How could not improving our metro and urban bus system help our live and the health of the region? Exactly... there's no downside to improving the mass transit that we already have.
Excerpt:
Thousands of Detroiters make extraordinary efforts to stay on the grind, riding the bus to suburban jobs that pay little more than minimum wage. To anyone who thinks Detroiters are lazy or don't want to work, I'd suggest walking -- or riding -- a mile in their shoes.
We can start that journey with Rashawnda Jones, a housekeeper at Somerset Inn in Troy. Jones, 25, commutes more than 21 miles from her west-side house, a trip that takes an hour and a half.
To allow time for possible missed connections or late buses, she likes to leave home early. Jones rubs the sleep from her eyes at 5 a.m., while the streets outside are still dark.
She showers, toasts a waffle, lays out her son's school clothes and puts on a burgundy smock before heading out at 6 a.m. -- two hours before her shift starts.
Jones catches the Schoolcraft DDOT bus to Woodward and Manchester. Then, after waiting about five minutes, she transfers to a SMART bus on the 460 route that takes her to Somerset Inn.
"It's hard, but I'm doing my best," Jones told me Monday, while we rode the SMART bus north on Woodward.
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