WDET News
- How SMART is it? Livonia's Public Transporation Travails
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Jun 19, 2008Metro Desk - Link to Audio
LEAD: The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation... or SMART bus system is responsible for providing most of Southeast Michigan with regional transportation. But as WDET's Zak Rosen reports from Livonia...SMART's mission is becoming increasingly difficulty to carry out.
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In 2005...Livonia voters decided that they didn't need Smart Bus service anymore.
Kirksey: It was just not a good fit for our community.
That's Jack Kirksey.
Back in 05' he co-chaired Livonia's effort to discontinue the bus service. Before that...from 1997 to 2003...he was the city's mayor.
Now he's the mayor again.
Basically there we're unoccupied busses that transversed our community and people were very concerned, there was almost a joke in the community, if you saw someone on a smart bus you got a 100 dollar reward. Perhaps not humor in the best taste, but that was the attitude that was there.
According to Kirksey...having Smart operate in Livonia cost taxpayers 2.6 million dollars a year... or about 60 dollars per household.
And yet very few people, perhaps 120 out of our 100,000 person population actually utilized the service.
There were and still are riders of course ...like this Livonia woman who gave her name only as Debbie.
I know of people picking this bus up because they live in Northville, I know of people in Novi, and in Plymouth who all ride this bus.
Debbie drives her van 12 miles to this park and ride lot in Redford Township every weekday. Then she takes the over-crowded bus to her downtown office at the Mcnamara Building.
Those public transportation options that are available to people in Livonia are only available to people who are disabled or age 60. And in addition those people have to call 48 hours or a week in advance to get that service.
DDOT...the Detroit Department of Transportation sends busses into Livonia...but the routes and schedules aren't efficient enough for Debbie. She says it did not have to be like this. Voters didn't have to completely opt-out of SMART...not if the system had SMART has addressed some key issues earlier on.
What can we do to tweak the system so that the busses aren't empty. Because that was what the platform was that Livonia ran on. The busses are empty! Why didn't SMART think of that beforehand ,they knew that this would be a ploy on Livonia's part, and say to themselves we need to do something about that either have less busses running, and only run them during peak times. But they never did that, they were getting this free money, they weren't being held accountable. Livonia took advantage of it when their money started to run low to do whatever they wanted to do. Cause and effect. There it was.
Mayor Kirksey says the money saved from not having Smart service is helping to pay for things in the city like fixing leaky roofs and crumbling parking lots.
If we opt back into Smart, that capital improvement disappears.
Livonia isn't the only community that opted out of Smart's service. There are over 50 cities and townships in Wayne and Oakland County that are not part of SMART's regional transportation system. But in Macomb County...every community has service. That's because opting in or out is not up to voters.
Hayes Jones: Is it fair for Redford who's an opt-in community to support the residents of Livonia?
Hayes Jones is the General Manager of Smart. I believe that the increased cost of gas, the increased cost of living today that people are parking their cars and riding the Smart bus. Jones says SMART's is carrying about 45-thousand riders a day. But he adds gas hikes effect busses too.
Yes we're making money by carrying more people, but we're spending 4 x as much because of fuel and adding frequency and bringing on more drivers.
Half of SMART's budget comes from community taxes. The remaining rest from bus fares...along with federal and state funding. But Jones notes that state funding has decreased in the past few years. He says if more communities opt back into Smart it would only improve the local economy.
But Livonia Mayor Jack Kirkey doesn't see it that way.
Kirksey: We will not jump at this kind of patriotic flag waving, apple pie type thing, you gotta get aboard, you gotta be a part of regional transportation, until we see a plan that makes sense for us and our neighbors.
But that attitude doesn't make it any easier for Livonians like Debbie from the Redford Park and Ride.
Just keep the system operating so that people can use it.
She suggests instead of a 60 dollar a year Smart tax it could be cut to five dollars. That way...she says busses could run in and out of Livonia, but only at peak hours and to peak locations.
For WDET News...I'm Zak Rosen