For all of the excitement and promise generated by the idea of sleek commuter trains running down Woodward Avenue, building a metro system that will unlock people from their cars likely relies on two things in historically short supply: money and regional unity.
It's not an impossible conundrum, advocates say; and Metro Detroit is perhaps closer now than its been in decades to having a real plan to provide residents the option to live, work and play in the region without ever sitting behind a steering wheel.
"We're on the cusp of so much," says advocacy group Transportation Riders Union Executive Director Megan Owens. "In the next year or two, there's a real chance that we could have our first enhanced express buses, our first light rail system. We could really see a dramatic change if the funding and political squabbles don't prevent it."
Jonathan Swatosh, deputy director of the Regional Transit Coordinating Council, agrees, and says the group's Arterial Rapid Transit plan, although less sexy than the other well-publicized components in its 25-year, $15 billion comprehensive plan, could be a key starting point. The arterial plan would boost vital neighborhood transit veins by improving bus stops, making bus schedules both more frequent and easier to access, and putting hybrid buses with traffic light priority on more metro city streets.
"Most people get excited about the talk about rapid transit – light rail and bus rapid transit, which is an exciting option," Swatosh says. "But the real important part of our regional transit plan starts with the improvement of neighborhood transit; in increasing fixed route services, providing more community and para-transit services, and the beginning of a regional express bus service."
The arterial plan, or ART, is cheaper to implement, costing less than 2 to 3 percent of the plan's later-stage components, and doesn't require lengthy qualifying rounds to tap federal transit funds. But the step still requires a solid funding plan and legislation to create a regional agency with the taxing authority to keep the system running, Swatosh says.
"ART to me is the critical strategy," he says. "But the big benchmark is [creating] the regional authority. We've got a well-known deadline of June 30 to come up with those plans," he says.
Creating a dedicated funding pot would mark a big change in Metro Detroit's commitment to creating a choice transit system. Metro Detroit spends about $75 per capita on transit, Swatosh says, a dismal amount compared to the $185 per capita the nation's other top metro regions provide.
Money makes the world go 'round (And buses. And trains.)
"We've always had the same issues here, and that hasn't gone away," says Carmine Palombo, director of transportation services for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, or SEMCOG. "We need an authority … We need legislation that provides an entity to run all of the public transit system; and we need funding."
Capital funds for things like the planned Ann Arbor to Detroit commuter rail line will likely come from federal stimulus dollars, Palombo says. But operating costs for the plan will come from a hodge-podge of government agencies while "we wrestle with the legislature at the state level to get a dedicated source of funding for this," he said. "There isn't a source of money to operate relatively large capital transit projects anywhere."
Local transit authorities are feeling the pinch as well. Ann Arbor's Transit Authority, for example, has seen a 40 percent increase in ridership during the past four years, but its funding pool has remained virtually static since 1997, says Mary Stasiak, manager of community relations for the authority.
Falling property values in the current recession have put pressure on a major funding source – a property tax millage. Add in rising gas prices and tough decisions are becoming commonplace, she says.
"We constantly have to cut," Stasiak says. "There needs to be other [funding] options."
In particular, the system isn't just attracting people without cars. Stasiak notes that arrangements with big Ann Arbor employers like University of Michigan and the Downtown Development Authority make local bus travel free for many staff, students and employees. They could do more, she says, with more money and a pervasive understanding that transit isn't really about moving people who have no other choice, but about investing in our region and creating opportunity for economic development.
SEMCOG estimates that every dollar spent on transit results in a $4 to $8 return.
"We're in an industry where we are attracting more business, but in a way it's backfiring," she says. "We can't continue to serve all this new ridership … There's a fundamental misunderstanding of how public transit benefits the economy, creates jobs, allows people to live wherever they want and creates a better quality of life."
That could change, and relatively quickly, says Jonathan Levine, chair of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at UM's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Other metro regions have proven it's possible.
A survey on walkable and transit-friendly urban areas by Levine's colleague, Christopher Leinberger, ranked Washington D.C. and San Francisco in the top 3 of 30 metro areas. [Metro Detroit ranked a respectable 18; with Midtown Detroit, Birmingham and Ann Arbor drawing the recognition]. But of the 20 or so areas in Washington D.C. mentioned in the report, about 17 didn't exist two decades ago. "You can change," he said. "History isn't our destiny."
Key to creating the type of environment where people are likely to opt for transit over cars, however, is smart land planning; and dealing with community wariness about compromising community isolation over regional unity.
Communities that are built to accommodate garage-to-downtown parking lot travel will invite just that, he says. But build an area that's designed around pedestrians and transit that makes it easy to travel to other areas designed the same way, with less free parking and reliable transit services, "there's a reasonable chance that someone would give it a try," he says.
Can't we all just get along?
The hiccup in Southeast Michigan to designing such areas isn't just neighbor complaints about development and traffic concerns at local city counsels, Levine said, but also a "sociodemographic impact, although they won't say it," he says.
In other words, Levine says, creating a viable transit system would also mean grappling with class and race issues in the region on a visceral level; sitting thigh-to-thigh on a bus with someone who makes less than you do, or has a different color skin would force interaction that's not happening today during the morning rush-hour down I-75.
Another issue is getting cities and suburbs to share resources, potentially a tough task. "We've got some city-suburb rivalries to overcome," he says. And effective transit on a regional level means that some areas receive greater services than others, which could cause some communities to balk at joining the system. "I worry that if we organize our system as a confederation of municipalities, that some will take their ball and go home," he says.
The way municipalities wield their political power will be important to the outcome. "The more people see transit-supportive land uses and effective transit in their region, the more they will tend to support expansion to the metropolitan level," he says.
Individual municipalities can also advocate for regional transit; most effectively to regional authorities with taxing powers, like the one that Swatosh hopes to create. Levine says a regional authority might just be the thing to ensure that there's system integrity, and to prevent certain communities from opting out of the system, creating system gaps and funding issues.
Palombo tends to agree. "We should be all in or all out. It's hard to run an effective service if you're trying to provide it to communities that are in or out."
Michelle Martinez is a freelance writer and editor who has reported on Metro Detroit businesses and issues for five years. This is her first story for Metromode.
Photos:
People Mover
In route to Detroit from Birmingham.
Ann Arbor Amtrak
Blake Transit Center
(BTC) in downtown Ann Arbor
Johnathon Levine
Many modes of transit
Photographs by Detroit Photographer Marvin Shaouni Marvin Shaouni is the Managing Photographer for Metromode & Model Contact Marvin
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