What Michigan Could Build: SOAR Reform

With the Legislature coming back in session for a few short weeks, we’re ready to put wind back in the sails of transit investment! On the agenda is a SOAR-reform package that would invest $2 billion over ten years in transformational transit, rail, and other mobility projects. But it’s a few votes short of passing and the transit funding is at serious risk of being cut!

Help Michigan’s leaders understand what our state could build with the full $2 billion proposed for transit:

Imagine transit connecting Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids in a single easy ride!

It’s possible! An express bus could be operating within a year, providing a dozen trips a day in comfortable wi-fi-enabled coaches, if we invested in it.

And there are rail lines already connecting these communities, along with Brighton and Holland, which could run passenger trains if we invest in it. It would benefit not only the students, workers, and shoppers who rode it, imagine the decreased traffic on our current highways!

Imagine Woodward rapid transit!

We finally could have quick convenient connections linking downtown and midtown Detroit with Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Pontiac!

We could have similar rapid transit along Gratiot and Michigan Ave! Strategic investments in dedicated transit lanes and transit priority at traffic signals could make the transit ride competitively fast as driving, without the cost or stress. It’s been studied many times – we just need leaders to fund it.

Imagine express options to the airport!

Did you know Detroit and Ann Arbor have express transit to Metro Airport? Other cities could too! Imagine dropping your car off in Sterling Heights, Troy, or Novi and getting dropped off at the airport for less than $10. With the right investments, the same could happen in cities across Michigan, providing convenient connections to their airports.

Imagine if bus services ran reliably every ten minutes!

This is normal in many major metropolitan areas and should be in cities across Michigan! With serious transit investment by state leaders, we could eliminate long waits at inhospitable bus stops for seniors, students, and other riders. Imagine if a broken down car or missed bus was only a small hiccup in a worker’s schedule, instead of a job-threatening delay.

Imagine frequent convenient rail connections across the state.

There’s an Amtrak train that links Chicago with Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Royal Oak, and Pontiac. While useful, it only runs 2-3 times a day, often at inconvenient times. Imagine if it ran 6-8 times every day, smoothly connecting among all those cities at times that worked for your schedule!

Imagine a train connecting northern and southeast Michigan!

There’s no reason we can’t connect northern and southern Michigan with an easy, attractive train, if Michigan leaders invest in it. It’d be great for students, tourists, and anyone who can’t drive or hates long drives. Rail lines already connect Toledo, Ann Arbor, Howell, Owosso, Mt. Pleasant, Cadillac, Traverse City, and Petoskey and the federal government is investing billions in rail improvements, IF states invest too.

And imagine if the train that links Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Pontiac also continued up to Flint, Saginaw, and Bay City? Why shouldn’t the tri-cities area be conveniently connected to southeast and southwest Michigan for people who can’t or don’t want to drive? That service used to exist and could once again.

These services are totally normal, expected, and utilized in cities across the US and the world. Why not here?

The biggest barrier to all of these transformational transit options are state leaders willing to invest in them and to make that investment a serious priority. Yes, it’d have a significant cost, but the return on that investment would be enormous – making Michigan a more affordable, more sustainable, and more attractive place to live, work, shop, and invest!

Read our handout and share it with your Legislators!