  Mrjoshua Member Username: Mrjoshua Post Number: 1657 Registered: 03-2005 |
EYES ON THE ROAD By JOSEPH B. WHITE Gas Prices Push Commuters To Try Out Mass Transit But After Years of Minimal Use, Bus Systems Like Detroit's Are Limited June 23, 2008 The Wall Street Journal Lesley Hopson used to ride to work in a Cadillac Escalade. Then her twice weekly trips to the gas station started to cost $90 each. Now, she's taking the 851 SMART transit bus from her home in the suburbs to work in downtown Detroit. "Gas hit my maximum," she says. Detroit put America on wheels during the past century, and that process crippled mass transit in many big cities, starting with Detroit itself. In the 1920s, Detroit had a network of buses and electric streetcars that formed the core of one of the biggest publicly owned transit systems in the U.S., according to a history at detroittransit.org. In 1945, Detroit's rail and bus network provided 492 million rides -- more than a million a day. Eleven years later, the Detroit streetcar system was dead, and the automobile officially took control. During the next 50 years, freeways replaced rail lines; the dense neighborhoods of Detroit and its old suburbs were abandoned in favor of subdivisions; and the Detroit mass-transit system bumped down the road to irrelevance. http://link.brightcove.com/ser vices/link/bcpid452319854/bcti d1620683910 Political leaders wrangled over whether to have one regional bus system serving Detroit and its suburbs (as of now, there are two.) Some 50 suburban communities -- including the one where I live -- opted out of contributing tax money to the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, commonly known as SMART, selling voters on the idea that their tax money was being wasted on buses that rode around largely empty. As a result, the nearest SMART bus stop between my house and my office is about 10 miles away. The symbol of Detroit's grudging attitude toward mass transit (before the recent gas shock) is the city's downtown People Mover, which runs in just one direction in a loop around the downtown business district, stopping at a few places people might want to go, not including the big casinos, the Detroit Institute of Arts or Wayne State University. It's the kind of system that enemies of public transit might design to prove their point. Now, rising gas prices are shaking up the transportation debate in America's auto capital. Hayes Jones, a former American Airlines executive who is now the SMART bus system's general manager, says ridership on the suburban system is up to 12 million riders annually from nine million in 1995. That's despite the fact that the system has been struggling to keep buses on the road because of widespread problems with their diesel engines. (New ones that can burn biodiesel fuels are coming soon.) Ridership on the system's large buses is up 7%, and weekend ridership is up more than 10% over a year ago, Mr. Jones says. Mr. Jones is making the rounds of Chambers of Commerce and Kiwanis clubs in communities where SMART doesn't operate, and he says he's getting warm receptions. I experimented with commuting by bus last Friday, and I had the kind of mixed experience that explains why ridership on many public systems is only up by single-digit percentages despite all the gasoline angst. Overall, I had a pleasant, on-time ride and probably did better than break even on fares vs. fuel costs. On the down side, I missed being on my own schedule -- and I didn't really know how to work the system. First, I had to drive to the park-and-ride stop and wait for the bus. The weather was gorgeous, but this wait would have been less fun in the wet or cold. A bus arrived on time and I hopped on, after fumbling to feed two dollar bills into the fare box. "It only takes exact change," a veteran rider advised. Next stop: Northland Mall. Problem. The stop should have been on a street near my office. I realized, I had hopped on the wrong bus. I jumped off. I waited about 15 minutes to get a second bus to take me back to where I wanted to go, a block from my building. Once again I was grateful for a cool summer morning, as I bushwhacked from the stop to the back side of my office tower. I could have made this easier on myself by paying closer attention to the route maps and schedules available on SMART's Web site. But as much as I was pleasantly surprised by the speed and efficiency of my trip, it's not likely I will do it a lot. One of the biggest problems: the last bus home is 6:35 p.m. and work isn't always done by then. Marcia Chun, a fellow passenger, had the same complaint. She can't work later than 5:30 p.m., she says. RIDERSHIP RISES A snapshot of the number of "unlinked trips" taken using mass transit from 1984-2006 Year Number of