DETROIT—The Michigan Legislature passed a bill on Dec. 19 giving the Detroit Regional Mass Transit Authority the green light to establish a governing body to oversee a projected $10.5 billion, tri-county mass transit system that will combine light rail transit and buses. For decades, Detroit has been the only major city in America without a reliable public transportation system.
In early December, government leaders from Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties at last agreed on a mass transit plan that will coordinate the tri-county area of southeast Michigan that includes Detroit.
The seven-year long downward spiral in Michigan's economy, compounded by the rapidly rising price in gasoline, have made car ownership increasingly difficult, and have highlighted the lack of a reliable mass transit system in southeast Michigan. The last time Metro Detroit had a dependable mass transit system was before the 1950s, when the city’s streetcars were sold off to Mexico City.
History was made on Dec. 8 at the offices of the Miller-Canfield law firm in downtown Detroit, when the so-called Big Four—Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr., Wayne and Oakland County executives Robert Ficano and L. Brooks Patterson, along with William Crouchman, chairman of the Macomb County Commission—voted unanimously in favor of chief executive officer of the Detroit Regional Mass Transit Authority, John Hertel's, 25-year plan for mass transit improvement in Metro Detroit.
The current regional bus line in southeast Michigan, called SMART, does not service 400,000 people in the tri-county area living in municipalities that have chosen not to allow the SMART bus system to run through their area. Under the agreement by tri-county leaders, local municipalities cannot opt out of the proposed transportation system.
The first phase of the plan calls for Arterial Rapid Transit. This would consolidate the region's two main bus lines, SMART and DDOT, expanding and standardizing service, and would also bring the Detroit People Mover under the regional umbrella. Phase One also includes a privately-funded light rail project along Woodward Avenue which will connect to the commuter rail from Detroit to Ann Arbor. This phase will break ground in 2010.
The second phase will be the Bus Rapid Transit. These buses will operate on exclusive rights-of-way, physically separated from automobile traffic. Bus Rapid Transit will be implemented in high-traffic corridors and, over time, will replace some Arterial Rapid Transit lines.
Part three calls for the expansion of Bus Rapid Transit and the establishment of a Light Rail system. Light Rail stops will serve the highest-traffic areas and operate at high speed, with at least a mile between each station.
After the Arterial Rapid Transit system is built, between 2009 and 2012, the second and third phases will move forward if ridership is substantial and cost estimates are in line with what the region is willing to pay.
