Detroit Free Press Editorial: Look who's blazing public transit path
May. 15, 2011
Detroit Free Press - Editorial
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Regional cooperation on transit and other issues is one reason Grand Rapids continues to leave southeast Michigan behind. All in all, Michigan's second largest city is faring better than other urban areas, with far lower rates of poverty and population loss and a thriving downtown.
Grand Rapids and its core suburbs -- Kentwood, Wyoming, East Grand Rapids, Grandville and Walker -- generally understand that the region's residents will rise or fall together. They showed that again earlier this month, when voters approved -- albeit narrowly -- a significant tax increase to fund improvements in the regional transit system, including a new nine-mile rapid transit bus line serving downtown Grand Rapids, medical facilities on "Pill Hill" and the southern suburbs.
Significantly, young voters in Grand Rapids helped lead the millage campaign, underscoring the importance of transit in attracting talented young people to a city and keeping them there.
The high-speed Silver Line bus route should be running in two or three years, putting Grand Rapids ahead in the race to build the
state's first rapid transit system. It will also get the inside track on securing state and federal transportation funds.
Grand Rapids area voters approved a 0.35-mill increase in the transit levy -- to 1.47 mills -- for seven years. The money will pay for more frequent buses and extended hours on existing routes. One-third of the increase -- $1.2 million a year -- will go for operating the rapid transit route on Division Avenue.
Eventually, the rapid line will compete for the same state transit funds that help pay for bus service in metro Detroit, as well as for Michigan's 75 other transit agencies.
Southeast Michigan could learn something from Grand Rapids, with a population of less than 200,000. Unlike southeast Michigan, Grand Rapids already has a regional transit authority -- the Interurban Transit Partnership -- to operate and fund its system. By passing the transit millage increase, the Grand Rapids region has also virtually secured federal New Starts dollars to help pay for building the $37-million rapid transit line.
Detroit, on the other hand, still has not identified how it will pay for the $10 million a year it will need to operate a light-rail system along Woodward, from Hart Plaza to 8 Mile.
Roughly 75% of those riding buses in Grand Rapids are going to work. The Grand Rapids system is already used by many so-called choice riders -- transit users who own vehicles. With improved service, the system is certain to attract even more.
Leaders in metro Grand Rapids understand that regional cooperation and investments in transit pay off. Southeast Michigan, which will compete for the same talented workers and state and federal dollars, should take note.
