don't do this now Detroit will get worse and we will never get out of the hole we are in. I don't think the problems Detroit will be totally solved when we build light rail. However, if we do this now, there is a great probability that Detroit can come back economically and that businesses will return. I think transit oriented development can happen once again.

If anyone gets the Daily Tribune of southeast Oakland county, there is a letter to the editor in today's Sunday edition against light rail. The author notes that we are not like Boston, NYC, or Chicago because they have high rise apartments and businesses. One question to respond: how do you think they got those dense areas? From cars? NO! Transit oriented development.

[BShea]

If you're a Crain's subscriber, there's a big package of stories on all aspects of the light rail proposal, from all aspects [[pro & con). Check it out.

[pffft]

Isn't the Time Detroit house's lease about up? One year, one city etc....

[Fnemecek]

If anyone gets the Daily Tribune of southeast Oakland county, there is a letter to the editor in today's Sunday edition against light rail. The author notes that we are not like Boston, NYC, or Chicago because they have high rise apartments and businesses.

I love those arguments because they demonstrate, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the opponents of light rail are uninformed idiots. My reputtal to the "Detroit doesn't have enough population and/or density" is:

1. Detroit currently has a larger population, and more population density, than either Albuquerque or Pittsburgh;
2. In spite of this, both Albuquerque and Pittsburgh are able to support an effective light-rail system;
3. Therefore, one can logically conclude, that Detroit does indeed have sufficient population and density to support light-right.

[Fnemecek]

Isn't the Time Detroit house's lease about up? One year, one city etc....

Yes, but none of them want to go back to working at Starbucks. Therefore, they are extending the project a little longer.

[professorscott]

I'm always fascinated by the argument "Detroit doesn't need Light Rail because of X", or its alternate formulation, "Light Rail won't work in Detroit because of X". They both represent a very odd form of stunted thinking.

As an example of this, looking back in time, in 1875 it would have been clear to anyone that nobody needed a telephone, so Mr. Bell was wasting his time working on that. Similarly, there was absolutely no demonstrable need for a printing press in 1439, or of automobiles in 1880, or of the internet in 1958.

Clearly, the people who worked on those unnecessary follies were irresponsible dreamers, as no proof of necessity could possibly have been established.

[JJD]

The Time house was purchased by Time, no lease. I believe they are getting ready to donate or sell it though.

[Meddle]

Gotta be some old rail left buried under the pavement from years ago when they knew what they were doing.

Everything old is new again.

[Rocko]

Vernor at Junction....Junction at Fort.....Michigan Avenue at Trumbull....check it out!!

Scrape off the asphalt and let the streetcars roll!

[1KielsonDrive]

Will light rail lay tracks in Motown? Short answer, not in our lifetime.

I certainly hope that we're wrong, but I have to agree with Crumbled on this one.

[1KielsonDrive]

[quote=dtowncitylover;171120]It's not that if Detroit doesn't do this, we'll never have another time around, I'm just afraid that if we don't do this now Detroit will get worse and we will never get out of the hole we are in. I don't think the problems Detroit will be totally solved when we build light rail. However, if we do this now, there is a great probability that Detroit can come back economically and that businesses will return. I think transit oriented development can happen once again.

If anyone gets the Daily Tribune of southeast Oakland county, there is a letter to the editor in today's Sunday edition against light rail. The author notes that we are not like Boston, NYC, or Chicago because they have high rise apartments and businesses. One question to respond: how do you think they got those dense areas? From cars? NO! Transit oriented development.[/quote]
Correct on both counts.

[Tig3rzhark]

Who's the holdouts?

That's what I'd like to know. Who in the Metropolitian Detroit area are the holdouts to regionalized public transportation?

If there is a time to call them out for who they are, now is the time.

[dtowncitylover]

Who's the holdouts?

That's what I'd like to know. Who in the Metropolitian Detroit area are the holdouts to regionalized public transportation?

If there is a time to call them out for who they are, now is the time.

You can go to Oakland County's website and view Patterson's argument against the RTA; to me it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo excuses.

[Tig3rzhark]

I just read it.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

I'm not going to be able to drive again, so I might as well move to a city that has decent public transportation. Unfortunately for me, I have yet to live in such a city and judging by the way things are currently, it seems to me that I would be much better off living elsewhere.

I know that it will take time for me to save enough to finally move to a city where having a car isn't a requirement, because I'm sure that I'll be old and gray before this metro area gets its act together.



I continue to ride my bike as a alternative to asking others for a lift or waiting an eternity for a DDOT or SMART bus to show.

[DetroitDad]

Well, maybe I should say "rarely take the bus".

As a Downtown Detroit employee, resident and married father, I am very excited about the light rail line. Right now, I usually take the People Mover to the correct radial, or go to the transit center, and just take the antiquated bus [[another issue for another time) up to my destination. Right now, those radial buses are five to fifteen minutes apart, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and are reliable enough. The problem is, the damn bus stops every other block, or every block through parts of Downtown, depending on if anyone is waiting. One day it will take me five minutes to go a mile, and the next it will take me twenty. This light rail line will streamline the trip, with no or few stops.

That is why on some days I don't bother with our current mass transit system.

I use mass transit because I want to live in an area that is enjoyable to walk around in [[I find it enjoyable and inspiring). I don't want to worry about "stashing my car" all over town, but sometimes I get tired of walking, or get stuck in bad weather, or have something to carry that I didn't know I'd have, or want to get somewhere a little bit faster than it would take me to walk, or I don't want to arrive to my destination covered in sweat. Now, I'm going to take whatever method is available, either bus, train, or private bus/taxi if no better and cheaper option is available. However, it really wouldn't be hard to "up-sell" me to buying a monthly or season pass. If done right, light rail would make it much easier to sell me on a regional transit pass [[yes, it has to work on all bus, light rail, and the monorail/People Mover).

But, this is just me. Maybe I'm the minority.