Detroit seeks to eliminate 3 bus routes, cut hours on others

[Crumbled_pavement]

There's another thread on this going: http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...-for-June-2011. Check it out!

There are 7 public comment meetings set for this week where DDOT will detail these changes and allow the public to comment about these proposed cuts. I'm going to try to attend one of the meetings to offer my input about these changes [["why are fare increases not being considered before just simply cutting more service.....?" see the link above for more on this). If transit is important to you, even if you don't use it, this is the opportunity for you to speak out on this topic. DDOT is also accepting emails and letters on the topic. I wrote one letter already.

Public hearings will be held May 10 thru 13, 2011. For more info see:
http://www.detroitmi.gov/portals/0/docs/deptoftransportation/PDFs/2011/SERVICE_CHANGE_BOOKLET_FOR_JUNE_2011.PDF

My problem is I don't know how I feel about this issue. If the money isn't there, it isn't there. The issue that comes in to play is that the less services the city provides while still charging the same taxes the more people leave. The more people that leave the less tax base is left to collect from and the more services have to be cut. The cycle continues and continues. This area is so exasperating. It seems Detroit will never just hit the bottom so we can start climbing up again. We're just free falling in a bottomless pit.

[professorscott]

Well, the solution to providing public transportation could kind of line up with the Mayor's overall vision for the city: concentrating services in the areas where lots of people still live. Then it wouldn't be a matter of cutting but rather of a complete redesign of bus service.

DDOT still provides service on a grid, which might have made sense when there were 1.8 million people and the DSR provided a billion passenger-trips a year, but it doesn't make sense anymore, and the cuts just reduce the availability of what is left to those who remain. It is worth remembering that, while Detroit has lost perhaps 58% of its population since the mid 1950s, it has reduced transit service [[measured in trips per week) by well over 90%.

A better system for Detroit would be a hubs-and-spokes system, with a mini transit center in the core of each thriving neighborhood, frequent service between these transit centers, and buses - perhaps small ones - providing trips from the hubs into the neighborhoods and business areas. But this would be a complete redesign and I don't think Detroit has anyone on staff who is able to, and has the time to, do such a thing. Of course if Detroit would like to do something bold like this, your kindly old Professor would be happy to help