Making the case for a county-wide mass transit ballot initiative

It is no surprise to one living in the Detroit Urban Area (DUA) that we are seriously lacking adequate public transportation services. The DUA ranks ninth in population in the United States but 25th in terms of public transportation passenger trips.

Functioning Elements

The various elements of public transit available within the DUA actually function rather nicely; especially given the funding available. Collectively however we have a rather dysfunctional system. To date, the DUA has no light or heavy rail commuter system. For our discussion purposes the term public or mass transportation will refer to motor buses and dial-a-ride services only. The DUA is made up of three counties; Macomb, Oakland and Wayne. There are four public transit systems to consider in the DUA; DDOT, SMART, NOTA, and Opt-out.

The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) services the City of Detroit. The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) services many, but not all, of the communities within the counties of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne. SMART buses also travel within the City of Detroit. The North Oakland Transit Authority (NOTA) is a small dial-a-ride system servicing three villages and three townships in northern Oakland County. The fourth option is called opt-out; meaning the community has chosen not to participate in a regional transit system (some communities may offer their own dial-a-ride system).

Opt-out

The county in which I live, Oakland, has a system where each community decides whether it wants to be included in the SMART bus system—thus the use of the term Opt-out. There are approximately 60 communities in Oakland County; each with their own government. To date, about 23 of these communities have chosen to be part of the public transportation system (in terms of population however this represents about 55% of Oakland County serviced by SMART). As you can imagine this leads to a very confusing and “patchwork quilt” image of bus service. The current system is pitting communities against each other and causing a serious disruption of services.

Gaps in Service

Let me give you some examples of gaps in service. Bloomfield Township is an opt-in community. Lying within the township however is the City of Bloomfield Hills. The city is an opt-out community. Unfortunately one of the most travelled routes to Detroit, Woodward Avenue, passes through these two communities. SMART’s Woodward bus from the City of Pontiac to Detroit services Bloomfield Township but must fly right through Bloomfield Hills without stopping. Once the bus passes through Bloomfield Hills it hits the City of Birmingham, an opt-in community, and begins service again. The result is an unfortunate situation of individuals leaving the bus in Bloomfield Township and walking along Woodward Avenue, without sidewalks, to get to jobs in Bloomfield Hills.

A contrasting example involves the city in which I live, Keego Harbor. Surrounding me is the Charter Township of West Bloomfield (population 64,000) an opt-in community and therefore serviced by SMART buses. Lying within West Bloomfield Township are three cities with a total population of less than 7,000 people (Keego Harbor, Orchard Lake, and Sylvan Lake), each of which are opt-out communities. Unfortunately these communities lie along an historic trade route from Lake Huron through Ann Arbor to Chicago (known locally as Pontiac Trail after the famous American Indian Chief Pontiac). This four-mile gap in service keeps SMART from linking the three most travelled north-south bus routes in Oakland County specifically Orchard Lake Road, Telegraph Road, and Woodward Avenue.

A more troubling example is what has occurred with our Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The City of Livonia, lying between the airport and Oakland County, chose to opt-out of public transportation services. The residents of Oakland County then lost its SMART bus service to the airport.

Why would a community opt-out?

I often hear community leaders explain their decision to opt-out is based on the belief that their residents do not want to ride the bus. In some cases this decision is made without polling the community’s residents. In many cases this perception is based on the use of fixed route passenger trips only without considering the curb-to-curb minibus service also provided through SMART. It is amazing to me the number of seniors and disabled residents in opt-in communities who are unaware of this highly successful minibus program. I can only imagine how many seniors and disabled residents of opt-out communities would demand public transportation in their community if they knew this service was included.

A second concern is that dollars raised in one community will be used to benefit another. Due to Federal grants, State grants and other revenue sources, every dollar raised through local SMART contributions in Oakland County has returned over two dollars in the cost of services provided back to Oakland County. Many of the taxes a resident pays go into general funds where it is difficult to see the benefits. Through bus stops added, fixed routes added and the curb-to-curb minibus services, the SMART millage is one example where a resident can see a direct result of their taxes paid.

Finally, there are residents who are against any taxes regardless of the use. I can understand their position given the current economic times. I would point out however that with public transportation an individual can experience a reduction in other expenses by utilizing the bus service provided by the SMART millage. I believe the days are gone where the U.S. economy can support one car for every family member. Where 70% of current SMART users ride the bus to get to work and 20% use the bus to get to an educational institution , a small investment in public transit can significantly improve a family’s ability to balance resources among all family members.

