Ann Arbor has excellent public transit (for a city its size) but the
regional options are pathetic.  I'm living in New Jersey for a year, and,
in our apartment previous to this one, we could walk ten minutes to a train
station and be at Times Square, Newark International Airport, Philly's
Center City area, or Philly International Airport in under an hour (for a
$15 round-trip train fare).  Literally every town in northern New Jersey
with more than about 3000 people has commuter transit service to Newark
and Manhattan.

If you want to get outside the Ann Arbor limits, though, your only option
is to drive.  (Or bike, in the rare case of highly motivated individuals.)
Several things have been proposed for more regional transportation options,
but do any of them have a chance?  These include making AATA a county-wide
service, providing an AATA shuttle to Detroit Metro, and a Detroit/
Ann Arbor/Lansing commuter rail line.

Would you use any of these services?  Would other people?  Do you see
AATA and other agencies as having enough of a clue to do these things
right?

16 responses total.

No. I probably would not use those services. Well, if there was a 
commuter train that stopped in Depot Town in Ypsilanti that went to 
Downtown Detroit (something I think was discussed and then dismissed), 
I would consider applying for jobs in downtown detroit. But if I 
couldnt get a job in downtown Detroit that paid more than my current 
job, I wouldnt use that train service. 

I *might* use a bus to the airport but I have found it isnt too hard to 
get a ride from a friend and I would much prefer to have a friend drive 
me. I have a feeling that a bus to the airport would take a long time 
since it would probably leave from Ann Arbor so I would have to spend 
45min-hour just getting to where the bus leaves from Ann Arbor. 

The only way to make public transportation good is to make it the 
better choice. If it is significantly cheaper or faster than driving 
one's own car, people will use it. It is only slightly cheaper than 
owning an older car and it certainly is not faster. There is too much 
sprawl in this part of Michigan for us to have good public 
transportation unless it is seriously subsidized by taxpayers. 
Personally, I think that would be a good thing but not everyone agrees. 

Again, see earlier item for my take on the interaction between green space,
buiding height, urban density, and the success of public transit.  

If a shuttle from downtown A2 were to pass through Ypsi on the way to DTW,
what routes would both provide decent service to Ypsi residents and keep
the length of the AA-DTW trip short enough to keep riders.  If AATA is
serious about becoming a regional transit provider, Ypsi (which already has
some service, right?) will have to be included in any such route.

I may be a lousy friend, but I'd prefer--in most cases--handing a friend $5
and pointing them to the bus to driving them to the airport myself.  It
could have something to do with not owning a car, I'll admit, but driving to
and through the airport is a pain even after acquiring a vehicle.

I often get hoop snaggled into picking up family members from the 
airport but I pick up friends a lot too. I live a good distance away 
from the airport for it. Typically, I have folks call me when they get 
off the plane. It takes me around 20-25 minutes to get to the airport. 
That is just about how long it takes them to get their luggage. I have 
them wait outside and I pull up, stop just long enough to let them put 
baggage in the trunk and then away we go. This system works pretty well 
even at Christmas time. 

However, if there were a bus that stopped in Ypsilanti (say at the 
transit center there) and went to the airport for $5 and ran on a 
regular schedule of say once an hour or so, I would probably use it 
rather than asking a friend for a ride. 

My impression is that "you must drive yourself here" attitudes at Metro
Airport are the single biggest barrier to regional transportation in
SE Michigan.

Why do they have that attitude, though?  Are they getting kickbacks from the
car-rental agencies and the long-term parking lots?

Wayne County Government has something of a reputation as self-serving,
and (i understand) they control the airport.  I've heard that taxis, 
private commuter mini-busses, etc. have to pay them hefty fees to take
people to/from the airport.  

Yes, that's true.  Part of the problem is they want the same hefty fees from
public transportation.  