Unlinked Trips (in millions) 1984 8,676 1985 8,354 1986 7,936 1987 7,866 1988 7,812 1989 8,093 1990 7,992 1991 7,738 1992 7,696 1993 7,433 1994 7,702 1995 7,504 1996 7,565 1997 7,982 1998 8,115 1999 8,522 2000 8,720 2001 9,008 2002 9,018 2003 8,876 2004 8,937 2005 9,175 2006 9,379 Note: Unlinked trips count each stage of a door-to-door journey separately Source: Federal Transit Administration Mr. Jones envisions buses that show up at stops on major corridors every 10 or 15 minutes instead of every half hour -- the frequency on the route I would take. He wants buses that can broadcast their location to customers' wireless devices, and a Wi-Fi system so riders can work on their laptops en route. That's a long ride from where Mr. Jones is today, worrying about how to keep most of his fleet of 284 buses out of the repair shop, and scrambling to offset the rising cost of diesel fuel. Still, $4-a-gallon gas could give a big boost to an ambitious plan to revive the Motor City's mass transit. In October, a regional transportation council that's been at work for more than a year is expected to deliver a report on what it would take to bring Detroit's transportation network into the 21st century -- or back to the standards it knew in the early 20th century. Among the ideas under discussion, building a light-rail link between downtown Detroit and the northern suburbs, renewing a long dormant rail line between Detroit and Ann Arbor, past the Detroit Metro Airport, and upgrading the bus service from the current "checkerboard operation" that's locked out of many of the communities whose residents now want alternatives. All this will require a lot of money. Where the millions and billions of dollars will come from is anyone's guess. But if Detroit wants to revive street car service, Mr. Jones knows where city officials could go to get their trolleys back. "Go to the Mexico City system," he says. "That's where our trolleys are." • Send comments about Eyes on the Road to joseph.white@wsj.com. http://online.wsj.com/article/ SB121406965723994537.html | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5019 Registered: 02-2005 |
Leave it to a non-Detroit paper to write better stuff about our city than our papers. | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1546 Registered: 12-2003 |
I'm surprised that he said he "did better than break even" on fuel to fare costs. That sounds a little minimal, I would have thought you'd save a lot, taking the bus ... | ||
Royce Member Username: Royce Post Number: 2647 Registered: 07-2004 |
Well, he is paying four dollars a day to ride the bus. Depending on how far his drive from his house to work is, and at four dollars a gallon for gas, a trip to and from work driving his car might use a gallon of gas per day. Therefore, the commute on the bus is only a break-even proposition. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 6056 Registered: 10-2003 |
Wait, he's only riding the bus once as an experience? Regular riders experience savings by buying monthly passes. What am I reading wrong, here? | ||
Ladia Member Username: Ladia Post Number: 29 Registered: 05-2008 |
i think the bus is good if you don't have a particular time to get where you are going,if you are taking it to work,hopefully you will be on a fast route line like woodward. | ||
Zrx_doug Member Username: Zrx_doug Post Number: 220 Registered: 03-2008 |
Yeah, I was a little curious about that..I live way over on the west side, and frequently service a jobsite at Eastland Mall..looking at the website, it appears that the Eight Mile bus runs all the way from Five Points & Grand River to Eastland Center..so, assuming one was to board this thing around Eight Mile & Telegraph, how long of a trip, (time-wise) would you be looking at to get to Eastland? This would be worth my while if it's in anything resembling a timely manner.. | ||
Jjw Member Username: Jjw Post Number: 538 Registered: 10-2005 |
"Well, he is paying four dollars a day to ride the bus. Depending on how far his drive from his house to work is, and at four dollars a gallon for gas, a trip to and from work driving his car might use a gallon of gas per day. Therefore, the commute on the bus is only a break-even proposition." Not necessarily. There are other variables to consider. Parking costs could be one along with wear-and-tear issues with the automobile. Also, many town's commuters have to deal with tolls which add up. | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1547 Registered: 12-2003 |
There are online calculators where you can compare your commuting costs via private car, vs. the bus fare. Maybe I have a longer commute than this guy, but the bus came out way cheaper. | ||
Hans57 Member Username: Hans57 Post Number: 303 Registered: 05-2006 |
