Detroit, suburbs' bus systems need jump start to grow

[DetroitPlanner]

I think the plan is to start a new authority and then let SMART and DDOT bankrupt.

I would hate to see this happen. There are far too many people relying on public transit in the region. SEMCOG recently surveyed the region and found 225,000 depend on transit to move them around everyday. Many of these folks have access to no car, or are too old/young/poor to drive one. To take that many folks out of the economy, not being able to get to Doctor's visits, school, etc, would be a disaster.

Most likely the RTA would be run like what you see in other cities where the RTA is coordinating the service at a higher level. This would mean no more cannibalizing each others passengers/routes for DDOT and SMART, and a chance for real linkage into the DPM.

Without an RTA and its ability to rationalize the system, and a new source of funding for operating and matching federal funding, you can say goodbye to any higher level service along the major corridors. If both can't provide the service we have now, they won't be able to expand to services with higher operating costs. Yes I know this could be offset by higher ridership, but if the connecting service ain't there, nobody's going to be able to get to routes like Woodward to use them. You have to have enough money to operate all modes or the system won't work.

[iheartthed]

I would hate to see this happen. There are far too many people relying on public transit in the region. SEMCOG recently surveyed the region and found 225,000 depend on transit to move them around everyday. Many of these folks have access to no car, or are too old/young/poor to drive one. To take that many folks out of the economy, not being able to get to Doctor's visits, school, etc, would be a disaster.

Most likely the RTA would be run like what you see in other cities where the RTA is coordinating the service at a higher level. This would mean no more cannibalizing each others passengers/routes for DDOT and SMART, and a chance for real linkage into the DPM.

Without an RTA and its ability to rationalize the system, and a new source of funding for operating and matching federal funding, you can say goodbye to any higher level service along the major corridors. If both can't provide the service we have now, they won't be able to expand to services with higher operating costs. Yes I know this could be offset by higher ridership, but if the connecting service ain't there, nobody's going to be able to get to routes like Woodward to use them. You have to have enough money to operate all modes or the system won't work.

I would guess that they try to keep the management and service coverage abstracted from the public. But when I was reading about the new high speed bus plan it seemed like they are thinking that the best way to get the regional transit authority is to do away with the separate agencies completely instead of a merge.

[DetroitPlanner]

I would guess that they try to keep the management and service coverage abstracted from the public. But when I was reading about the new high speed bus plan it seemed like they are thinking that the best way to get the regional transit authority is to do away with the separate agencies completely instead of a merge.

It seems that this is what Bing wants too. The system however is heavilly supported and used by Detroiters as opposed to suburbanites. This has been a major obstacle for the current RTCC which currently holds the federal purse-strings coming into the Detroit urban area. A merge could happen, but it does not neccessarlily need to. Chicago has CTA, Pace, and Metra operating as one RTA. Each semi-independant. The first thing that needs to happen is better coordination, which is something that the current RTCC does not have the teeth to do.

A quick merge could really have a negative impact on the current ridership. If it don't work for the transit dependant, then it won't work for choice riders either [[the ones that this forum seems to emphasize). Merging is a future possibility, but lets do this right for once.