A rendering of the RTA’s transit plan

DEARBORN — While the convenience of public transportation is second-nature to many people in other states, Michigan is notorious for the absence of such transit systems.

As it revealed at Lawrence Technological University on Tuesday, the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) has devised a detailed plan that could put an end to the mobility drawback.

The large-scale scheme would allow for reliable and speedy travel by residents between Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw and Macomb counties.

“We looked at the transit demand and needs throughout the whole region,” said Ben Stupka, planning manager for RTA “And to accommodate what we saw as high need for transit improvements, we had to develop a series of transit building blocks.”

To accommodate a variety of needs, the RTA went for a diverse approach to solve the problem.

The building blocks include a series of improvements to existing transit providers and construction of regional rail lines, Stupka said. It encompasses cross county connector projects, commuter express projects, airport express projects and transit mobility management projects.

Major developments to the plan are proposed in Dearborn, the home of Ford Motor Co., one of the largest auto manufacturers.

“We have a lot of really robust services coming through Dearborn,” Stupka said.

The Dearborn details

A key component of the regional rail project would connect downtown Ann Arbor to Downtown Detroit, with a stop at the John D. Dingell Transit Center in Dearborn.

Stupka added that the Michigan Avenue corridor has a high degree of transit demand and need, calling for the implementation of a bus rapid transit project that connects downtown Detroit along Michigan Ave. to east and west Dearborn, then further west to Merriman Avenue.

The “rails on wheels” would use up to two lanes. Large station facilities with pre-board ticketing will be utilized and will provide real time arrival and departure information as well as level boarding, so wheelchairs can easily roll into the buses.

In Dearborn, stops would be about a half a mile to a mile apart and buses will use traffic signal technology to allow them to stop more quickly.

Stupka said the plan proposes a heavily improved bus service on Greenfield Road that would start at the John D. Dingell Transit Center and end in Troy. That project is expected to be completed by 2018.

The totality of the plan is expected to be done within the first 10 years, while the bulk of it should be completed within the first five years. Major operations in the city should be done by 2022, while bus rapid transit projects are projected to be completed by 2026.

Stupka said the RTA is seeking to coordinate transportation between Uber, Lyft and other mobility arrangements that go beyond a fixed route transit.

Competing with the auto market

“The idea is to create a transit service that’s rapid enough to compete with the auto transit,” Stupka said.

He said the goal is to create an opportunity where travel time using the new systems will equate how long it would take to drive a car.

Stupka said while the RTA does not expect everyone to ditch their vehicles, they urge residents to think about their millennial children, who increasingly regard reliable public transportation as essential to where they choose to live.

For example, those who live in Detroit’s suburbs can more easily travel to a Tiger’s game in downtown Detroit. Instead of paying $25 for parking, a family can pay a standard fare and get to the ball park and back home with little hassle.

Job opportunities

Stupka also said the transit system would create job opportunities.

The RTA collaborated with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to run a regional economic model to look at models of investment. They found that 67,000 jobs would be supported by the investment, largely in the construction industry.

“One of the main points of the plan was to look at how do we strategically look at providing better access to job opportunities through the region,” Stupka said.

He added that 72 percent of people who work in Detroit do not live in the city, while 62 percent of people who live there work outside of Detroit.

“There’s a complete mismatch between where people live and where job opportunities are,” he said.

Ultimately, Stupka said the RTA hopes to get people out of their cars, so they’re not contributing to congestion on the roads. He said so far, the response has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

“People see the deficit in transit that we have and understand that thinking about it regionally is the way to think about it,” he said.

Tax increase

The RTA’s proposal is seen as one of the few viable plans that might actually be able to turn the region around – but with a price.

For improvements and construction to begin, Southeast Michigan voters will be asked to consider a $1.2 million millage increase. This means an increase in property tax by an average of about $8 a month, about $95 a year.

Brian Stone, a candidate for state representative in the 15th District, urged people to support the millage in a recent Facebook post.

“The $12 a month that it will cost for someone owning a $200,000 home will easily pay itself back in lowered car insurance rates,” Stone wrote. “By getting uninsured drivers off the road and reducing rates, people who don’t use mass transit will still benefit. Also, mass transit systems are proven to raise property values.”