TRU State of Transit 2024: Full Event Recap

Jan 30, 2024 — Meetings

On Tuesday, January 30th, 2024, Transportation Riders United (TRU) held its annual State of Transit event at the Wayne State Industry Innovation Center in New Center. Numerous state legislators were present along with local transit provider leaders and TRU’s three new board inductees.

Standard disclosure: I serve on TRU’s Board of Directors and assisted with planning and running portions of this event. TRU educates, advocates, and mobilizes for more and better public transit and other affordable sustainable mobility options throughout the Detroit region. I’ve added some additional commentary throughout this writeup to provide context that wasn’t directly discussed during the event.

The full recording of the event is available on YouTube . (Again, our apologies for the audio issues!)

Links to Media Coverage

This was the largest State of Transit TRU has held in the past several years, filling an auditorium with organization members, public attendees, and reporters from several local media outlets. Read all the coverage here!

Detroit Documenters

The State of Transit 2024: TRU Annual Meeting , Colleen Cirocco

Further coverage from Outlier Media to come.

Detroit Free Press

Mallory McMorrow: Legislators who don’t work on transit needs should be voted out , Eric D. Lawrence

Local 4 Detroit

Detroit Public Transit receives new improvements after years of struggle , Jacqueline Francis

Axios Detroit

Lawmakers say transit focus is greater than ever , Samuel Robinson

Bridge Detroit

Lawmakers tell Detroiters: ‘Get more intense’ on public transit demands , Malachi Barrett

Daily Detroit

Is 2024 the turning point for transit in Metro Detroit?

Remembrances

At the start of the event, TRU held a moment of silence for local advocates who passed away within the past year including longtime activist Brother Thomas Zerafa, SMART employee Janice Bauer, and transit supporter Mark Flanders, as well as longtime environmental leaders Lydia Fischer and Anna Holden.

Transit: Year in Review

Prior to panel discussions, TRU presented a summary of its efforts and successes in 2023 . Megan Owens, Executive Director of TRU, then presented the organization’s priorities moving into 2024.

Progress on Making Transit Available

Last year, SMART launched fixed-route bus service in Novi and Wixom , the first in a series of service expansions planned following voter approval of the Oakland Transit millage in November 2022. Riders can look forward to new service in Rochester and enhanced service in Auburn Hills this spring, with service to Waterford and White Lake Township coming later this summer.

TRU’s efforts now turn to generating support for a Wayne County all-in vote and statewide legislation.

Reliability Struggles, Potential

TRU launched its Save Our Service campaign in July, informing state legislators and local elected officials of the service and funding crisis faced by SMART, DDOT, and other transit providers across Michigan.

Detroit City Council and ATU Local 26 passed a Memorandum of Understanding increasing the base wage for DDOT operators by $3. SMART is continuing negotiations with ATU Local 1564 for better workplace conditions and a major raise increase – potentially as high as $31.50 per hour – placing SMART on par with TheRide in Ann Arbor.

Progress Toward Convenient and Attractive Transit

DDOT recently launched a “BRT-Lite” pilot along Jefferson, raising frequency on Route 9 to every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on weekends with infrastructure improvements to follow later this year and in 2025. The RTA is also preparing to launch its Airport Express at the end of March.

TRU Educated, Advocated, and Mobilized

TRU held two major rallies in 2023, including February’s Show Bus Drivers Some Love march . It also hosted 10 Transit Tuesday talks and town halls across Metro Detroit with 24 speakers and over 300 participants. 4 reports and whitepapers, 40 news stories, and 7 Transit Impact stories were published, and 10 policy recommendations were made alongside 1400 messages sent to state legislators from constituents.

State Policymaker Panel

TRU was joined by State Senators Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) and Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) , State Representatives Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) and Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit) , and Michigan’s Chief Infrastructure Officer Zach Kolodin .

Responses are presented in full with light edits for brevity.

Q: Each of you is a transit champion in various ways. So share with us, why is transit important to you personally?

Kolodin: “So, for me personally, I lived in New York City for 10 years, and I understand how incredible it is to be able to walk out of your house and affordably access your job, or a doctor’s appointment, or whatever the case may be. And ultimately, I think every person in Michigan at least deserves that chance, right? Like, not everyone is going to decide, ‘Hey, I want to live in Ann Arbor. I want to live in the City of Detroit.’ But you want to be able to afford a life like that if you want one. So that’s why I think it’s important.”

McMorrow: “Like Zach, I have lived all over the country. I’ve lived in five states. And it is really hard to explain to people who’ve never experienced personally how freeing it is to live in a place that has a robust public transit system, where you can get around at all hours of the day, you don’t have to own a car if you don’t want to, and pay for insurance, and take it to the shop when it gets dented… It is imperative that we provide that opportunity here in Michigan. When I ran for office for the first time back in 2018 — you can imagine, I look like this now, but when it’s the middle of the summer and I have a baseball cap on and a backpack, people think I’m twelve — [Laughter] and I would knock on people’s doors, and they would say, ‘You remind me a lot of my daughter who left. Why did you come back? And how can we keep my kids here?’ And a lot of it is making sure that we create a connected Metro Detroit region, from the city to the suburbs, so people can get around, enjoy the city, get to their jobs, and build careers here.”

Morgan: “Senator McMorrow and I, I think, both are often mistaken for high schoolers. Everyone says we’ll enjoy that one day. I’m 34, we’ll see. [Laughs] But for me, when I think about transit, I think most folks think of buses, trains, those types of things. But for me, when I think about transit, I think about people. I think about the people who need public transit to go about their daily lives, and to get to the places they need to get. I think about folks taking a bus to their job so that they can earn a modest paycheck to take care of their kids. And I think about elderly folks who might take a bus to the doctor, or to get health care that they need. I think of young people who might take the bus to school, or to vote, or for a night in Detroit, or to see family or loved ones. I think about the people who are utilizing those buses and trains and any other form of transit. And I think about how important it is that we are connecting people to the outside world and to their communities. That is what transit is about. Transit is about the people of our state, and connecting them to every other thing in the world that they want to access, and that they need to access. And so, that’s what I think about when I think about transit. And so the idea that we still have to make the argument for why transit is important is still frustrating to me, because I tell people all the time, ‘Young people want transit, young people want transit.’ And frankly, all people want transit. It seems like everyone tends to agree on this concept. But to actually prioritize it is a different question. So I’ll stop there, but I am just so incredibly passionate about transit, because it’s about the people who we’re working to get to where they need to go.”

