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Michigan's Hybrid Economy: Public Transportation MICHIGAN (Michigan Radio) - If Michigan got a grade on its current public transportation system, it wouldn't be pretty. That's what Chris Leinberger, professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan, says.

Leinberger would give Michigan's public transit system an F.

"Because of the big three and the hesitancy to put in place a transit system that would be perceived as competitive with the reason that Michigan has been such a wealthy state for the last hundred years, you've ignored mass transit," he says.

Every county in Michigan has some form of public transportation and plans for new public transit are in the works in metro Detroit and Grand Rapids. But Michigan has mostly ignored public transit, even though demand is rising.

Megan Owens wants to see us jump to the front of the class. Owens is the Executive Director of Transportation Riders United or TRU. Owens has a vision of a comprehensive public transit system throughout the state. She talks to everybody about public transit. There's one talking point that she emphasizes, over and over.

She admits, "I probably spend half my time talking about the economic return that transit can provide because that's what's going to sell."

Owens stresses that public transit can help revitalize cities and turn around the economy. Owens says it can bring tens-of-thousand of jobs to Michigan, and increase property values. In fact she cites a study that says public transit returns six to eight dollars for every dollar spent on building it.

Megan Owens is basically talking all this money talk, in order to get money, to build public transportation. Specifically, she tries to get lawmakers to invest in public transit. Which usually means increasing taxes, and that's a move politicians have been hesitant to do in the past.

Marie Donigan is a Democrat from Royal Oak. And she's a big advocate of public transportation. She says stressing the economic benefits of public transportation is the way to make it a reality.

"The appeal of the carbon footprint appeals to some people," she says. "And the appeal to the disability community and the access part appeals to another community. But the universal jobs and the economy seem to appeal to everybody."

Chris Leinberger says public transportation is even more important than finding replacements for the auto companies.

"It's somewhat akin to if you were a grocery store and some smart Harvard MBA came along, and said you're losing money on your vegetables and fruit so why don't you just drop those departments. And just offer meat and canned goods. Pretty quickly you as a grocery store are going to go out of business because you're not offering the choice the market wants."

Leinberger says the market includes people that have grown up watching TV shows like "Sex & The City" and "Friends." Those people want walk-able, dense urban areas, connected with public transit. Megan Owens, with TRU, says the future direction of our state is at a crossroads.

"So Michigan needs to decide whether we want to become a vibrant, attractive place that young people and new economy businesses are flocking to or whether we keep fighting to keep taxes low and focus on an industrial base."

And if the current grade of our public transportation system is an F, well there is only one place to go.

The University of Michigan's Chris Leinberger says, "To a certain extent you have the advantage that you're so far behind you can leapfrog everybody else."

He says the M-1 light rail line that's planned along Woodward in Detroit is a great start and that it's a national model for future projects. In part because private companies are investing in it big time. But Leinberger says there's a lot more work Michigan needs to do on public transportation, if we want to be a successful state.

knorris@umich.edu
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