I love this quote in regards to the People Mover: "It's the kind of system that enemies of public transit might design to prove their point." My sentiments exactly, its easy to say rail won't work in Detroit if we look at the People Mover. | ||
Zrx_doug Member Username: Zrx_doug Post Number: 221 Registered: 03-2008 |
I don't think of the People Mover as a failure..but I don't think of it as "rail," "light rail" or even "transit." It's more comparable to the monorail at Disney..makes parking a little bit easier/cheaper downtown, and gets you to/from your car and the various touristy stops. So, does anyone know what kind of time frame one would be looking at to ride the existing bus from end to end of the Eight Mile route? | ||
7051 Member Username: 7051 Post Number: 115 Registered: 02-2006 |
Fuel is only one of many costs when owning a vehicle. In fact, it's one of the smallest ones. Depreciation is the largest. So if one does not own a car, they save much more than just the price of a gallon of gas when taking the bus. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1386 Registered: 12-2006 |
Along the Eight Mile route, from Five Points and Grand River to Eastland Mall is about an hour and fifteen minutes. The bus comes about every 25 minutes weekdays during the day. | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 523 Registered: 07-2005 |
Go to the website and look at the bus schedule. | ||
Troy Member Username: Troy Post Number: 235 Registered: 10-2003 |
This guy is the type of person that will never ride a bus as a regular means of transit. Plain and simple. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1387 Registered: 12-2006 |
They don't exactly make it easy, Troy. I blame the bus systems that ridership is still as low as it is, not the riders. I had to study quite a bit to learn how to ride the buses, and it's still not easy even though I've made a point to learn a lot about it. | ||
Gotdetroit Member Username: Gotdetroit Post Number: 183 Registered: 12-2005 |
Royce: "Well, he is paying four dollars a day to ride the bus. Depending on how far his drive from his house to work is, and at four dollars a gallon for gas, a trip to and from work driving his car might use a gallon of gas per day. Therefore, the commute on the bus is only a break-even proposition." Not if the person buys a monthly pass for $50.00. Or, $1.61 a day (assuming a 31 day month) | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1388 Registered: 12-2006 |
Even if you assume the bus rider is only commuting five days a week, and buys the two-system regional pass for $49.50, since the typical office or factory worker with a five-day work week will work about 240 days a year, that's 20 days a month so you're paying $2.48 a day. Still better than four dollars. $2.48 a day, if you're getting 20 MPG and gas is $4, will pay for a round-trip commute of about 12 1/2 miles, or 6 1/4 miles each way. So if you work more than 6 1/4 miles from your home, and if the bus is available, it is cheaper for you to take the bus then to drive. | ||
Zrx_doug Member Username: Zrx_doug Post Number: 222 Registered: 03-2008 |
Thanks Prof Scott. I was looking for a "real world" answer to the question, and you provided it nicely. I may use the bus once or twice a week for scheduled maintenance runs, now that you've clued me in..it's out of the question for emergency runs though. FWIW, going to the website provided me with a route (PDF file) but no schedule, no timetable, and no answers as to ETA. In fact, the site looked as though it was last updated in the fall of '07. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1390 Registered: 12-2006 |
Unfortunately the site they advertise on billboards is not the site they maintain. Go to www.ci.detroit.mi.us, click on Departments, then Detroit Department of Transportation, then Bus Information, then Pocket Schedules. This is the place the updated schedules are kept. Not as easy to remember as the site on the billboard, but this one has the advantage that it actually works  | ||
Otter Member Username: Otter Post Number: 213 Registered: 12-2007 |
Little things go a long way, and DDOT in particular seems like it could use a whole lot of little things. When I was in Chicago last week I neeeded, at one point, to take a bus back to where I had left my bike. I had never taken that particular route (the Fullerton bus) before, but it didnt' really matter. I didn't know how close it would take me to my destination, or whether I would need to transfer, or etc. but that didn't matter. I walked to the corner to the nearest bus stop, and lo and behold, there is a route map at_every_single_stop_. You can even see it when you're on the bus if you forgot to look when you got on. Someone who has never been on the CTA before can figure out how to get where they're going quite easily. DDOT's current ridership is overwhelmingly people who have to take the bus, take it every day, and know their routes. But if DDOT and SMART (SMART seems better at this, if ony by comparison) want to attract more ridership-by-choice, making things easy for new riders is a relatively painless thing to do. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1392 Registered: 12-2006 |
