On-street parking will be completely prohibited within the Central
Business District (that’s a fancy term for Downtown) all week, so be
prepared to shell out some dough for a surface lot or structure while
you dream of a regional high-speed rail system. Or better yet, leave
your car behind and utilize the Detroit Department of Transportation’s (www.detroitmi.gov/ddot) Super Bowl XL Park & Ride Shuttle, which will be operating February 2-6.
Buying a single- or multi-day Transportation Pass is a really
obvious choice for tourists, but is also a smart move for residents
that live, work, or do business Downtown, or who plan to partake in any
of the Super Bowl excitement.
The Transportation Pass covers unlimited usage of special Super Bowl Park & Ride Shuttles, the Detroit People Mover (www.thepeoplemover.com), SMART (www.smarbus.org) and DDOT buses and Transit Windsor (a.k.a. the Tunnel Bus www.citywindsor.ca), creating one seamless transportation system.
The aforementioned Park & Ride Shuttles are buses that will be
continuously running to and from downtown between six convenient
locations throughout Detroit and the suburbs. Unlike traditional buses,
the Park & Ride Shuttles stop only at their final destination. The
ride should not exceed 30 minutes from any of the six convenient
locations: Wayne State University, Detroit City Airport, Northland
Mall, the Detroit Zoo, Fairlane Town Center and Macomb Mall. All
parking lots are free, save for Wayne State and the Zoo, which will
each be charging $10 to park.
The downtown shuttle drop-off point, or Transportation Hub, is the
intersection of Fort and Cass, conveniently located at a People Mover
station. DDOT buses will continue to serve Capitol Park, and Transit
Windsor will be operating the Tunnel Bus on a continuous loop between
Mariner’s Church and Windsor’s downtown bus terminal.
Wait — it gets better. All these different systems will be operating
until 3:00 a.m., and the shuttle will even continue to run later than
that until all stragglers are returned to their vehicles.
Passes are $7 for one day and $20 for all four days; one shuttle
ride is $2 each way. The passes can be purchased at any of the six
shuttle locations, Fort and Cass, and all DDOT, SMART and People Mover
offices.
The architect of this transportation program is Al Fields, the
former Chief Operating Officer for the City of Detroit who was recently
appointed Director of the Fusion Center, the city’s newly-created
emergency-preparedness agency. Fields, a long-time transit advocate,
pictures a visitor to Detroit “taking the shuttle out to Fairlane and
visiting the Henry Ford, heading back to Downtown to jump on the Tunnel
Bus for dinner in Windsor, then utilizing the People Mover to party-hop
downtown.” It’s a compelling vision, and hopefully, one that can move a
car-dependent populace one step closer to embracing public
transportation in Metro Detroit.
Click here for an overview of program with maps, etc.
Click here for updates on road closures and traffic during the SBXL weekend.
Source: Al Fields, Fusion Center director
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