Duggan: Detroit almost out of large parcels, could expand People Mover

[401don]

Why? I am a transit planner and I cannot understand why I keep seeing comments like this about expanding the people mover. The same technology is being consistently expanded in Vancouver, BC, and shows that it can be successful as a Light Metro. Why can’t we also have nice things?

Light Rail is not going to attract ridership in Metro Detroit any more than buses can unless it is done right, with its own ROW, signal priority, and elevated ROW at key sections. I do not trust the City, Region, and State to do it right. With an elevated Light Metro, you can’t really go as wrong.

We know any expansion of Detroit transit will be incremental. That's just reality. The next step, as was suggested,would be down Michigan Ave. to Corktown. My point was that the streetcar makes way more sense than the People Mover. Are you going to have it run straight out and reverse or make a one way loop? Neither makes sense.