Reasons for a county-wide ballot

In August of 2010 the SMART property tax renewal will appear on ballots. Currently, the only citizens to see the initiative in Oakland County will be those citizens in the 23 opt-in communities. Proponents of a regional public transportation system have two options to expand this opportunity. The first option is to lobby each community to have the initiative placed on the ballot and the second option is to lobby for a county-wide ballot initiative.

Adding the initiative to individual communities is problematic and does not solve the overall problem. The governing structure in these Oakland County communities is a collection of Townships, Cities and Villages. The process for adding a millage initiative to these communities varies considerably based on their charters. More importantly however, this option does not solve the disruption and gaps in service caused by communities that choose to opt-out. How can one community decide to opt-in if they fear their neighboring community will opt-out? Only a county-wide initiative will solve this problem.

Secondly, there are many stakeholders in a community besides the residents themselves that benefit from public transportation. Residents dependent on domestic help or businesses dependent on employees’ timely arrival are directly impacted by the availability of public transportation.

Finally, there are public institutions located in communities that have opted out. The Cranbrook Institute of Science schedules excellent programming for students. It would be convenient for students to take a bus to these events. Cranbrook is located in the City of Bloomfield Hills, an opt-out community. The West Bloomfield School District is fortunate that both middle schools and the high school are located along Orchard Lake Road. This provides a perfect opportunity for students to use the existing SMART bus fixed bus routes to reach these schools outside of the normal school bus schedule. However, the Abbott Middle School is located in the City of Orchard Lake Village, an opt-out community.

In Conclusion

The State of Michigan is struggling with the problem that over 50% of its college graduates are leaving the State—this was before the recent economic downtown. Student surveys reveal that lifestyle is the leading cause of this exodus from the state. Included in lifestyle is an interest in a public transportation system that eliminates the need for a car. Michigan has a long way to go to achieve this level of service but it cannot begin to address these issues without a regional system. We cannot achieve a regional system when one of the region’s largest and most affluent counties does not support a county-wide system itself.

I am in support of a county-wide ballot initiative and urge our Oakland County Board of Commissioners to approve this legislation.

Get Involved

Transportation Riders United (TRU)

www.detroittransit.org

313-963-8872

Facebook: Support Detroit Transit

Complete paper with sources: Smart Bus County-wide Ballot

Using geocaching and technology to find interesting places wherever you go

Joining the international pastime of geocaching has changed the way I view my surroundings and helped me find things I normally would never have discovered.

The common joke is to describe geocaching as a hobby that uses billion-dollar satellites to find worthless pieces of junk. Actually, practitioners hide small containers and then post the longitude and latitude coordinates of the containers on the www.geocaching.com website for others to find. The real treat is that the locations tend to be very special. The creators of each cache hide their containers in places that are historically significant or offer a particularly special view of nature, or take special pride in crafting a devious camouflage to trick the hunters.

Historic roots

An article on Wikipedia states that, “Geocaching is similar to the 150-year-old game letterboxing, which uses clues and references to landmarks embedded in stories.” Geocaching was imagined shortly after the removal of Selective Availability from GPS on May 1, 2000. The improved accuracy of the system allowed a small container to be specifically placed and located. The first documented placement of a GPS-located cache took place on May 3, 2000, by Dave Ulmer of Beavercreek, Oregon. The location was posted on the Usenet newsgroup sci.geo.satellite-nav. By May 6, 2000, it had been found twice and logged once. According to Dave Ulmer’s message, the original stash was a black plastic bucket buried most of the way in the ground and contained software, videos, books, food, money and a slingshot. Today there are nearly 900,000 active geocaches registered worldwide on the geocaching.com website.

Even the locals don’t know about them

When travelling I have amazed local friends by finding locations they did not know existed in their hometown. The cache titled “Noise out of Place” in the center of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, is a good example. If I told you more it would give away the cache. (This type of information is known as a “spoiler.”) While caching with a colleague from a small town north of Gothenburg, Sweden, we found a cache, “Rooster on the Run,” hidden in a World War II concrete bunker that my friend did not know existed in a park across the street from his subdivision.

Travel Bugs

One of my favorite parts of geocaching is the Travel Bug. A Travel Bug is a numbered dog tag with an attached object that moves from place to place, picking up stories along the way. Travel Bugs typically have a goal, like reaching Egypt, and the attached object gives the Bug a personality, like a Captain America action figure. For example, “Exploring Ernie” was launched by an Arkansas car dealer in June of 2003. I found Ernie last summer in a cache in Sarnia, Ontario and moved it along to Sweden. To date Ernie has travelled 45,000 kilometers and is in a cache in Australia.

