Transit in metro Detroit isn't just about transportation, it's about jobs | Opinion

For SMART bus system General Manager Dwight Ferrell, the value of transit isn’t just visible at bus stops or on service maps.  

Sometimes you see it in the quality of cafeteria eggs.  

Ferrell, who joined SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) in September 2021, spent a lot of time at the medical facilities that treated his late mother toward the end of her life. And he noticed something: The more accessible a hospital was to transit routes, the more amenities it offered to patients and their families. 

“My mother was in three different hospitals in Dallas,” he said.

“The first hospital, the cafeteria closed at 5 p.m. The second hospital, the cafeteria closed at 8 p.m. The [third hospital], it was open 22 hours and made omelets to order. It had all kinds of transit.” 

Omelets may seem like a superficial way to judge hospital quality, but what the food service visibly demonstrated to Ferrell was the hospitals’ ability to attract and retain staff, not simply doctors and nurses, but orderlies, technicians, facilities and cafeteria workers. And that had an impact on medical care: At the third hospital, better staffing meant a shorter wait time for his mother to get a room.  

It all correlated with transit.  

“Transit gives people choice. Transit gives organizations access to more talent because that talent can get there,” said Ferrell, who joined SMART in September 2021. “Transit is the great equalizer: ‘I want to work, I’ve got a way to get there.’” 

With nearly a decade separating us from the disastrous 2016 ballot measure — when voters rejected a regional transit millage — maybe circumstances, leadership and opportunity are aligned in a way that metro Detroit could finally — for real, this time — get serious about improving transit.  

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'If you don't invest in transit, you're not going to grow' 

Ferrell’s passion for his work — he’s run public transportation systems in Cincinnati and Atlanta — was informed by the kinds of insight he gained during his mother’s hospital stays: Access to transit isn’t just about the people who rely on it. It’s about the rest of us, who rely on the people who rely on transit, and how it supports the regional economy.  

“Regions that invest in transit have seen population growth,” he said, a fact proven by the economic impact of transit expansions in cities like Cleveland and Richmond. “I know from my experience that attracting talent in business, and business growth, is essential to the growth of any area. If you don’t invest in transit, you’re not going to grow.” 

Here in metro Detroit, with both a stagnant population and limited transit, it’s certainly hard to dispute that point.  

Ferrell’s enthusiasm for better transit is refreshing. Too often it seems our region’s public transportation policy has been determined by men and women who view transit as a thing for other people, a ride of last resort. Ferrell recognizes that buses serve all of us — you, me, him, people like his late mother — even if we never ride SMART or DDOT. 

Ferrell can point to a host of service improvements, but SMART can only work within the limits created by politics. Most of the system’s buses stop at Detroit’s city limits outside of rush hour. Sixteen Wayne County communities have opted out of the service. Except for the 3-mile QLine, the region lacks rail service. Nor do we have true Bus Rapid Transit with dedicated lanes, signal priority, and off-board fare boxes.  

So for now, improving SMART buses means making improvements piecemeal within the limits of our split system.  

We’ve recently seen small steps toward better transit policy. Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter successfully eliminated his county’s SMART opt-outs, and Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans is trying to follow suit. (Macomb has never had opt-outs.)  

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In the current framework, even if you live in a SMART community but your job is in an opt-out town, say at Trinity Health Livonia, there is no bus that can take you to work. Conversely, a SMART opt-out community like Grosse Ile still expects taxpayers in Wayne County’s other 42 communities to pay for a bridge the rest of us likely will never use.  

While the politics can be frustrating, Ferrell says SMART is making improvements to their internal operations. They expect to launch a new smartphone app within the next 18 months, that will allow riders to better track buses and even pay fares before they board: “This is something that’s been done in other places, so we are learning from what others have done.” 

The project’s second phase will explore integrating other transportation options, like ride or bikesharing services, into the app, he said: “It could be that part of the trip is on us, and another part is on Uber or Lyft or a bike. We want to be the hub for mobility.” 

Since Ferrell took the helm, SMART carried 29,000 riders to and from the NFL Draft, launched a new safety department, improved coordination with DDOT, and successfully negotiated new contracts with three of the four unions representing SMART workers. The fourth is still in negotiations.  

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'If the people choose to ... it can be done'

The question remains — as it has for the last two decades — whether our region can build and sustain a better transit system with more connectivity, light rail or bus rapid transit.

Ferrell says yes — if we want it: “The region is its people. The region is not an entity unto itself, so if the people choose to, then yes, it can be done.” 

It’s an almost-unbelievable notion. Then again, a decade ago, restoring Michigan Central Station was an unbelievable goal. 

Regional transit could be the next odds-defying success in Detroit’s comeback story ... if we want it. 

Jeff Wattrick is a freelance writer who lives in Grosse Pointe Park. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it in print and online.