Thursday, May 26, 2011

Struggling Transportation Systems

This is the article about the transportation system in Detroit, in which the DDOT and SMART systems are failing to combine their services.

What are your thoughts?


http://michiganmessenger.com/1453/money-problems-and-racial-tensions-bedevil-public-transport

6 comments:

  1. “For example, the city of Warren, the third-largest city in Michigan, according to Michigan.gov, does not have a Michigan Department of Transportation bus service. In Detroit, the biggest city in the state, the buses are not completely reliable, and there is no coordination of services with outlying suburbs.”
    I am absolutely shocked that Warren does not have a Michigan Department of Transportation bus service. My grandparents live in Warren, and from knowing people that live in the city, I know the area would really benefit from public transportation.
    Also, in regards to the buses in Detroit not being reliable, how are the people who rely on the buses suppose to get to their job or do things like pick up their children?
    Change in the transportation system needs to happen!

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  2. What really disturbed me in this article was the description of the disparity between the services of the DDOT and SMART busses. The numbers were startling because SMART has 89 more busses in service, yet DDOT has 3 times as many passengers. I feel like there are some solutions that could easily be found, but our government is not putting enough resources into it.

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  3. This is one of those examples of how efficient and useful public transit could be if we distributed the funds equally and intentionally.

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  4. Everyone has brought up really good points. I especially agree with Bianca when she questions how people will get to jobs and pick up their children. I know that I used to ride the bus in Kalamazoo to get to my job and I was at least 5-15 minutes late every time. Luckily for me it didn't matter too much, but for many people these sorts of transportation related issues make them seem unreliable and can put their job in jeopardy. Reliable transportation is so important.

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  5. This situation is ridiculous and, all the politics aside, is very easily solvable. As Ale said, the intentional distribution of transportation funds could greatly increase both efficiency and usefulness of public transportation. However, I would take the distribution beyond "equally;" the transportation systems of highly congested urban areas need more funds than other areas, not an equal amount and certainly not less.

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  6. “Anyone who takes a DDOT bus other than the Woodward bus or a main street [bus route] knows you can’t count on it to be on time, or it might break down, or, if you’re handicapped, half the lifts don’t work.”
    This is really disturbing. I can almost hear the frustration and misery in the man's voice .It is unfair that the buses are never on time and worst there are no accommodations for handicapped people.

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