Shocking new news from Forbes: Detroit’s got a lousy commute.
"Forbes.com looked at the 75 largest metro areas in the U.S. and evaluated them based on traffic delays, travel times and how efficiently commuters use existing infrastructure. The worst commutes were those that ate up the most hours and were the least reliable. The best commutes were in cities with short, dependable
treks to the office, where fellow commuters efficiently use transit options to reduce congestion. . .
"Detroit is losing population and has one of the worst commutes in America. Transit design in Motown is, not unexpectedly, tailored to the car, yet traffic patterns aren’t smooth. The average Detroit commuter is delayed 54 hours a year, . . . more than Chicago or Boston, 46 hours each. When you add up all the people that walk, carpool or take pubic transit to work, it’s only 11% of the Detroit commuting population; that’s the worst of any big city in America. . ."
It’s interesting that the same day of the Forbes article, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that, "Motorists in metro Atlanta aren’t just venting about the nation’s second worst commute. They’re willing to pay more at the cash register for buses and trains that could help alleviate it, according to an 11-county survey released Thursday.
"Asked if they would support a 1 percent sales tax to fund a specific list of transportation projects, including rail and bus service, 58 percent of respondents said yes. That support held across the region, from inner counties to the suburbs. And it cut across gender, race, age and income level as well. . .
"The transit board is having public comment sessions on a wide-ranging plan that would roughly double the total amount spent on transit in the region to $54 billion from now through 2030. The plan calls for expanding MARTA in three directions, lacing the region with bus lines and adding light rail networks that link spots within metro Atlanta and connect it to more distant cities such as Athens and Gainesville."