Neil Greenberg is a Transit Development Specialist at Freshwater Transit, a Detroit-based transit planning and strategy firm. He has worked for four transit operators and two vendors for the transit industry.
By Neil Greenberg
It has taken us so long to establish a Regional Transit Authority in Metro Detroit. Already, we are off to a shaky start.
I refer to last week's decision by SEMCOG, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, to change the formula for how federal mass transit dollars are divided between the city and suburbs. It's hard not to worry that this may foreshadow what’s to come: An ongoing, Pattersonian, city-versus-suburb battle.
The victim?
Regional transit itself – along with the people who use it, the advocates who fought for it and the businesses that are demanding it.
Let's be clear: It was SEMCOG – not the RTA – that took this action. In October, the RTA will replace SEMCOG as the official steward of transit funds.
Will RTA Be Independent?
But as RTA sets up shop, its board is taking cues almost completely from SEMCOG. Most of SEMCOG's advice for the RTA falls squarely in the category of business as usual: install political insiders as the RTA's executive management, mold transit services around a crude and outdated plan, blame unpopular decisions on phantom federal requirements that may or may not exist.
Before we go on, let me explain. CAPITAL money, which comes largely from the federal government, buys the hard, physical elements of a transit system: buses, facilities, behind-the-scenes support resources that transit riders rarely see. OPERATING money is generated locally. It pays for fuel, employee wages and other routine costs that keep the capital assets up and running.
Previously, DDOT, the city's bus system, claimed 65 percent of capital funds while SMART, the suburban system, took 35 percent. This formula was based on ridership – though DDOT serves a smaller population, it provides almost three times as many rides as SMART. Now, DDOT and SMART will split federal money about evenly.
SEMCOG's decision affects capital money, not operating money. That means SMART can update internal systems, pour new concrete at its garages and perhaps buy a dozen more hybrid buses. DDOT, on the other hand, may have to postpone such capital investments.
To be sure, strong capital infrastructure is critical toward the operation of a good transit system. That being said, a shift in capital money is not the body blow to mobility that some have exclaimed.
City Ridership is Higher
Still, transit advocates have ample reason to be upset. First, because SEMCOG's rationale for the new funding formula desperately misses the mark. Regardless of population trends, more city-dwellers will always use transit than suburbanites. That's true in Detroit as it's true in every metropolitan area.
Rigid population guidelines don't make any more sense for transit investments than they do for agricultural investments.Second, the spirit of SEMCOG's action portends more battles to come. And the next battles likely -will- impact actual transit service.
The RTA can make its own choices about what type of organization it wants to be: another forum for old fights to rage on – or a fresh start with an open mind.
The RTA can evolve beyond SEMCOG's guidance. It can be an inclusive entity, one that makes careful, educated and productive decisions. It can value transit at a regional level. It can think outside of ironclad us-versus-them formulas
An effective RTA won't leave SMART and DDOT to their own narrow, short-term interests, but rather bring on professional staff to chart paths forward for the whole transit network.
The new capital funding split is, in and of itself, a minor speed bump. If the RTA inherits this type of decision-making from SEMCOG, that will be the time to make noise. The creation of the RTA is a major milestone.
Now, it's up to us to make sure that the RTA can accomplish its mission.
