[LMich]

You know, after reading these two pieces by Jeff Gerritt of the Detroit Free Press, it looks like that if Metro Detroit doesn't find someway to wrap its arms around the fact that you need a regional mass transit system in a metropolitan area of 4.3 million, and I mean wrap their minds around it fast, there won't there be a Woodward Light Rail. And, quite frankly, why should there be if you can't solve this very simple problem?

SMART to announce 22% cut; region must act now

By Jeff Gerritt | Detroit Free Press

October 13, 2011

Budget cuts and a spat between mechanics and Mayor Dave Bing have already crippled bus service in Detroit, leaving frustrated riders waiting, sometimes for hours, at crowded bus stops.

But with colossal cuts in suburban service just ahead, the region's transit troubles are about to blow up, stranding and inconveniencing thousands more commuters.

This crisis should finally push shot-callers in Detroit and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to create a regional transit system to run well-funded and reliable buses, as well as planned light-rail service.

SMART General Manager John Hertel will today announce cuts in service of 22%, effective Dec. 12. That's almost one-fourth of an already anemic network of routes and stops in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties -- a service area further weakened because 50 communities opt out entirely.

Layoff notices affecting 123 drivers, mechanics, dispatchers, cleaners and others went to union officials Wednesday.

SMART, with 850 employees, will reduce hours of service, eliminate some routes and serve others with less frequent stops. It will announce service changes in November, after public hearings in all three counties.

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Given the problems facing the Detroit Department of Transportation, however, and its 120,000 daily riders, the timing couldn't get much worse. Up to 40% of SMART's 40,000 daily riders are Detroiters headed to suburban jobs -- work they can't find in the city. In recent years, SMART ridership hit record levels.

Over the last five years, DDOT has cut a third of its service -- and probably more -- as the city whittled DDOT's budget from $80 million to $53 million a year. But the suburban bus cuts are SMART's first ever -- and unavoidable, Hertel said.

SMART will get 11% less from its tax millage this year because of depressed property values. Over the last three years, it lost 24% of those dollars, amounting to $15 million a year. SMART's 0.59-mill property tax -- the third lowest transit tax in the state -- generates $28.5 million a year. That's 25% of its $114-million budget.

DDOT cuts have also hurt SMART. Both receive state and federal funding, as one unit, through the Regional Transit Coordinating Council. (SMART gets 35%; DDOT gets 65%.) When DDOT cuts service -- and therefore eligible expenses -- state and federal dollars to both agencies drop. DDOT's cuts could cost SMART up to $5 million next year, Deputy General Manager John Swatosh told me.

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With fewer resources, SMART and DDOT must, together, figure out how to make best use of what they have by better coordinating routes, setting up a single customer-service line and map, and making joint purchases.

But those changes won't fix a region that invests less, per person, on transit than any other in the nation.

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Waiting, waiting, waiting ... for a better bus system

By Jeff Gerritt | Detroit Free Press

October 9, 2011

Riders at crowded Detroit bus stops boil with frustration and anger -- much of it aimed at Mayor Dave Bing. Sometimes waiting for hours, they miss work, classes, job interviews, medical appointments.

In the last four months, city bus service has crumbled into a crisis, stranding many of the nearly 30% of Detroit households that don't have vehicles. If this debacle had happened to anyone but Detroit's poor, politicians and pundits would scream for action.

But the mayor better hear these bus blues and act as though his job depended on it -- because it probably does.

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Poor bus service is hardly news in the Motor City. For decades, Detroit and its suburbs have operated the nation's most underfunded transit system. Southeast Michigan spends less per capita on transit than any other metropolitan region -- about 25 cents for every dollar spent nationally.

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More than 40% of Detroit's buses are typically out of service, compared to 5% to 20% of fleets in other cities, and 13% for SMART. A recent audit showed preventive maintenance often failed to occur on schedule.

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