McKinney: “To the Rep’s point and the Senator’s point, when I’m thinking about transit, I think about freedom, but more importantly, reliability and predictability and making sure you’re able to plan out your life. And so, I’ll share this story with you guys real quick, one quick point: The fastest growing population in the state of Michigan right now is 85 or over. And so, we’re losing population when it comes to pretty much 25 on down, and a lot of this stems from our transit issues and inefficiencies. And for me, growing up on the northeast side of Detroit near Seven Mile and Van Dyke and going to high school was a challenge because I didn’t go to my neighborhood high school, because schools at the time, had issues – they’re developing new plans for it now, and hopefully schools are becoming better in the neighborhoods. But I attended Renaissance High School, which is on the opposite side of the city in northwest Detroit. And the buses never ran, literally, on Seven Mile. So we would have to walk, me and my cousin, we would walk from Seven Mile and Van Dyke to the State Fair Transit Center on Woodward. Just think about this – on Woodward, right? Between Seven and Eight Mile right off of State Fair. And I would take the Eight Mile bus to Northland Mall, which is near Eight Mile and Greenfield and walk down Greenfield to Renaissance, which is on Outer Drive and Greenfield. And so it would take me two and a half hours to get to school every single day, and about two and a half hours to get home. And so I knew growing up — you know, I always loved the bus. But most of that time spent was just waiting, and waiting. And so, I’m all in support. And that’s why I joined the transit caucus with the co-chairs Rep. Morgan and Rep. Mike McFall, who’s in the audience. Make some noise for Mike. [Applause] Because this is his district, by the way, so welcome to District 8. But like, we need to do better. I personally think in terms of investments in buses, we’re trying to do everything we can, but we have to do more. This is how we’re going to keep our younger generation from moving out.”

Irwin: “When I was a local official, and now as a state official, my job is trying to make the community I represent and the state that I live in the best possible place for people now and people in the future. And that’s literally what we should be doing. And so when I was first elected back in local government, one of the first things I did was to start to look around. I travel around the world, like many of my colleagues, and travel around the country, and we look around and we say, ‘The Detroit Metro Area has all these things going for it.’ You can name them. It’s a long list, excluding weather. [Laughter] But one of the big gaping holes, has been transit. For my entire life, the most important thing that we could do to bring this region together and to grow this region economically has been transit, and we have failed time and time again, to get it done. And it’s not because of a lack of good ideas. It’s because of a lack of political will. So I decided that I was gonna apply my political will to try to change that. And I think it’s as simple as this: When you connect people, good things happen. [Applause] Good things happen socially. Good things happen culturally, good things happen economically. And here we are in Southeast Michigan, which is still, unfortunately, one of the most segregated regions in the entire country. Transit could help with that. And our lack of transit — that’s a big reason why people are stuck in cycles of poverty right now. So transit is important socially. It’s also important culturally. We talk a lot about economics and sometimes we forget about the jobs and the joy that comes from cultural development, that comes from Arts and Sciences, nightclubs, you know, people going out and enjoying music or painting or ice skating, and recreation, all these kinds of things that people enjoy to make their lives better. Transit connects them to that. And it’s also incredibly important economically. We’ve been talking about our own development in Lansing a lot of the course of last year. It’s been a huge focus of this administration, and my goal is that we continue the progress we’ve been making by taking transit and making that a key component of our economic development strategy in Michigan, because it is the key missing component right now.”

Q: While transit is a very local issue, the state plays a vital role funding and guiding transportation throughout the state. What are one or two things you’re working on to improve and expand transit throughout Michigan?

Irwin: “I’ll give two really quick ones: One, just in my local area, because I think a lot of this gets very, very tactical, I’m trying to work with the State Department of Transportation and the local officials to make sure that when we rebuild Washtenaw Avenue, we do it in a way where we don’t end up with a stroad, a road that doesn’t contribute to our community, but instead we end up with a thruway that grows the economics and allows more people to interact with it. At the state level I’m working on some legislation to try to fix our Regional Transit Authority legislation. [Applause] Now I’d like to help encourage anyone in the audience who has ideas about how we should do that to communicate with me, but right now, I’m really focused on fixing one of the problems with that legislation. So I was there in Lansing as a state representative when that bill was passed, I believe it was fall of 2012. And when it was passed, there was a provision put in there that basically makes it impossible for us to have rail here in Southeast Michigan. Now I think that if we’re going to have a transit system, it should be a balanced system and we should invest in the types of modes that make sense. And different modes might make sense in different areas. But because we have that prohibition, or a basic prohibition, a supermajority required for investing in anything rail, that just takes that off the table completely. It takes an option off the table for our region, and I just think that’s a mistake.”

