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December 25, 2011

Jack Lessenberry: Detroit light rail out

Jack Lessenberry, Columnist ----

The mass transit

community in

Detroit was

almost spluttering

with rage last week.

U.S. Transportation

Secretary Ray LaHood

officially ended their

decades-long dream:

He made it official.

Washington is not going

to fund a light rail

system along Woodward

Avenue in Detroit.

“This is an outrage!”

exploded Megan Owens,

head of a group called

Transportation Riders

United.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin,

D-Mich., criticized the

decision, saying the

government should have

taken investors’ “ideas

and concerns” into account.

Detroit City Council

President Charles Pugh

said scrapping the lightrail

project would cost

the city investment and

hope.

And Cindy Pasky, the

CEO of a downtown firm

called Strategic Staffing

Solutions, huffed that it

was “completely unacceptable”

that Detroit’s

business leaders (like

herself) “were not part

of the discussion.”

But there’s strong evidence

that they are all

dead wrong.

Killing the pipe dream

of a “rapid rail” line

was not only brutally

necessary — it opened

the way for what these

folks say they want: affordable

and reliable

mass transit throughout

the metropolitan

area — via a system that

could be up and running

within three to five

years.

That is, if the all-ornothing

crowd doesn’t

screw things up.

We are talking about

a system of rapid bus

lines with vehicles that

look more like modern

trains than conventional

buses.

Now in use in Los

Angeles and a few

other places, they have

accordion-like pleats in

the middle for making

sharp turns.

More importantly, they

would have special computers

that would allow

them to control traffic

signals, meaning they

wouldn’t have to stop

for red lights.

Three men, by the way,

agree that this is the

best option for the metro

area — and pledged

to work for it.

Those three have some

clout, by the way; they

are the same ones who

agreed to abandon light

rail.

Besides Secretary La-

Hood, they are Detroit

Mayor Dave Bing and

Gov. Rick Snyder. The

transportation secretary

released a statement

saying they had all

“come together around

a high-tech vision that

will provide state-ofthe-

art, reliable transit

to far more people, and

in a far more cost-effective

way.”

Nobody really knows

how much a light-rail

system would have cost.

But in any event, it

would have only extended

to the Detroit city

limits, which for those

needing to get to jobs is

woefully inadequate.

Surveys show more

than three-fifths of Detroiters

who have jobs

work somewhere outside

the city.

That’s where the jobs

are these days, and the

tragedy is that many

have no way to get to

them. More than a third

of all Detroiters have no

private automobile.

The city’s bus service

is often unreliable, and

not well coordinated to

the suburban system.

Detroiters who try to

navigate both often give

up in frustration, or end

up losing their jobs.

The rapid transit bus

system would cover the

area.

The initial plan calls

for a network of 34 stations.

Sixteen would be

in Wayne County, where

Detroit is located; nine

each in Oakland and

Macomb.

The buses would run

from downtown north to

Birmingham on the west

side and Selfridge Air

Force Base on the east.

Conceivably, it could

be extended even farther.

The government

estimates the cost of

building all this at $400

million to $600 million,

probably less than that

of a single rail line.

Estimated time to

build it is five years or

less. U.S. Rep. Gary Peters,

an Oakland County

Democrat, enthusiastically

noted that the

cost of the system per

mile would be about

one-third of a light rail

system.

But a rival he is running

against in the same

congressional district

next year, U.S. Rep.

Hansen Clarke, was

negative.

The Detroit Democrat

said he was holding fast

for light rail on the theory

it would draw more

investment and create

permanent jobs.

“I’m not going to allow

it to be over,” he said.

Instead, he proposed

asking the federal

government to allow

Detroit to keep all its

tax receipts, and use

the money to build both

systems.

Politically, of course,

the chance of that is virtually

non-existent.

“I’m sure every congressman

would like

his district to keep all

its tax money as well,“

Peters said dryly.

LaHood said Washington

would make money

available for the lion’s

share of the rapid-bus

project, though it wasn’t

immediately clear how

much.

Rapid buses initially

seemed to have more

solid support in the political

community than

light rail ever did.

But it is scarcely a

done deal yet.

Legislative approval

may be needed at some

stage, and there are a

lot of lawmakers who

aren’t enthusiastic

about helping Detroit.

The bus system’s annual

operating costs

would have to be funded

through a regional

tax, probably on all

three counties, and that

would take voter approval.

These days, there are

plenty of tea party Republicans

who think all

taxes are bad, no matter

what, no matter the

social good involved.

The transportation

secretary seemed also

to say that federal help

would be contingent on

Detroit and suburban

leaders cooperating in

creating an agency to

run the system.

They haven’t done

well at that in the past.

Nevertheless, it ought

to be possible to find

the support for rapid

bus service — provided

the diehard railroad romantics

don’t sabotage

the idea.

The French literary

philosopher Voltaire

supposedly coined the

saying, “don’t let the

perfect be the enemy of

the good.”

In the case of mass

transit, that would seem

very sensible advice.

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