Amen, Otter, that would be a marvelous and inexpensive thing they could do. One marvels that they do not. | ||
Zrx_doug Member Username: Zrx_doug Post Number: 224 Registered: 03-2008 |
Thanks for the site info, Prof..downloaded the PDF from there..it was the same as the one from the other site, but I only got the first page first time around. Much better info! | ||
Foxyscholar Member Username: Foxyscholar Post Number: 134 Registered: 12-2007 |
I'll put my question out here re. mass transit: I live in the OC and go to school in WC (Washtenaw Cty.) Apparently SMART stops at the WAYNE/Washtenaw border.... I even called SMART to get some guidance about how to connect the two counties for a route and no help (maybe I was expecting too much). Thankfully I have a car. Any ideas about how I could approach this? | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1393 Registered: 12-2006 |
Foxy, I was told this at a SMART public meeting, by someone connected with SMART but I don't recall exactly whom. SMART is willing to make connections to the bus system in the next county so long as the connection is in a community in which SMART provides service. So, for instance, SMART connects with Flint MTA at Auburn Hills, and SMART connects with Blue Water Area Transit in Chesterfield Township. The communities on the western edge of Wayne County, abutting Washtenaw County, are all opt-out communities, every single one of them; they choose not to pay for SMART service and so they do not have SMART service. Therefore SMART stops very far to the east of the county line and there is nowhere to make a connection to AATA. | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 890 Registered: 03-2008 |
I took the bus from W. Adams and Grand River in Downtown Detroit, out to Plymouth Road and Merriman in Livonia to visit family once every few months. What really stunk was those very few times that it was a minor holiday. You were never sure what the bus schedule was on those days. Sometimes it would just switch to a Sunday type schedule, other days it was something totally unique, and still other times it wasn't scheduled at all. It really stinks when you get halfway there and realize one of your connecting buses just plain isn't coming. It stinks even more when your waiting and have no idea how far apart the buses are, or have no idea which lines are running. It's a crummy system. Whenever it happened to me, I would just call a cab from my cell phone. Unfortunately, most cabs charge an arm and a leg to come out that far. Also, many cabby's will not cross the city/suburb border. Most suburbanites I know, as well as many downtown residents, will not take the bus once they have been marooned out in the middle of a unknown shady area with burned out buildings, and no operating businesses. It gets even worse if they have had this experience at night. Sex, race, social status, age, or income have little to do with it. No one likes being stranded in an area that they don't know, and possibly don't belong. I can't take the bus in it's current state. It's really that simple. I want to, and I'd be willing to pay more for it if it worked. The truth is I can't I can't even have the illusion that it might work anymore. It is failed me to many times. If I kept taking the bus, it would mean constantly standing people up and tardiness. It would also mean I wouldn't have a job/many clients for very long. Likewise, those who do work for me and constantly are late because of the bus, usually will not be working for me very long. Also, believe it or not, the People Mover is playing a small part in the CBD's rebirth. In the winter, it is nice to be in a building near a People Mover stop. It makes some remote buildings with no amenities around them much more popular. Buildings like Town Apartments, Riverfront Towers, and residences along West Adams are a People Mover stop aways from all of the CBD's perks, restaurants, stores, and other attractions. It is a neat little convenience, especially among the elderly, people new to the area, or those just outside of the CBD. (Message edited by sean_of_detroit on June 24, 2008) | ||
Genesyxx Member Username: Genesyxx Post Number: 902 Registered: 02-2004 |
I should have taken the bus years ago. Straight shot on Woodward, 15min commute each way. I just started yesterday. |