McKinney: “My district covers the Van Dyke corridor, mainly going through northeast Detroit, Warren, and Center Line, and touches Sterling Heights. And so I have this idea that I’ve been pitching to the county commissioners, county execs, the mayors of the cities, to connect that Van Dyke corridor because it connects three of the top four most populous cities across Michigan, Sterling Heights being the fourth largest, Warren being the third largest, Detroit being the largest. And one of the things that we’re working on too, was this big Iron Belle Trail, right, this state trail that goes across all the north side of Michigan, all the way to the west side into our area, and it’s coming down Van Dyke. And so there’s always going to be work on making sure that we create those bike lanes and create those walkways and pathways. But why not make sure that people can easily walk down those paths, and also build maybe some Bus Rapid Transit, maybe some rail, I’m not sure. But we’re trying to figure out the cost of all of that. And the biggest focus is, you know, ‘fixing the damn roads.’ But in reality, roads aren’t just what we need to be fixing and prioritizing. We need to do a lot more than just fixing the roads, we need to make sure that people are connected, and they are able to get down these corridors, especially cross-county. Because I believe that Eight Mile is no longer a border. And I’m gonna be honest, we have this redistricting process and all that, I can’t speak too much on that part, but one of the good things about redistricting that has happened, it created an environment where we’re all in rooms together. That has probably never happened the history of these districts. They’re crossing commercial corridors and bringing people together and having these conversations talking about, ‘Hey, you know what, you were in Macomb County, and you know what? If you win, we all win. If Detroit wins, we all win.’ It’s not Detroit vs. Everybody, Suburbs vs. Detroit. This is one reason we need to figure out ways to come together. [Applause] But this is real serious, and so, this is one of my passions. I’m supporting Senator Irwin in a lot of initiatives, but that Van Dyke corridor, I think, hopefully comes to fruition, that comes to light, because there’s going to be a lot of good things that come from it.”

Morgan: “I think Rep. McKinney makes a really excellent point about these new districts bringing folks together. The district that I won in, in Ann Arbor, downtown Ann Arbor, previously was only in the City of Ann Arbor. I now have downtown Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan and parts of Wayne and Oakland counties. So it’s surprising, in the process, to see that district change so much. But it’s been amazing, because I get to be part of the Wayne County delegation, the Oakland County delegation, work with folks in this region, and think about things in a much broader policy and budget focused way that isn’t just siloed into our own individual districts. This is about helping our entire region, helping our entire state. Frankly, that’s how we should all have operated in the first place, where we’re not just thinking about ourselves or our individual city that we live in, but all of our communities in the state. So there are two big things that I’ve been working on, and this has been the thing that I’ve been most passionate about, as a legislator: Representative McFall and I are organizing a transit caucus. We’re very excited about that. [Applause] We have 36 members of the legislature including all three folks up here, along with me that have signed on to join us in that endeavor, including some bipartisan support. We have at least one Republican who’s joined who’s was interested in transit. We’ll take it. [Applause] But my hope is that we can actually get some more in too, because I think if we really look at transit in a much broader way, I think we really can appeal to a lot of folks who may not otherwise think of themselves as transit advocates. But our hope is to bring together everyone who cares about transit. Right now we’re at 36. That’s like a third of the legislature. And so that’s huge. And we have a lot of folks who are passionate about this, who are interested in figuring out how they can work together to support it. The second thing that I’m working on, again with Rep. McFall and other colleagues here: Coming up with some strategies to invest long term in public transit. One of the bills that we’ve been looking a lot at right now is developing a bill to significantly boost Local Bus Operating funds. [Applause] We had quite the endeavor last year trying to make sure we had support for the Local Bus Operating funds. But one of the things that we found in talking with transit agencies and talking with advocates like Megan and her team, and others is that we have funds available in the state budget already that should be going to transit from the auto-related sales tax. We have funds that are in the budget intended for transit, and we’re using them for the general fund. We want to capture and reclaim those funds for transit. [Applause] That’s $250 million a year that should be going to transit, buses, rail and everything else. We should be able to pull those funds and keep them protected for transit. Boost the state investment in Local Bus Operating – match at least 50%, not up to 50% of Local Bus Operating funds, massively increase that funding by $150 million a year. And really invest in transit using the dollars that are already there and available for transit funding in the state budget. This isn’t a tax increase. It’s not taking money from some other specific program, it’s pulling it from the general fund. These are dollars that are already there. This is just one of the ideas that we’re looking at, as we hear a lot of great ideas and input from folks. So that’s what we’re exploring, that I’ve been working hard to develop a bill for. But we have to invest majorly in this long term, if we’re going to make something big happen.”

McMorrow: “You’ve heard a lot of great ideas up here. And I just want to share a little bit of what I learned last year. So last year, if you watched any of the news, Democrats took control of the legislature for the first time in 40 years. In the Senate, especially. [Applause] And so this was my first time serving in a majority position in control of the budget, in control of a committee chairing the Economic and Community Development Committee. And as we talked about transit, something that was a real eye opening moment for me was all of the municipalities that I represent talked about transit as really important. But then when they submitted their budget request to me, not a single one of my municipalities asked for money to fund it. And I don’t blame the municipal leadership, because there’s parks and community centers and all kinds of things that are, again, to Rep. Morgan’s point, within your local community that you need, and you need funded. But it points to this challenge of, we’ve been so decentralized, and the RTA hasn’t been given the funding and the authority and the support that it needs to serve the role that it was intended to serve, which is to be that unifying body, that if you don’t ask for it in the budget, it’s like it doesn’t exist. We can pass policy all day long, but unless you fund it, it’s not a real thing. So we fought really hard. I asked for significantly more than $20 million in last year’s budget, but we got $20 million dollars, and that is significantly more than nothing. And it is a step in the right direction. And then as the chair of the Economic Development Committee, something that I have been really passionate about is trying to push us to understand that we cannot incentivize our way out of our shortcomings. We know that when companies are looking at places where they’re going to expand or invest or move to, talent is, far and away, the number one thing they look for, and there’s no dollar amount that we can throw at any company that’s going to make up for that. When Amazon was looking at cities around the country for Amazon HQ2, the State of Michigan put up $4 billion in incentives to lure Amazon to locate their second headquarters here. And we lost. Not only did we lose, we weren’t even in the top 20, and they said it’s because you don’t have talent, and you don’t have transit. The places that won were New York City, because it’s New York City, and northern Virginia. But what Virginia did that was so fascinating was they offered $500 million in incentives, which is still a lot of money. But they invested more than a billion dollars directly in education from K-12 up through a new campus for Virginia Tech. And they expanded transit in northern Virginia. And that was the selling point — the incentive was kind of a last push, but it was the investment in the people and the talent and the place that was the selling point for this company. So we are getting lapped right now by states around the country who are adopting this new approach. So I drew up my committee of trying to show transit investment is economic development and we have to get out of this mindset that it is just giving money to companies and hoping for the best.”