Our museum’s puddingstone cache

Geocaching works two ways – it helps me find things but it can also bring people to us at the Orchard Lake Museum. The Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society (GWBHS) has launched a program to hide geocaches in historically significant locations in the boundaries of the original West Bloomfield Township.

Our first cache is hidden near the puddingstone located next to the museum. The cache is named “Glacial Desserts” on geocaching.com and has the code name GC1TMN7. In mid-August the cache was six weeks old and has had more than 16 visitors from Michigan, Utah, Wisconsin and North Carolina. The cache contains a Travel Bug from Maine. The cache is an example of an outreach program to attract visitors even when the museum is closed. The cache contains an explanation of puddingstones and the story of our stone.

Spontaneous geocaching

The introduction of location-aware mobile devices like the Apple iPhone have dramatically altered how I geocache. No longer do I need to plan my geocaching activities in advance. I can spontaneously launch my iPhone’s geocaching app wherever I am and get a list of caches and their distance from my current location. For example I recently visited the Michigan Transit Museum in Mount Clemens. Upon leaving the museum I looked at my iPhone and found I was literally standing next to a geocache in the museum’s parking lot. The cache was titled “Edison’s Nano” and explained the history of Thomas Edison and his association to the local museum.

My caching statistics

After 2 ½ years of geocaching I have found 98 caches in three countries and nine states. I have moved along 12 Travel Bugs and had my picture taken at two webcam caches.

About the GWBHS

The Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society (GWBHS) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. It serves the Michigan communities of Keego Harbor, Orchard Lake, Sylvan Lake and West Bloomfield. The Society's goal is to provide a vital museum to familiarize residents with our area's history.
For more information, please visit www.gwbhs.com

History Matters: why West Bloomfield Township developed without a town center

Main Street, Cool Cities, Walkable Neighborhoods, Livable Communities. These are buzzwords for the current trends in urban planning and the types of communities that are attracting people today, especially our youth. The phrases refer to a return in city planning that emphasizes thriving town centers. The Charter Township of West Bloomfield has been debating the issue of a development plan that will encourage the creation of a town center beginning at the intersection of Orchard Lake and Maple roads. It is interesting to understand how the township developed without a town center in the first place and the significance of the Orchard Lake and Maple road intersection.

Charles Martinez, author of Song of the Heron: Reflections on the History of West Bloomfield (ISBN: 0-9753764-0-3), identifies five reasons why the township developed without a town center. The first reason was the lack of a major American Indian trail. Although early surveyors identified paths through the township, these were just connectors to larger trails like the Saginaw or Grand River. Secondly, although 20% of the township’s area was covered with water, this resource was never harnessed in such a way as to generate power for a thriving mill operation. The third reason is that the few local sawmills and gristmills that could have been the impetus for a town center quickly failed. At the same time, the mills in Franklin, Pontiac, Farmington, and Commerce had already developed and West Bloomfield farmers were already making use of their goods and services. Finally, the early leaders of West Bloomfield Township were farmers and not merchants or individuals of great political prestige.

We must consider two additional and more contemporary developments that affected the Township’s commercial development. First, the geographic definition of West Bloomfield Township includes the cities of Orchard Lake, Keego Harbor, and Sylvan Lake as well as the Charter Township of West Bloomfield. In this context, Keego Harbor could arguably be considered the closest semblance to a town center within the boundaries of the township. However, beginning with Orchard Lake in 1928, the residents of the northeast corner of the township split to create their own city governments including separate police and fire departments.

The second contemporary change was the unfortunate demise of the Interurban rail line running along Orchard lake Road. The web of public transportation that is so prevalent in thriving cities today could have been carried out by this small trolley connecting the Township to larger rail lines in Pontiac. Eleanor Pekkala, writing her memoirs for the Township’s Michigan Sesquicentennial committee, mentioned the impact of the Interurban and the development of the Maple Road stop, "The area called 'St. John's Crossing' by the interurban people is now becoming the commercial center of the township. St. John's Crossing was the Maple Road stop which was so named because six farms adjoining this area were all owned by Johns: John Watt, John Case, John Beattie, John Voorheis, and John DeConick."

When making decisions for moving forward it matters to have an understanding of the past. Our planning for town centers must consider the roles that location and transportation played in the development of existing pockets of commercial development. These existing pockets must be fertilized with the elements of growth that the general public is expecting to find in its choice for residency.

The Song of the Heron and Eleanor Pekkala's Early Development of West Bloomfield - An Overview, are available through the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society (GWBHS). The Society is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. It serves the Michigan communities of Keego Harbor, Orchard Lake, Sylvan Lake and West Bloomfield. The Society's goal is to provide a vital museum to familiarize residents with our area's history.
For more information, please visit www.gwbhs.com