Over the past two years, the City of Detroit has analyzed the transit service and needs and gathered a lot of feedback from bus riders and other stakeholders.
The City recently unveiled their final draft of DDOT Reimagined!
Read below for a few of the highlights, and visit the DDOT website to review the full plan.
Join DDOT’s virtual public meeting on the plan where they’ll take official public feedback on Thursday, February 15, at 5pm. Or send your feedback to ddotcomments@detroitmi.gov before March 17.
DDOT Reimagined is the product of a good amount of public engagement:
In addition to analyzing data and going all around the City with their mobile classroom bus, TRU leaders are proud to have helped guide the process with regular stakeholder meetings with DDOT leaders and consultants.
The highlight of the plan is that DDOT will be working to improve bus frequency a lot!
Once fully implemented, every DDOT route would run at least every 30 minutes, with the top seven routes running every 10 minutes or better! Now that’s serious city transit service, where the bus is there when you need it.
The plan includes a number of route adjustments. They did restore the Conant bus initially slated for removal based on public feedback.
Even with all these adjustments, more than 98% of Detroiters will still be within 1/4 mile of a bus stop, as will almost every job in the City:
The biggest improvements come looking at the more frequent routes, which 84% of Detroiters will live within 1/4 mile of and 95% of jobs will be close to.
The plan also includes improvements in passenger facilities, especially along Enhanced routes:
Overall, we at TRU think its a great plan.
Make sure you visit the DDOT website to review the full plan and then share your own ideas at DDOT’s virtual public meeting on the plan on Thursday, February 15, at 5pm. Or send your feedback to ddotcomments@detroitmi.gov before March 17.
However, Detroit does not yet have the funding, drivers, or vehicles needed to implement this plan.
This plan should come with a big *asterix* by it, as DDOT notes it may take five years to fully implement. And that’s IF they get the funding for it.
In addition to the notes above, persuading the State of Michigan to boost local bus funding will go a long way towards enabling DDOT to implement this great plan. So make sure to tell your State Legislators to boost funding for transit!