Kolodin: “Thank you so much for the investment in transit, because I think it’s gonna be really transformative going forward. You know, as the Chief Infrastructure Officer for the governor, I think it’s not obvious why I care so deeply about transit, you can kind of imagine a world where that’s different. But fundamentally, our infrastructure is about creating space for people to live the way that they want to live. And I think what we’ve heard all over the state is that people want to feel safe, they want to feel connected, they want to be able to use the roads in a way that facilitates a high quality of life. They don’t necessarily have to dodge vehicles as they cross the street, right? And we’re in Detroit, so we understand what that feels like. And fundamentally, transit is about using that infrastructure as shared space. There’s nothing more shared than a bus, you know, hearing a group of people down the street and all disembarking or getting on the bus in the same place. And to make that work, you have to build infrastructure that facilitates safe connections to those places. It’s wonderful that you’re here, Representative McKinney, but it’s a very sad story that you had to endure that just to get to Renaissance. So, that’s what I’m really passionate about in this space. And I think that what we’re doing to make that a reality most immediately is the work that we’ve done around advancing corridors for transit. With the RTA and with the match money that Senator McMorrow made available, we are making our corridors ready for transit, right? We’re building the infrastructure that is needed to make people feel safe and comfortable in those spaces, and also creating a plan for building out Bus Rapid Transit on the most significant corridors in in the state of Michigan. So I think that that’s what I’m most excited about. And it really is just a first step to what I hope is ultimately a corridor plan, that they can build full BRT or BRT-Lite on all of our major corridors.”

Q: We know there is enormous support for transit. Yet many major transit improvements have gotten close but failed to get over the finish line. How can transit supporters here in the room, with us virtually, and throughout the region best come together to support your efforts to make a meaningful change?

Kolodin: “I’ll let the politicians speak to the politics.” [Laughter]

McMorrow: “It’s a joke, but the politics is important. Huge credit to the representatives for pulling a caucus together for the first time because this is my fifth year in Lansing and I feel like sometimes it’s just me and Jeff yelling at each other about transit quietly in caucus and it’s not organized in any way. But there is power in numbers. We saw how close the RTA initiative came [in 2016]. It was so close. And I felt like it took the wind out of the sails and people didn’t believe that it was possible. Now, there’s also the challenges of how the RTA legislation was set up and the fact that you need votes from the Tri-County area to get it done that we can work through. But the fact that we’re all here, the fact that we are building this transit caucus: Keep making calls, keep posting about it, because political will is what pushes things in the right direction. The fact that we are creating a caucus — you guys are creating a caucus that we have 36 members of — there’s going to be one loud voice in Lansing, finally, hopefully saying mostly the same things to the rest of our colleagues. And that can’t be understated. But we’re going to need all of your support to stand behind us when we’re going to bat for budget asks and policy moves. Because people in these jobs, we’re accountable to you at the end of the day, and it needs to be very clear that this is a issue that voters care about and if you do not take action on it, you’ll be voted out of office.”

Morgan: “I think that’s spot on. We’ve got to make transit a priority. I’m accused of being an optimist all the time, but I am really more optimistic than ever about the potential for major investments in transit. And I believe it’s because of the folks up here, I believe it’s because of the folks who are leading the legislature and the governor’s office today. I feel like everything is possible. And it all rests on whether we make it happen or not. And I think all of you, along with folks all over the state, who are advocates for transit, from here to the U.P. to Grand Rapids, Lansing, every part of the state, making your voices heard to your legislators, to all of our legislators, to all of us, to tell everyone that transit is a top priority, that we have to invest in transit. Our goal is to work together to put forward some things that you can get behind and support, and then to do that in partnership with all of you. All the ideas that we’ve come up with so far, at least that I’ve been a part of, have come from a lot of the advocates in this room, and Megan has been an incredible voice for that. So we’re gonna need to work together, we’re going to need to advocate very strongly, make that case to all of our legislators to prioritize transit, and that’s all we can do. We’ve got to just push as hard as we can, collectively, together, and we’re gonna work our hardest to get some really good things together for you to hone in on.”

McKinney: “Some closing remarks, think about this: Just about 50 years ago, so five decades ago, our region had the opportunity to build comprehensive mass transit across the Tri-County Area. The federal government at the time, gave our region millions of dollars to deal transit. What happened as you guys — maybe some know, maybe some don’t — is that our region couldn’t come together. So Oakland County, Macomb County, they sent their money back to the federal government and Detroit kept its share, and built what is now known as the People Mover because it was cheaper to build above ground at the time than underground. And so when the money got sent back to DC, the federal government re-appropriated those dollars to the City of Washington DC, and they built their Metro system off of that, which they have now the DMV area to enjoy. And so that was supposed to be us 50 years ago. I don’t know if you guys knew that, the history behind it. But when I learned the history, when I figured it out, I’m like ‘wow.’ We get in our own way a lot of times, and so this is an opportunity, a clear opportunity, to make sure that this transit caucus — 36 members, we’ll expand on it — but more importantly, we get our federal government support, we get our counties aligned, we get the locals behind it. And we get you guys behind it. The more people just talking about making sure that we can come together as one region, instead of the infighting that has happened in the past, the easier will be the easier we can overcome. Because I believe transit is literally the single [largest] thing that is hurting Michigan, is our biggest Achilles heel. And if we can overcome that, I think this region will start to grow. And you’ll see a lot of our young people and our talent coming here and staying here. And I’ll say this too, and I’ll pass it off to the senator, is that the largest thing I heard on the doors campaigning in the summer of 2022 was that I want my kids and grandkids to move back to Michigan. And it was abortion, it was talking about gun safety, all of this stuff, right? But the largest thing I heard at the doors, was ‘I want my family to move back.’ And sad to say, I had to tell folks, they’re not moving back until we give them something to move back to. And that’s going to be transit. And so we have to do our due diligence around this, and you guys got my support wholeheartedly. We need to come together and get this done.”

