TRU’s 25th year was an eventful one!
We saw major progress in the quest to Double DDOT, gaining a historic increase of funding for the department, and achieving new contracts for bus drivers and mechanics. Transit was elevated as a major issue in the Detroit mayoral election, as we conducted ride-alongs with every mayoral candidate and hosted a mayoral forum on transit.
We were proud to celebrate 25 years at our 25th anniversary gala, and were honored with testimonial resolutions from Wayne County and Detroit recognizing our work. We had numerous education opportunities this year, with 9 Transit Tuesday Talks, over 57 media appearances, and the second graduating class of our Transportation Civic Academy.
TRU published three reports this year, including our State of Transit report, and reports on the “fix it first” policy for highways and cross-state transit. In our statewide efforts, we saw major success, with $160 million more for local bus operations and new transformational transit projects, a historic increase! Finally, we were proud to grow our staff, with us having three interns this Summer, and new year-round members of the TRU team.
Progress in the Quest to Double DDOT
In our ongoing struggle to double DDOT service across the city, TRU and our allies in the Double DDOT Coalition won an additional $23 million (!) in funding for transit in the city budget, helping DDOT institute two service increases over the course of the year.
After years of advocacy with our friends in Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26 and DDOT’s other unions, we also won major wage increases for DDOT workers, ensuring the agency can recruit and retain drivers, mechanics, and other staff.
Although DDOT still faces a shortage of operable buses, new vehicles are finally arriving, and we’re hopeful that in the coming year, DDOT will finally be able to restore service to pre-pandemic levels.
Elevating Transit as an Election Issue
Improving bus service hasn’t always been a top issue in Detroit’s municipal elections. This year, TRU set out to change that. While we don’t endorse candidates, we wanted to make sure transit was a subject no candidate could afford to ignore.
In June, we hosted a mayoral forum on transit that drew over 150 people in-person and online. With the assistance of our friend Brother Cunningham, we also arranged bus ride-alongs with every mayoral candidate and multiple City Council candidates – 22 in all – educating the candidates on DDOT’s importance to the city and giving them a chance to talk to bus riders. Finally, we prepared a transit-focused questionnaire so voters could familiarize themselves with candidates’ views on the subject.
These efforts bore fruit! Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield identified transit as one of her top 7 focus areas and promised that “every resident will have access to transit that they can count on.” She appointed TRU Executive Director Megan Owens as co-chair of her transition team task force on transportation and mobility. TRU looks forward to working with her and the new City Council in the years to come.
Celebrating at our 25th Anniversary Gala
TRU was founded 25 years ago as a few people who wanted Detroit to have more and better transit. Since then, TRU has become the leading transit advocate in Detroit, and has made a major impact on Detroit. We’ve elevated transit to being seen as a priority and need for our region, not an issue to be ignored. In honor of these achievements, we got over 250 people from TRU and the transit community together to celebrate 25 years of advocacy, education, and mobilization for more and better transit.
A special thanks to everyone who came, whether as a transit advocate, member of TRU, transit agency, government official, ally, or an individual, and celebrating these accomplishments.
We’re proud to have received testimonial resolutions from Wayne County and the City of Detroit recognizing the hard work we’ve done to improve transit in our communities. Thank you!
Public Education on Transit Topics
This year, TRU hosted 9 Transit Tuesday Talks with a variety of guest speakers and topics. We got updates on Detroit transit from the People Mover and DDOT, talked about multimodal transportation in Detroit, and had a community engagement session for Plan Detroit. For the rest of Southeast Michigan, we talked with the RTA on updates on the RTA services, such as the Qline, DAX, and D2A2, along with what’s next. We got updates on SMARTer mobility, SMART’s system rework. Additionally, we brought TRU members to Ann Arbor and talked with TheRide about service & getDowntown, Ann Arbor’s program to get people to take transit and active transportation downtown.We also talked about countywide transit expansion with Calhoun County (Battle Creek area) and Oakland County. Finally, our last Transit Tuesday Talk was on our cross-state transit report.
TRU appeared in the media at least 57 times this year, a bit over once a week! This was across the web, social media, tv, print media and radio, and included a variety of topics. Some highlights included FOX 2 coverage of the State of Transit 2025, an op-ed on state funding in the Free Press, Megan interviewed about Double DDOT on Channel 7, TV coverage of our Double DDOT protests, coverage of our mayoral forum on transit across numerous news channels, The Detroit News publishing our Double DDOT op-ed, Mary Sheffield directly mentioning TRU during the mayoral debate on WXYZ, and numerous interviews by TRU staff, board members, and members across the year.
In the fall, TRU held our second annual Transportation Civic Academy, a ten-week course on transportation planning and policy that drew participants from across the city and region. Participants learned about subjects ranging from the history of transit in Detroit to the nuts and bolts of community organizing and advocacy. The course concluded with group projects on ideas for real-life interventions for the region’s transportation system.
Reports and Research
Back in January, TRU released our 2025 State of Transit report, assessing the state of the region’s transit systems in their recovery from the “long COVID” that has afflicted transit agencies around the country. We plan to make this an annual effort, helping to educate key policymakers on metro Detroit’s transit needs.
We also published two reports with a statewide focus. The first, prepared with the assistance of TRU board member Adam Goodman, was titled “For Michigan Roads, MDOT Needs to ‘Fix it First,’” about how MDOT needs to stop spending billions on highway expansion projects and focus on maintaining existing infrastructure, as well as investing in other transportation options. Our other statewide report was “Reconnecting Michigan: A Vision for Cross-State Transit,” outlining opportunities for Michigan to expand inter-city travel options, like express bus and train service.
Success in the Fight for State Funding
Over a quarter of the funding for Michigan’s transit agencies comes from the state government, so what happens in Lansing has big implications for DDOT, SMART, and other transit providers. In conjunction with the Michigan Public Transit Association and the Amalgamated Transit Union, we brought over 100 people to a Transit Day at the Capitol on March 12, and talked to over 60 legislators in the space of a few hours.
Hundreds more people took action by emailing, calling and meeting with their state legislators, urging them to support a boost for public transit in the state budget after years of declining investment. When the dust settled on a budget deal in October, the state had committed nearly $160 million in additional money for local bus operations, as well as a new fund to support “transformational transit projects” around the state.
Growing the TRU Team
TRU was blessed to host a number of interns this year. Our three Summer interns were Aaron Puno (policy intern), Makenna Litteral (community outreach intern), and Logan Foust (fundraising intern), all college or masters students from UofM and MSU. Continuing into 2026 is Kiersten Bushbaker (research fellow), a UofM student who’s been hard at work collecting data for next year’s State of Transit report.
Theresa De Benedetti joined us early in the year as our communications intern. She worked to improve TRU’s video, social media, and news communications. Theresa will continue next year as our communications associate with more responsibilities over our social media channels and working to publish numerous op-eds. And after graduating college this Winter, Petra Mihalko, TRU’s communications manager, will be hired full time. She’ll coordinate our communications efforts and lead our cross-state transit advocacy.
After working with TRU over the past two years, Lukas Lasecki, our engagement specialist who worked hard on engaging transit riders and working with volunteers, has left our team. They will be studying full time as a student at Oakland University, and will still be volunteering with TRU as time permits. Good luck Lukas!
Onward!
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished over 2025, and we’re looking forward to more victories in 2026! One of our biggest campaigns will be in support of countywide transit in Wayne County – the last of the three primary metro Detroit counties not to fund transit on a countywide basis. Another will be a coalition to reform the Michigan Department of Transportation and win a more holistic approach to transportation investment. With your support, we can help continue building momentum for transit in metro Detroit and around the state!