The Detroit Department of Transportation will host four public meetings
this week to ascertain public support for three possible rapid transit
routes. The options, all of which include a three-mile stretch of
Woodward between downtown and New Center, are:
- Michigan Avenue to Dearborn, near Fairlane Mall and University of Michigan-Dearborn; and
These
three alignments were deemed worthy of further study for several
reasons, including public support at an earlier round of public
hearings, population, housing and employment density, major
destinations, traffic volume, bus ridership, and concentration of
car-less households. Modes being evaluated include bus rapid transit,
light rail and upgraded traditional bus service.
The public meetings are being conducted under the auspices of the Detroit Transit Options for Growth Study
(DTOGS) and are a step in the Federal Transit Authority-mandated
process that must be followed in order to apply for federal funding.
DTOGS
is expected to be complete by the end of the year, at which time the
FTA will receive a recommended alignment and mode. The study's lead
consultant is URS, a company that assisted cities such as Pittsburgh,
Minneapolis, St. Louis,
Dallas, Denver and Portland in submitting successful transit grant
applications to the FTA. If DTOGS's application is funded, construction
could begin on a transit line by 2010.
DTOGS is comprised of representatives from Wayne County, Detroit, Dearborn,
Hamtramck, Highland Park, Michigan Department of Transportation, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, the
Regional Transportation Coordinating Council and the Detroit
Economic Growth Corporation.
Technical
Committee member Erik Tungate, who is Hamtramck's community and
economic development director, stresses the collaborative nature of the
endeavor. "This process has brought ties between us, just by virtue of
us sitting down on a monthly basis together," he says. "We all know the
spin-off positive effect transit would have on each of our communities,
directly and indirectly, in terms of development."
Each
meeting will begin with an hour-long open house that will be followed
by a presentation and public comments. The meeting schedule is:
Wednesday, July 25 from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. at the
Guardian Building
Wednesday, July 25 from 5 to
8 p.m. at Wayne
State University's Welcome Center
Thursday, July 26 from 5 to
8 p.m. at Wayne
County Community College's Cooper Community Center
Saturday, July 28 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Ford
Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn
Source: Erik Tungate, city of Hamtramck
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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