Irwin: “I’m going to close by thanking all of you for being here. Really, what I think a lot of us have been talking about in terms of what needs to happen is to generate the political will to make this a priority for decisionmakers across the board — local government, state government, and beyond. And TRU is going to be a big part of that. So I want to thank you for supporting TRU, because what we need to do is we need to raise our voices all over the region. And one critical aspect of that is supporting organizations. They can bring that together and it can help bring the region together and bring people together. So don’t just keep supporting TRU, but think about whether there are friends or other people in your life who care about transit, care about Metro Detroit, and care about the future of this region, and who might be willing to support TRU as well, because supporting the organizations that are pushing this issue is important. And I just want to call on you individually, just to think about this issue in the context of other issues. There are a lot of things out there in the political environment where the public overwhelmingly believes in something, but it never happens. And the reason is, because there’s a mismatch of intensity. And one of the reasons why when Governor Whitmer was running for office for the first time, she adopted that slogan, ‘Fix the Damn Roads,’ why did she adopt that slogan? Because she heard people with great intensity, talking about this issue wherever she went. We need to make sure that our elected officials at the local and state level hear about this issue wherever they go. We need to make sure that when legislators have town halls — I’ve got one in Tecumseh in a couple weeks — that someone shows up and asks the question, what are you doing to advance public transit in Southeast Michigan? Where does transit rank on your list of priorities? What kind of legislation are you working on to improve transit in Southeast Michigan? Not enough of us get those kinds of pointed questions from people. And it’s not just in town halls and coffee hours, it’s not just sending them an email, asking them where they stand, and encouraging them to stand in the right place. You also have to chase on social media too, right? Because I’m telling you, that’s a really powerful place. It’s like a virtual town hall where other people are going to see your question. And they’re going to see the answer or the non-answer from these elected officials who work for all of us. And so I just want you to raise your voice. I want you to get more intense. I want you to keep asking about transit more, because right now, we have not overcome the inertia that we have in this region. Our voices are not loud enough. We’re not asking enough pesky questions. We’re not, putting the top officials in a position where they have to take a position on these issues. Where they’re wondering, ‘How am I gonna deliver for my residents on this issue?’ That’s how we have to make it.”

Kolodin: “I would be remiss if I failed to mention that we do have an unprecedented opportunity to capture federal funding for any number of infrastructure priorities, including transit, including rail. I would say a couple of things about that. Number one: We have the opportunity at any point to apply for Capital Investment Grant funding for transit. What we need, as [Ben Stupka] at the RTA well knows, is a plan. We need a fiscally sustainable plan. So ultimately, funding unlocks capital. Right? That’s also true in the rail space. The federal government created the Restoration and Enhancement Grant Program for rail, which is the capital program that follows on the Corridor ID program. Michigan won three designated corridors the most recent cycle. What we need to actually build those corridors out is funding for rail. And I think what a lot of people don’t understand about rail specifically in this region, is that unlike in New York, Boston, Virginia, and places on the Acela corridor, Amtrak doesn’t pay for our rail. We pay for our rail. So we’ve got to figure out sustainable funding models to build our service and improve frequency and make the connections that are missing. So I guess what I would say is, I do hope, and I’m pushing every day, for us to capture as much transit and rail capital as we can through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and even the Inflation Reduction Act. But what we need to actually open new services is sustained revenue sources. And that is sort of the key political barrier to moving forward.”

Transit Provider Panel

TRU was joined by DDOT Interim Director Michael Staley, RTA Director Ben Stupka, DTC General Manager Robert Cramer, SMART Deputy General Manager Tiffany Gunter, and QLINE President Lisa Nuszkowski.

Responses are presented in full with light edits for brevity.

Q: What are one or two of the accomplishments of the past year that you’re most proud of?

Cramer (DTC): “The People Mover, over the last year, has been about getting things moving again. And we opened the year before, after a shutdown during the pandemic. We had some changes in staffing, a lot of things kind of getting back up to speed. And so I’m just really proud of getting back to basics for the People Mover. Over the last year, we’ve had a good year of getting projects moving, that hopefully here in the first couple of quarters of this year, we really start to see and feel a lot of differences. And obviously going this year fare free is something we’re really excited about and we’re already starting to see some of those results.”

Nuszkowski (QLINE): “I think we really started to see the payoffs for all the investments that we’ve made in the QLINE since we restarted passenger service in the fall of 2021. So many of you probably heard me talk about the implementation of the dedicated transit lane in front of Little Caesars Arena, which is not only for the streetcar, but also buses to use during heavy event traffic. We see far fewer blockages as a result of that. The implementation of signal prioritization has facilitated the movement of streetcars through intersections more quickly and in places where we have to change lanes to call for those signals a little bit faster. And then you add that up with us not charging fares since we restarted passenger service, I think results in the big win of having over a million riders in 2023. [Applause] So we’re very excited, that’s the first time since since pre-pandemic and we’re outpacing recovery in transit ridership in post-pandemic in other communities. And so we’re really excited for what that means for transit, what it means for our other partners up here, and we’re looking forward to more good things to come this year.”

