Regional Public Transit Plan To Appear On Ballot This November
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Voters in four southeast Michigan counties will decide whether the area gets a regional public transit system.
The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan's board voted Thursday to place a master transit plan on November general election ballots in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties.
The plan includes a millage to raise an estimated $3 billion. Another $1.7 billion would come from federal and state matching funds.
It would create rapid transit lines and regional rail service while also supplementing and connecting current service offered in Detroit, suburban communities around the city, and the Ann Arbor area.
Bus rapid transit routes would operate between downtown Detroit and Pontiac in Oakland, downtown Detroit and M-59 in Macomb and downtown Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti in Washtenaw. Plans include rail transit between Detroit and Arbor and shuttle serives to Metro Airport and between suburbs.
"Southeast Michigan is the only major urban area in the country without a viable, coordinated public transit system," said Regional Master Transit Plan (RTA) Board Chair Paul Hillegonds, in a media release. "The plan being presented to voters will make us competitive in a 21st century global economy, developing a transit system that meets the needs of a changing world."
"This plan keeps the transit we have now, creates greater efficiency, and introduces premium transit options for the first time in our region," added RTA Chief Executive Officer Michael Ford. "It provides coordination and regional connections to provide a seamless network that connects people to jobs, to healthcare, to education and to opportunity. This plan moves our region light years ahead and makes us competitive with the rest of the nation."
Meantime, opponents of the plan worry too many metro Detroiters, so attached to their private cars, won't utilize such a system and that this time of transit doesn't make sense in and around the Motor City.
Megan Owens, of Transportation Riders United, told WWJ's Ron Dewey her advocacy group will do its part to help sell the plan to skeptical voters.
"Even if you never ride it, all of us depend on somebody who depends on transit: the nurse at the hospital, your kid's daycare worker, the person who made your lunch," she said.
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans issued a statement on the vote, saying Thursday's decision is a major step forward in moving our region towards a world-class regional transit system.
Evans says local leaders have worked together diligently to assure fairness in the services provided by the system and to protect the taxpayers.
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