What do you want for Michigan transportation?

LINK to SITE: "Join Let’s Save Michigan and the Michigan Municipal League for Michigan’s Transportation Vision: A Twitter Talk at noon on September 13, 2011. We’ll explore solutions that have developed in other states, bold new ideas, and what changes Michigan must make. In this time of high energy costs and slow job growth, we don’t need transportation to be another impediment to economic growth. We need a transportation system that supports Michigan’s business and its people.

Follow @LetsSaveMich for live tweeting during the event on September 13, 2011.

Between now and September 12, tweet your questions to @LetsSaveMich using #MiTransVision and we’ll do our best to answer them."

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Ann Arbor - "Now is no time to hang back"

The Ann Arbor Chronicle | AATA Taps Berriz, Guenzel to Review Plan: "Transit has an important role to play in the economic development of the community, Krieg said. Now is no time to hang back.
...Krieg said he felt that opposition to investment in transit is generally based on a lack of information. There needs to be a strong voice for each transit project. So Wake Up, Washtenaw! proposes to continue support for Partners for Transit, a citizen group promoting the transit master plan. The group will also engage civic and business leaders in Washtenaw County and surrounding counties. He also suggested convening a roundtable discussion of transportation funding alternatives, that would involve business leaders, transit officials and the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). He suggested that the discussion should include alternative legal and financial structures that could bring public transit closer to being self-sustaining. Krieg concluded by inviting people to email him at wakeupwashtenaw at gmail dot com."

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Wake Up, Washtenaw!: Yes Folks, Some Government Spending Really Is "Investment"

Wake Up, Washtenaw!: Yes Folks, Some Government Spending Really Is "Investment": These days, we hear politicians earning "points" by always using the word "wasteful" along with "government spending". Yes, some of it is wasteful. But I'd like to point out one example of government spending that's really an investment.

Editorial: A modern public transit system is within reach | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Editorial: A modern public transit system is within reach | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: "With nearly 30% of its residents without vehicles, Detroit cannot afford to take more money from its bus system, which has already reduced service by at least one-third over the last five years. Nor would the FTA, which is paying for more than half of the rail project's construction costs, permit the city to do so.

'We're not interested in building a rail system that's going to starve the bus system,' FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff told the Free Press on Monday. 'For transit to work in this city -- or any other -- you need both."

TheRide Sees Surge in Ridership: High gas prices, stepped up outreach efforts cited for increase | Facebook

TheRide Sees Surge in Ridership: High gas prices, stepped up outreach efforts cited for increase | Facebook: "Overall ridership on TheRide fixed route services was up 3.1 percent in April, 8.7 percent in May
and 8.3 percent in June from the corresponding months a year earlier, an overall average increase
of 6.7 percent. Routes with notable increases include:

#17 Amtrak-Depot St. route: 50 percent increase
#2 Plymouth route:14 percent increase
#4 Washtenaw route: 11 percent increase
#8 Pauline route: 10 percent increase

Between April and June of this year, the A2 Express service to Chelsea and Canton surged an average
of 34 percent over the same period last year. TheRide’s Manager of Community Relations Mary Stasiak
attributes the growth to increased outreach efforts for the new express bus service.

“We’ve been emphasizing the A2 Express in our outreach campaign and how public transportation
benefits riders and helps the economy,” said Stasiak. “It’s great to see that message resonating,
because we all benefit.”

Stasiak also pointed out the benefit to the riders of the A2 Express, noting that a rider on the
Chelsea service who travels on a daily basis can save about $1,200 a year."