Gunter (SMART): “Trying to pare down a list to what we’re most proud of, I’d say having two of our four contracts ratified at the end of last year was a very big deal for us. And we continue to move forward at a pretty good clip. The next two are operators and our mechanics. I think that the kickoff of the “Drive a Bus With Us” event last year was another big deal for us in terms of recruitment. We know that the driver shortage is a nationwide problem, and we’re doing everything that we can to really address that. While we were initially somewhat disappointed in the results of the Drive a Bus With Us event because we didn’t see a huge turnout, what we are seeing is the consistent effort being applied: Having the hiring events, doing them onsite, being at the terminals, and consistently getting the message out there, starting to show proof of the good work that we’re doing. We’re seeing the turnaround in the driver shortage, and we’re really happy about that. The last one, the biggest one I think that we were really loud about was the expansion of the 740 into Wixom.” [Applause]

Stupka (RTA): “For the RTA big wins last year, we saw a continued ridership increase on the D2A2 service. We still have some more room to grow there, but we’re seeing a 50-75% increase every month on that service. We were able to distribute about $13 million to dozens of small providers through our 5310 program. These are providers that provide services for seniors and people with disabilities in communities throughout the region. Last year, we were able to work on a large federal grant application that Zach [Kolodin] mentioned earlier. The wonderful thing about that application is that we worked with every person up here, every legislator that was up here, we had almost 70 letters of support. TRU was a huge advocate for putting this together, we were able to leverage some of the state money that was put in the budget last year. So we’re just kind of sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear back on that. The other big thing for the RTA, we staffed up quite a bit. We doubled our staff. We’re still a small staff, but a powerful staff and we’re here tonight. And we got our first new board chair, since the inception of the RTA. So a lot of new energy at the RTA and really looking forward to a big 2024.”

Staley (DDOT): “First and foremost, the increased wages for the TEOs, $3 across the board, [Applause] as well as a $500 increase in the attendance incentive bonus. I think it’s a rare opportunity where $6,000-$8,000 can really have an impact on the quality of life of some individuals. And I know that there are advocates in the audience that were strong backers of that initiative, so that’s much appreciated. Second would be the beginning of the demolition, and ultimately construction on the Coolidge terminal. Third would be the first honest steps on BRT on East Jefferson. And last but not least, is the turnaround of paratransit. DDOT brought paratransit’s critical operational functions – reservation, scheduling, dispatch – in-house in January of 2023. And by the end of the year on-time performance has gone from mid-80s to 97%. Customer complaints are less than one-tenth of 1%. Accidents and injuries are down, and overall, the quality of service being provided under the Americans with Disabilities Act has gone a huge step forward.”

(TEOs are Transit Equipment Operators, DDOT’s official term for bus drivers.)

Q: What’s one of your biggest challenges, and what are you doing to solve it? Are there things that allies and supporters can do to help you tackle those challenges?

Staley (DDOT): “I think the biggest one, the first one that I confronted, was the driver shortage, which is pretty typical throughout the United States. And also the shortage of mechanics. I’ve been in the business about 40 years and I understand that if you don’t have drivers, you don’t have vehicles, you don’t have service. So really the driver deficit, which was anywhere in the neighborhood of about 150 TEOs that we were down, mechanics, about a third of the positions were not filled, those are two of the biggest challenges.”

Stupka (RTA): “For the RTA, and I really liked the pyramid thing that Megan did earlier, our challenge is trying to balance the very real needs that [Director Staley] talked about, and I’m sure Tiffany and others will talk about the very real needs of the services that are out there today with some of the aspirational projects that we need to move forward as a region. So how do we strike that balance? How do we hold the coalition together? That doesn’t just include folks in this room and folks in the state legislature but other providers, other Chambers of Commerce and all other kinds of folks, folks who want to see light rail when we’re struggling to get buses out on the street every day. I’d be happy to talk to anybody about how the airport service actually gets set up. And [Khalil Rahal of SMART] is here today, he can talk to you about how hard it is to get a bus shelter done. So just the reality of getting these projects implemented, but having it continue to kind of carry that torch – I don’t think it’s a challenge, I think it’s an opportunity. I think it’s wonderful to be able to do that and I’d love to be able to do it, but always trying to balance those two things: How do we look to the future but keep our feet firmly planted in the realities of today?”

Gunter (SMART): “In looking at the challenges, I’d say there’s a couple of things. One, Senator McMorrow, sitting here just a moment ago, said that transit investment is economic development and had that conversation about changing that perception of transit. Well, we are all chewing bubble gum, tying our shoes, walking, and everything else you can imagine all at the same time, really helping those that aren’t inside of our echo chamber understand the importance of what we do and how it affects their lives just the same. It’s one of the biggest challenges I’d say that we have in this region, making sure others outside of us understand it. Obviously on the hiring side – just last week, we were in DC lobbying on behalf of transit in general and one of the things is breaking down the barriers to hiring our operators. What we do know is we have two big things that are standing in the way of greater progress, and that is, one: The substance abuse testing requirement and the CDL requirement that we have for our drivers. What we see in the substance abuse space is the Department of Health and Human Services has been sitting on a Federal Register docket since 2019 that allows for an oral fluid test. That’s a 72 hour lookback versus the 45 to 60 day lookback in a urine test. What we are finding is – and when we recruit every year, we are shameless about recruiting, if we’re grocery shopping, if we’re in a hobby store, if we are walking our dog, we are hiring – and what we’re hearing from people is they do enjoy what is considered legal in this state from time to time, and they won’t even apply for a job with us because they can’t pass that test. That is a barrier. We’re trying to help move that forward, and our Michigan delegation has been very supportive of that. [Applause] And the CDL testing requirement, I won’t get into too much detail, but really looking at what’s meant for an over-the-road truck driver and what’s meant for a bus operator. And so we have a pipeline, oftentimes we find that we train people, and then we send them off to do another job in the private sector. And that’s not helpful to our industry. And we need to make sure that we’re not so blind, that we’re not moving that agenda forward. So the operator side is true. And the on the sobering side is what we saw last year sitting at this same event, I was very new to SMART at the time, I think me and Robert had just exchanged the space when I was sitting for this panel before. We didn’t have a team that I would say was an executive leadership team at the time. So we have a very new team. And what we’re finding is, when we hear at the board table from the advocates or from the public, they don’t feel that there’s a sense of urgency. You all have heard about the duck, right? It may look cool, but it’s working real hard, and that’s the stuff that you don’t see. And on the operations side, what I’ll share with you is our team is now spending time in the terminals at the time of pullout. So we understand exactly what’s happening. So we’re looking at operational efficiency to try to get us there on time, we manage by observation, we are there, we understand the impact that we have when we miss a run, that can affect somebody’s life in a way that is greater than what we would experience just hearing it from the public. I love public engagement. It keeps you honest, it gets you out of your echo chamber and makes you accountable. So as much as you may see sometimes that Megan and I fight – we’ve been doing this for 20 years – she knows I appreciate making sure that we’re hearing outside of ourselves what needs to be done, because we do take it seriously, and there is a sense of urgency about it.”

