We at TRU believe everyone should be able to get where they need to go, regardless of whether they drive.
Yet for decades, a few local politicians have blocked residents of parts of southeast Michigan from event voting whether they want to invest in transit!
In 2022, with your support, we succeeded in expanding public transit throughout all of Oakland County, opening up job and recreation opportunities for tens of thousands of our neighbors.
This may be the year transit expands throughout all of Wayne County too!
At an event last week, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans announced his support for extending improved public transit across Michigan’s largest county.
If you’re a Wayne County resident and support countywide transit, use our quick action tool to tell CEO Evans and the County Commission to make sure it gets on the ballot this year!
Instead of fixed-route transit that connects to neighboring cities, some of the largest municipalities in the county, like Canton and Livonia, only offer their residents limited dial-a-ride services, available only to seniors and people with disabilities, within very limited geographic areas. Some 350,000 residents live in communities that lack fixed-route transit.
“I live in a community [Canton] where I’d have to walk eight miles to get to the first bus. Does that somehow jibe with getting people to workforce development and getting people who need additional resources such as medical care? It just doesn’t.”
– Wayne County Executive Warren Evans
In order to get a countywide transit tax proposal on the ballot, the proposal must first be approved by the Wayne County Commission. Please email your Commissioner and thank County Executive Evans for his leadership!
Ensuring Transit Throughout All of Wayne County
Detroiters and residents in 27 Wayne County communities already have at least basic transit services, including traditional buses on fixed routes and paratransit services providing advanced reservation door-to-door rides for seniors and people with disabilities. That would not change.
Residents in the 15 communities in Wayne County that are not part of SMART or DDOT would get new transit services for their 1 mil investment, the types of which would depend on their density, destinations, and need. In every community, seniors and residents with disabilities would finally have the same freedom of movement that seniors in Holly and Wixom are now enjoying – rides that don’t end at their township’s borders. (Watch this video about two such seniors!)
This would also unlock thousands more job opportunities in job-rich places like Plymouth, Canton, and Livonia, connecting people willing and able to work with employers who need workers, without requiring each worker be physically and financially able to drive themselves.
Wayne Countywide transit may also unlock more metro Detroit connections with Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, once the transit gap between Wayne and Washtenaw Counties is eliminated. Ann Arbor Area Transit Authority has long been interested in Wayne County connections.
And while it would still only ensure baseline service throughout the whole county, it should enable meaningful improvements in Detroit’s transit too. County leaders will have to decide how to invest transit funds this millage would raise to ensure every part of the county experiences substantive benefits. We at TRU would love to see SMART add more FAST services with greater frequencies in Detroit. Or this could fund the DDOT Reimagined plans to improve bus frequencies to every ten minutes or better. Those and other details still need to be decided.
What is clear is that this would replace the existing Wayne County Transit Authority millage that funds SMART in Dearborn, the Grosse Pointes, and several other Wayne County communities. There would be no added costs in the communities that already have SMART bus service.
A truly countywide ballot measure would include Detroit. This would NOT replace the City of Detroit’s investment in DDOT bus service – that must remain. But if voters approve making the 1 mil property tax countywide, Detroiters would receive a great return on their 1 mil investment, including access to tens of thousands more jobs and more educational and recreational opportunities AND meaningful improvements in transit within the City.
How to Get Wayne Transit Countywide
TRU has evaluated for several years how to make this happen, even detailing it in recommendations to Wayne County leadership last year.
- Staff in the Wayne County executive office and corporation council are already working on countywide transit details and appropriate ballot language.
- The County Board of Commissioners would need to vote this summer to place a measure on the November ballot.
- Then a majority of Wayne County voters would need to approve the measure.
Those are the only legally required steps. Obviously, there will need to be a lot more public education, organizing, and campaigning to ensure voters throughout Wayne County have the information needed to decide. TRU is ready and excited to help make that happen.
Make a donation to TRU today to support this important campaign!
Words of caution
As it has in Oakland County, it would likely take several years to plan, contract for, and implement new transit services before everyone can enjoy the benefits of expanded transit.
There will be opposition. Many people who drive don’t understand how essential transit is to tens of thousands of their neighbors and the fact that we all depend on people who depend on transit. Many others are concerned about anything that increases taxes. It will be our job as transit advocates to make the case and help voters understand why countywide transit is worth the investment!