- Woodward bus picks up passengers on Michigan near D-DOT terminal Oct. 25, 2012. Riders have previously complained that the Woodward route has been altered to detour the downtown strip.
By Bruce Saunders
July 12, 2013
For the past few months, DDOT Woodward Ave. service has been deprived of about half the usual number (eleven) of coaches each day, resulting in delays of, sometimes, several hours for passengers. Why has just the Woodward line been cut so severely?
D-DOT driver and mechanic outside funeral for AFSCME Local 312 Pres. Leamon Wilson, 55, who represented mechanics and fought militantly to keep the system out of a regional authority. That regionalization has now been authorized by the Michigan Legislature, with the support of some Detroit Dems. Immediately afterward, federal funds to D-DOT were cut.
Can it be that the huge number of complaints to DDOT about this will be cited by advocates of the proposed Woodward shuttle as substantiation of the claim that Woodward needs more commuter service? The non-bus-riding public has not been informed of the down-sizing of the Woodward fleet and would probably accept such claims for the proposed shuttle (which Detroiters have NOT been enthusiastic about) as valid. This ruse may be the only way to popularize the idea of Detroiters bearing the expense of a project which would, otherwise, seem to primarily benefit suburbanites – given its very limited number of Detroit stops.
This appears to be a calculated ploy – implemented with no regard whatsoever of thehardships which it is inflicting on DDOT Woodward commuters – for the purpose of generating the false appearance of substantial grounds for funding a project which Detroiters have been pretty much in opposition to. The public should be aware of the lengths to which certain parties will go to serve their own ends – at cost to the public.
(VOD will be following up on this matter. D-DOT riders are asked to comment on-line, or email diane_bukowski @hotmail.com to tell their own stories. VOD will also be contacting D-DOT and other sources.)
D.dot should have been back route#78 imperial on weekday and add one at to northland center at night’s add #78 Limited Goes to the northland center on the weekend,
Saturday service, to downtown detroit transit center,
I ride the Woodward bus, usually with my handicapped son, but when there is a 100 degree+ heat index, I cannot subject him to 2 hour waits for the Woodward bus.
Come on! This bus has always transported more riders than any other DDOT line and is criminally over-crowded since other bus lines have been cut, and riders forced to go to Rosa Parks to catch a bus while it is not too full to get a ride, much less a seat.
The much studied BRT system has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars to determine that we need a system that SMART until recently provided-Buses running from Downtown to P0ntiac and the rest of the “Region”
Duh! If riders could take a bus directly to the suburbs, instead of having to go to the State Fair stop, and waiting for and transferring to a SMART bus, maybe the Woodward could pick up riders who only need local service.
The Complete Streets project, costing 750,000 dollars for suggesting planting bushes and adding bike lanes completely ignores the needs of bus riders, while touting beautified stops for the still in the planning stages BRT and the useless to anyone not moving between the Amtrack station and the Campus Martius.
I guess the Street Car is great for people who take the train to Detroit to go ice-skating, but what about the Detroit residents and businesses that are going to be inconvenienced or displaced for this toy trolley?
Businesses in the New Center will be losing on-street parking. The St Regis Hotel and other businesses will be only blocks away, but will not be served by the “Street Car to Illitchville” Our neighborhood will house a way-station, bringing environmental damage, but not picking up a single passenger north of West Grand Blvd.
Nor does the BRT envision stops in the most transit dependent areas.
The working poor pay taxes too, and there are more of us. Give us a break