Nuszkowski (QLINE): “I think for us, a lot of it is sort of boiling down to brass tacks issues. We are in the most challenging part of the year for our operations, which is snow, and not necessarily as it’s falling, but once it’s fallen and then it gets plowed into the roadway and onto the tracks or into parking spots. And people are trying to wedge their vehicles into parking spots and hanging over the white line. So unfortunately, we’re still spending a lot of time working with our partners at the city and the state troubleshooting that. You would think after six, seven years, we would have gotten that down, but we’re still working on that. Also, working with our partners like the Transit Police at the City of Detroit. I know Chief Ricky Brown’s here in the office, he’s been very helpful with getting the streetcars moving as quickly as possible in those situations. On the other hand, we know some of the treatments that can help solve for that and I think that the dedicated transit lanes, just creating more space for transit to operate, [Applause] and buses get impacted by this as well. And so I think creating more space on our public roadways, which we have a lot of capacity – I know we think we have traffic here in Detroit, but we don’t really have traffic in Detroit, if you travel to other cities. And so I think using some of that capacity, dedicating that for transit only, not only facilitates movement for our passengers, but also sends a message to everybody else who’s using the roadways that, ‘Hey, transit is important.’ And I think, feeding into the previous panel’s discussion was, people need to hear from us. Those who are operating, those who are riding, those who are advocating, I think that’s another really powerful way to send a message to the general public, that transit deserves space on the roads, just like like everyone else.”

Cramer (DPM): “One of the things that I really like about working at the People Mover is, there seems to be a lot more puns available. So I really appreciate that. I think Megan kind of set me up: So the top of her pyramid, which of course, our system is above everyone else. [Laughter] Interesting art, I also believe was up there. High frequencies. Yeah. So those are all things we have going for us. We also don’t have any drivers, so we don’t have any problem with that. Don’t have any snow, don’t have any traffic. Dedicated guideway. [Continued audience laughter] So a lot of the challenges of my fellow transit providers, we don’t have to deal with. But the challenge for us I think really is, how can we – this is kind of something we try to work with every day, the people at DTC in general, which includes the Transit Police, double shout-out to Chief Ricky Brown – is how can we contribute positively to the experience, right? So that can be people who are visiting downtown, it can be people who live downtown, and people who are using downtown to connect to other modes of transit to get to the airport, to go to Ann Arbor. But also to connect people who live in the city and people who live outside of the city, connecting them together. Senator Irwin had a great quote, ‘If you connect people, good things will happen.’ I made a note of that one, that was a really good quote. And so our challenge, which is kind of funny almost, is that we’re here, and it’s about, how do we make people are aware of how we can connect them using the People Mover and the resources that we have downtown? But I think from a bigger challenge standpoint, maybe again, it’s kind of just a different perspective a little bit, for me personally, I still think there are more opportunities than challenges for all of us. And to have state elected officials here, our infrastructure office leader, I think the challenge still is, how can we work more closely together? I really still think that there’s a lot of opportunity for that. And maybe it’s just the People Mover because we’re kind of like the ugly duckling in the back sometimes. But we’re here, and I’m committed and all of you are to really keep pushing for all of us to work together better. So I really think that’s the way for us to be successful.”

Q: What’s coming up? What are you looking forward to?

Cramer (DPM): “So for the People Mover, back to my first comment, is this is our big time to shine, right? So a lot of what we’re talking about is regional, but we can’t be any bigger than our three mile loop, which is sometimes good, sometimes bad. But the [NFL Draft] is coming, which is a huge event for downtown, the city, the state, maybe the Midwest even. And so that’s something that we are laser focused on not just internally, making sure that our technology improvements – you’re going to see stuff at the stations that’s going to be more safe, more reliable, but also has more information, when the train’s coming, when the QLINE’s coming, we’re working on having that as well. But really, from a bigger perspective, it was free fares, it’s just helping make the region shine. There’s a lot of effort around the draft to have better coordination at all levels, whether it’s with law enforcement, city services, regional connections between transit providers, I think this is really a great opportunity, but to keep momentum going after that is the most important thing.”

Nuszkowski (QLINE): “Yeah, I echo that about the Draft. And I think I see 2024 as a year of partnerships. And to Robert’s point, I think that we’re all very much in the conversation of how we can provide more and better service for the Draft and to continue that beyond. So, not just having it be for three days or a week while a bunch of people are in town, but how can we use strategies like Park and Ride and apply them more broadly to get people to use transit, and really use that as a focal point? So I think with the partnerships that you see up here, know that we’re working on those issues outside of these conversations here. Other partnerships: Internally we’re renegotiating our contract with the union as well this year, and we’re very fortunate to have good relationships and excited to move that process forward. They represent all of our streetcar operators and our mechanics at the QLINE. And I’d be remiss not to say, exploring the partnerships with the RTA we announced in December. The intention for the QLINE was always for it to be part of a public entity, because we’re currently a nonprofit organization and we cannot take advantage of the federal operating dollars that exist to operate public transit. And so us becoming a part of a public entity has always been a part of the plan. And we’re now at that point in the road where we’re exploring that relationship with the RTA. So we’re excited to continue exploring that partnership to come.”

