Public Evicted from Detroit Transit Center

The public was evicted from Rosa Parks Transit Center Wednesday January 15 near noon. The temperature was about 20, with gusting wind. The reason was to fix ticket dispensers that had money in them.

Wouldn't this maintenance activity be better performmed at another time of day rather than a peak hour of usage and with poor weather conditions?

A new DDOT Director was installed Wednesday.... does he understand human needs? This is not just maintenance of a system... this is a social service that people depend on for their safety, well-being, employment, and quality of life. Mobility is a human need that must be addressed humanely. 

The Mayor's office has been requested to take action in a few areas:

• Bus schedules need uploaded to Google for mapping. Plus sending info to Bing maps, Mapquest, and other mapping services needing mass transit information. Can the information be made easy to access in a uniform industry accepted format?
• Text-My-Bus (phone 50646) is still not working eight days after requests to have it fixed.
• Bus shelters need to be INSTALLED *NOT* REMOVED. Those that were in the city have been disappearing over the past year to the point only a handful remain in very specific locations (i.e. WSU/DIA, City-County Bldg).

Keep Quiet and It Will All Change (for the worst)

We Have Been Too Quiet

Detroit Department of Transportation held eight public bus hearings in four locations around Detroit between August 24-27, 2009. This video is a compilation from over 60 video clips. The people were given 3 minutes to speak, not 90 seconds. The locations were well placed in areas served well by buses to enable people to attend. There were over 200 people that gathered at Rosa Parks Transit Center on the evening of August 25, 2009. Coverage by the mainstream media was extremely limited, the People cried out.

The direction DDOT was looking at going into this meeting was to:

• Eliminate four routes
• Eliminate weekend service between Saturday 6pm to Monday 5am - wiping out Sunday service
• Eliminate night service on many routes between midnight and 5am.

Resolved after the meeting was to retain Sunday bus service on many lines, but runs times were extended offering perhaps half the service that was previously available. Night buses were also reduced but not eliminated.

Recent Bus Hearings

February's hearings were announced without much notice by the mainstream press. The Mayor's Press Secretary and Chief Operating Officer would rather not have many people at public hearings. Meeting the bare necessities on timing, number of meetings, and format for the meetings ensures limited involvement by the public -- which works well when the agenda is to privatize public transportation.

Meetings were scheduled at the Northwest Activity Center, and Wayne County Community College East campus. Neither of these routes is well served by buses, and two meetings were scheduled at the same time on the same date to take care of all the meetings in a single day.

The hearings had little if any impact on the route changes - literature was clearly marked as changed service. There was nothing "proposed" about the changes going into the meetings. Public meetings are used to find areas that changes proposed may need adjusting.

Printed materials following the meetings was very limited. Occupy Detroit has footage showing a single desk copy of March service changes in the office at Rosa Parks Transit Center. Offering material in Spanish and Arabic, both large population groups in the city was not available for months. Updates to schedule tables on Google Maps were incorrect for a week, and changes since have been sporadic.

Mayor Dave Bing

Source: NY Times (Sept 2009)

What kept DDOT from executing the original plan? Many say it was the election campaign for Mayor Dave Bing. Things have changed in 2012. The Mayor is approaching the end of his term and looking at running for another term as Mayor. His platform of change is evident through the campaign branding of videos on the City's YouTube channel MyDetroitCable. The branding of videos in this manner is a violation of Detroit City Charter