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TRU’s Transportation Vision for Southeast Michigan
January 2001

Introduction
Transportation Riders United (TRU) proposes this multi-project, comprehensive Transportation Vision for Southeast Michigan. By implementing this TRU Vision, the region will position itself to strengthen the city, build community, and curb urban sprawl. We will also provide a viable urban lifestyle consistent with national trends.
    "Traffic is a royal pain. After a while that surround-sound stereo doesn't make much difference. Add up the time we spend commuting, more than a month out of the year for just a 20-mile round trip. It used to be a snap. And all that time down the drain for what? Living at the end of a cul-de-sac in an area where new strip malls seem to pop up overnight and the only way to get anywhere is in that damn car."

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc., Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2000
    "In the longer term, cities should continue to benefit from demographic trends. Both Generation-Xers and aging baby boomers are migrating back to urban cores--young people for the excitement and the empty nesters for convenience and amenities. The city beckons. Single-family homes are more trouble to maintain than apartments, and suburban traffic congestion has become more aggravating, not to mention time-consuming. Who needs the hassle? Emerging Trends has said it before, but it bears repeating: People want to live closer to where they work and play."

Emerging Trends in Real Estate 1999
The following projects outline steps necessary to develop Detroit into a vibrant urban environment. Public Investment in the TRU Vision results in significant public cost savings as compared to continuing to rely solely on pavement and cars as our transportation system.


Project 1 Market Public Transit
Significantly improve marketing and signage efforts for both DDOT and SMART. Marketing and signage are critical to welcome new customers and improve system reputation, especially for those people who would choose to use transit.

Much of this marketing is no cost. As an example, Mayor Archer and the county executives could use their “bully pulpit” to “Try the Bus” as a good alternative to get to work, games and events. MDOT could suggest “Try the Bus” as an alternative during road-construction projects. Ozone Action should encourage “Try the Bus” on Ozone Action Days. Ask the newspapers to change the “Auto” section of the newspaper to the “Transportation” section. Develop “good news” stories about transit.

In addition, replace bus stop signs with signs that include the bus route ID, name, hours and route diagram following the concept used in Toronto and Chicago. Add map and schedule displays to bus shelters. Produce a joint DDOT-SMART map. Make bus stops visible, attractive public spaces that invite transit usage.

Marketing meets congestion mitigation/air quality (CMAQ) criteria for Federal funding. As with all marketing efforts, the cost of the program would be offset by increased fare-box recovery.


Project 2 Circulating Transit Mall Downtown
Develop a circulating bus mall in Downtown Detroit to replace and improve on the function of Cadillac Square Bus Terminal. This Downtown bus mall could consist of the following elements:
  • The Woodward buses would continue to go straight through downtown, then up Jefferson to the Renaissance Center or the future casino area. Campus Martius would become the Woodward Corridor heart, much as Portland Oregon’s transit square. Ultimately, as a light-rail or SpeedLink* is established on the Woodward corridor, the Campus Martius Park will be the place to be.
  • All other downtown buses would make one clockwise loop around downtown from the reopened State Street to Farmer to Randolph to Congress to Griswold and back to State. Automobile and truck access to bus-mall streets could remain as is. Downtown would create the needed space for a dedicated-bus corridor by removing the few on-street parking spaces along this loop so that automobile flow would not be hindered.
  • DDOT buses would not layover in the immediate downtown area during the day; rather, they would come in, circulate once, and get out. The layover time would be at the end of the line at the City Limits. This would reduce bus traffic, emissions and vehicle noise within the central business district. During night hours, buses would stop along one section of the mall so that passengers can make connections.
  • Consider a small staging area on existing vacant land at Farmer and Bates with driver’s restroom and mechanic on site.
  • Fares could be free within downtown to speed up loading and encourage quick within-downtown trips (like Seattle, Portland or Denver.)
  • Cost would be for shelters and signage throughout the mall. With reduced bus dwell time downtown, efficiency would be increased and therefore operating costs would be decreased.


Project 3 Establish Commuter Rail rather than Expanding I-94 and I-75
Rebuild, but do not increase capacity on I-94 in Detroit. Prior to rebuild, establish a commuter-rail system to serve Ann Arbor, Mount Clemens, and Pontiac (See Attached Cost Estimate). Commuter rail is an excellent tool to mitigate congestion. Commuter rail will reduce traffic volume along this corridor. Even a small decrease in peak-traffic volume will result in significantly improved traffic flow. Based on using state of the art equipment and SEMCOG cost data, this system can be implemented for about $0.25 billion, just a fraction of the $1.3 billion talked about for the first stage of the I-94 Expansion (MDOT misnomer rebuild) project.

As a congestion mitigation and traffic maintenance tool for the I-94 and I-75 projects, the Federal Government can pay for 100 percent of the capital and operating cost for the Regional Rail System


Project 4 DDOT Woodward Corridor Light Rail
Implement light rail on the Woodward Corridor to Ferndale or the Detroit Zoo. (Current capital estimate about $0.5 billion could be paid with mostly Federal money if operating fund is established. Operations cost for light rail should be significantly lower than comparable service using buses.) This system would provide Intermodal connection to the high-speed rail to Chicago. Light rail provides significant benefit for accessing capital funds and increasing acceptability of choice users.

Project 5 DDOT Express Bus System on Major Surface Streets
Establish SpeedLink on Gratiot, Grand River, Michigan, Fort and Jefferson to the city limits (Speedlink.) The SpeedLink system should be based on the Curitiba system and consist of the following elements:
  • Dedicated (curbed) right-of-way for buses only
  • Traffic Light priority
  • Only 1 or 2 stops per mile
  • Quick same level boarding (no steps)
  • Quick fare-management system that doesn’t delay buses and is accepted on other systems
  • Coordinated local feeder-buses
Buses could continue beyond the city limits on non-dedicated lanes. (Entire system could be established for about $12 million per mile.) Using dedicated lanes on surface streets with excess capacity, the express-bus system would significantly increase the quality of service along with increases in operating efficiency. As the system matures, decide whether to convert express buses to light rail or alternative technology.


Project 6 Improve Auto Access to Downtown by reclaiming I-375 as a Surface Street
Fill in I-375 and replace this expressway access by upgrading the existing service drives as multi-lane one-way streets. Develop the reclaimed real estate as high-density office or residential to better merge downtown with the near-east-residential area. As a surface street, it would be simple to access the east riverfront area. The value of the reclaimed real estate would somewhat offset the cost. Current and projected traffic counts along I-375 do not justify the expressway.

Project 7 Improve non-Auto access to Detroit Metro and City Airports
Complete the Detroit-Metro Airport rail study and implement recommendations. Improve access to Downtown from Detroit City Airport, possibly with Speedlink System.

Project 8 Establish Dedicated Funding Source for Transit
Establish a dedicated source of funding for transit such as a procedure to tax each parking space in the SEMCOG region through a special property tax assessment as a dedicated funding source for transit. Through this property tax assessment process, the region could start to equalize the significant apparent difference in parking costs between City and Suburb. In addition, parking lots would shrink to better fit the needs of the users.


*SPEEDLINK is the proposed name for a regional Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system being promoted by the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (MAC). The links to both BRT and the MAC promotional brochure are on the TRU homepage.

If you have read this far, you are interested. Join TRU. Become part of the answer. Since this vision was assembled, the region has taken many small steps in a better direction. Visit the MAC brochure page and see the latest on a regional plan.