(DDOT and QLINE operators are both represented by ATU Local 26.)

Gunter (SMART): “So just last week, at our board meeting, we took an action that I think was very significant that I want to share with everyone. We amended our budget so that we would be able to fund our pension liability at 95%. [Applause] That was a huge move for us and a critical move in order for us to sustain what we consider to be the most historic wage increase we have on the table. Right now for the long term, we are freeing up $11 million in operating a year that we were putting towards our pension liabilities that we now will not have to do going forward. So we can use that for greater things such as wages, so we can be an attractive employer. That’s number one. Number two, we got service that started the beginning of this year, [Route 280] in Romulus connecting with the business district is now in service. We’re seeing some good things that started that service in Wayne County. We extended [Route 560, Gratiot Local] from Chesterfield to New Baltimore, as well. And we have on the horizon, the Rochester line. [Applause] Part of the reason we are spending our time with the terminals is to make sure that we can make pullout, to get all of our service on time. We’ve definitely had a good kickoff for that. I’ll say a couple other things. We hired a general planning consultant at the end of last year, we now have a scope, ready to move forward on our bus stop inventory. And that’s really looking at all 6,000 stops throughout the region, and creating standards for those stops. What we see and what we experienced even when we did the tour on 740 was people didn’t know how to use the bus. Stops aren’t always right across the street from each other. As much as you can simplify usage of the system, we should. We are developing, in conjunction with our partners, a scope for a mobile app that will allow folks to again increase user friendliness on the transit system that will definitely change the narrative. We know that when people can use this little device [holding up phone] for their banking payments, for their email, communications, shopping, everything you can think of: If we can get it so that they can plan for, pay for, and get to their trip on this mobile device easily, we know that we have done ourselves a great service in changing the narrative on public transportation.”

Stupka (RTA): “2024 airport service. Yeah! [Applause] Trying to get that up and running by the end of March, for March Madness and certainly for the Draft. So that’ll be a pilot project, but we’re gonna get that up and running. We’re still looking for ridership increases for D2A2. We are completing another update to our Regional Transportation Master Plan, which I know is not super exciting, but it’s actually really important to provide some guidance for what we want to see in terms of investments and priorities here in the region. So that’s going to our board two weeks from now. We’re going to be updating what we call the Coordinated Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Plan. I did not name that, it’s what the federal government calls it, don’t make me say that acronym. [Laughs] This is the plan that informs how we want to prioritize services for seniors and people with disabilities. So we’re going to be working on that. This year, we’re going to be deploying towards the end of the year our first Access to Transit grant program. So this is a program focused on pedestrian and bicycle safety, and shelter in and around bus stops. I will tell anybody that listens that I completely and totally stole this idea from Chicago RTA. It’s been doing it for almost a decade. So I was able to use that to convince some of our partners at SEMCOG and others to provide some funding to be able to do that program. So we’ll be launching that towards the end of the year. Our mobility wallet pilot project is a project that we get some funding from the state to do to look at having a booking app available for paying for multiple transit providers throughout the region. [Applause] So it’s kind of a cool project where we’re working specifically with United Way of Southeast Michigan and Detroit at Work to pilot this service for folks who are using those services. And again, you have that grant, and just waiting, just waiting. So anybody knows anybody who wants to give a call to their elected officials, please do so.”

Staley (DDOT): “A two pronged approach at DDOT for 2024: Back to basics, and forward to the future. DDOT has to become safer, more reliable, and more customer-oriented. People in this audience, a larger general public, our ridership. As Tiffany said, we value the input. The conversations aren’t always the most comfortable, but we need to get that feedback, that input to let us know where we’re meeting your expectations and more importantly, where we’re not. DDOT Reimagined, we’ve got the final draft, we’re going to take advantage of the February Community Input Meeting to turn that into a public hearing. There’ll be details on the plan on the website, beginning day after tomorrow, February 1. So you can see a preview of coming attractions there. And then on the 15th, we’ll hold the public hearing on DDOT Reimagined, and obviously, input from everybody in this audience and beyond is critical. State Fair becomes operational spring of 2024. [Applause] Finally, on the paratransit front, same-day service through a grant from the RTA. [Continued applause] We hope that will be operational no later than July 1st of 2024. Give people the opportunity to wake up on any given day, or if they get a call from their doctor’s office saying their appointment’s been changed, they can wake wake up, make a phone call, and get picked up in a reasonable period of time on a same-day basis. Also the introduction of IVR technology, again, from a grant through the RTA. So that night before, if you’re scheduled to travel the next day, you’ll get advance notice that you’ve got a trip coming up the next day. And then even more importantly in realtime, 15 to 20 minutes in advance of your pickup, you’ll get a notification that vehicle is on its way, you’re the next pickup. One of the things that we hope that IVR technology will do is obviously cut down on the need for ‘Where’s My Ride’ calls. So if we can reduce the call volume into the call center, which handles the reservations and these calls, the whole time for customers will decrease and that’ll improve the quality of the experience when they’re interacting with the call center.”

DDOT has published the final Reimagined draft plan on the city's website.

Stupka (RTA): “Really, really quickly. We are all, I think I’m speaking to everybody, we’re all actively working with the transit caucus and with the state legislature. So all the folks that you heard up here, we are actively working with those folks to help make those changes, help talk to our riders and our constituents and work with them to make those positive changes. That’s heavy on all of our agendas this year as well.”

TRU Business and Board Election

TRU members in attendance formally voted Mitch Mantey, Farai Gundan, and Adam Goodman to our Board of Directors.

One More Thing

That sticker I’m holding up in the header image? There are more! If you’re local to Metro Detroit and weren’t able to grab one in person at the event, reach out to me on social media.

These are not official, and I won’t be printing any additional ones. I pulled the cartoon bus (dubbed “Smartie”) from a 1998 SMART system map, and the candy sticker is my own edit. I can’t distribute the designs online for copyright reasons, so the small handful I’ve got is what I’ve got.