#5: from what I understand, the suburbs' unwillingness to take part in any
joint venture with the City of Detroit is a massive barrier to any regional
plan.  There's a suburban transit system (SMART? (that's an acronym, not an
adjective)) and a City transit system, but they don't even connect at any
point; to get from one system to the other, there's a lot of walking.

I ahd a transportation class last fall with somebody who worked at SEMCOG
(south-east MI council of governments) who showed us some literature on that
group's latest concept of regional transportation, including rail access
between the City, DTW, Ann Arbro, and Lansing; Bus-Rapid Transit (has a
designated, and usually separated, lane, but much lower inffrastructure costs
than light rail; used in Portland with pretty decent results) along 14
corridors in the Detroit+suburbs area, and express links to Toledo, Port
Huron, and all the way out to Jackson.  So somebody's at least *planning* the
regional transportation; they just need the political support to do it.

Actually the Lansing - Detroit rail was dumped by the Lansing transit folks.
AATA picked up the project, but it is now combined with another study being
done by the same firm for SMART and DDOT.  

Even with the best reading of the data, there was miniscule support by
potential users for the rail project.  We'll be luck if there's something left
for A2-Detroit at the end.  And that project did not go to DTW.  

Yeah, the rail project is not something I hold out any hope for.  Detroit has
to maka comeback (pause for laughter to die down) before anybody would want
to take rail to downtown, which is where the tracks go.

At least Granholm won some support for regional transit in general; if the
Detroit area gets something knitting it together a little better, it'll be
a step.  It's not a sufficient change to make the region thrive, but I think
it's a necessary condition for it.

There are lots of places where the SMART bus system and the DDOT bus 
system come together. There are a lot of SMART routes that go into the 
city. I remember way back when I lived in the city, I could either take 
a DDOT bus to downtown or I could walk a bit farther across 8 mile to 
Ferndale and catch a SMART (well it was SEMTA then) bus to downtown. 
The bus from the suburbs was faster because they would stop picking 
people up once they got to Detroit. 

I'd have been a potential rider of the hypothetical A2/Lansing rail
project, since I live in Ann Arbor and work at Michigan State.  
I'm skeptical that I'd want to use it.  The cost estimates I saw
seemed to indicate that it would be about $10 one way, which is 
roughly double my current gas costs.  (And I usually carry a passenger
these days, so that would be $40/day for the two of us, vs. $10 for
gas.)  

I would have a complete loss of schedule flexibility; if I stayed to 
work late, as I often do, I'd have to sleep over in the office or else 
have someone drive up from Ann Arbor to take me home.  

I would (at best) get dropped at the East Lansing train station 1.5 miles 
from my office.   At best, I'd add 30-45 minutes of waiting for local
transit and connections to travel time.   If the service only ran
to downtown Lansing, that would be a six mile trip to my office. 

I'd be stuck in East Lansing without any way to run errands or get
food beyond what's on the student strip adjacent to campus.

Overall, it's just not an appealing offering; even if the train
ride was "free" I don't think I'd be willing to accept the loss 
of car freedom.  The population density doesn't exist here to support
the service schedules I'd need.

But, if they spent money on things like this rather than building new 
roads, it could be a good thing. For instance, there are a LOT of 
people moving into the Brighton area. What if, instead of adding lanes 
to I-96 and US-23, they go with this train idea? I realize the traffic 
isnt that bad yet but it theoretically could be. 

I mean, if I had a commute to Lansing and it took 3 hours because of 
traffic but only an hour and a half on a train, I would be all about 
the train *if* I could afford it. 

But the commute to Lansing only takes 3 hours in exceptionally bad
weather conditions.  The commute from Ann Arbor to Lansing appears
to be much easier than, say, the commute from Ann Arbor to Detroit.

It doesnt take 3 hours now but there is a lot of growth in the Brighton 
area. What if there were a traffic jam every day. That isnt the case 
now but it could be in the not to distant future. At which time, folks 
will pressure the state for more lanes on the highway. Which is exactly 
what they should NOT build because that just encourages even more 
sprawl. 

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