The
Detroit People Mover opened Saturday after being closed for $1.5
million in upgrades since July 20 -- two days earlier than expected.
But you might notice something slightly different when a car goes by
overhead: that's because after 21 years of counter-clockwise operation,
the People Mover is now running clockwise.
The switch will cut
time off the rides between the stops that the Detroit Transportation
Corp., the system's owner and operator, has observed to be the
most-used. After all, when the People Mover was built, the Financial
District was the busiest part of town; now that has shifted up to
Campus Martius and Grand Circus Park, altering travel patterns.
The switch will shave 26 seconds off the full 15-minute loop.
The
construction, which replaced six sections of track, also enables the
Detroit Construction Corp. to more easily flip the direction of the
trains whenever they choose, which might come in handy for large events
like the Final Four in 2009. "They'll examine it on a case-by-case
basis," says Peter Van Dyke, a spokesperson for the agency.
Source: Peter Van Dyke, Berg Muirhead
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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