Macomb residents happy but want better public transportation, survey shows

Detroit Free Press: "A majority of Macomb County residents are happy with their overall quality of life and believe quality of life and schools are the county’s biggest assets, but they want to see improvements in public transportation."

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Petition going to the RTA. Make your concerns known.

Transportation Riders United is petitioning the new Regional Transit Authority. As usual with online petition drives there is a form letter attached:

I want a regional transit system that provides the following: - More frequent, safer, and reliable bus service; - New rapid transit such as express buses, light rail and commuter trains; - Affordable, convenient transit from and to Metro Airport; - Better transit for seniors, people with disabilities, and others without options; and - Readily available transit information. These important improvements will not come free, but are worth the cost. I am willing to pay $20-40 a year more in taxes for more and better transit!

But there's also a text area in the form where you can make your specific requests. These could include fare-free operation. This is the text I submitted, which I'm happy to say wasn't too long for the form:

In addition to better transit for seniors, people with disabilities, and others without options, mass transit should compete directly over customers who do have other options, particularly the single-occupancy automobile. Competing against the automobile is difficult because every car owner or lessee has made a large commitment to motoring, mostly in the form of insurance payments, but with significantly much money sunk into fuel, parts, registration, etc. Going without a car, or going for a car-free lifestyle, is also a major commitment, especially in a pedestrian-cyclist-transit-hostile environment like southeastern Michigan. The automotive lifestyle, like most monopolistic phenomena, has high entry and exit costs. The lower the fare we can post, the clearer it becomes that a bus ride is cheaper than a ride in a car one already has. I'd really like to see RTA experiment with fare-free operation, at least on one line on one day. Hopefully this will lead to expansion of free service; the cost of which should be offset (probably more than offset) by the negative externalities of cars-first transportation. It should also be noted that oil and highway subsidies are making motoring artificially cheap. Be bold in asking for subsidies for transit, as the other mode of transportation is utterly shameless in its lobbying.

Visit the petition site here.

Driving down 7 percent in Michigan since 2005 [Michigan]

The Herald Palladium: "Michigan policymakers should wake up to the fact that residents are driving less and start focusing on public transit and biking alternatives, an advocacy group says."

As Michiganders drive less, is more public transportation funding needed?

MLive.com: ""The main reasons for the decline in driving are increased telecommuting, increased use of public transportation, increased urbanization of the population, and changes in the age composition of drivers (fewer young drivers and more older drivers, with older drivers driving less in general)," Sivak said in an email."

How Much Money Can You Save By Living Car Free

Living Carless: "If you sit down and calculate the numbers it seems that many people are possibly spending up to 50% of their income on vehicle ownership. Sometimes even more if your family has more than one car. With continually rising gas prices, car payments, insurance premiums, maintenance, auto repairs, and other car ownership expenses it’s no wonder that road rage exists. We have become a society that is enslaved by the gas and automotive industry."

Money spent on cars leaves the community

Strong Towns: "My back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that the Holland-Zeeland area (where I live) would see as much as $300 million returned to the local economy EACH YEAR if every two-car household became a one-car household.

Massive Toxic Black Cloud, Brought To You by the Koch Bros, Blows Over Detroit

Common Dreams: "MInd-boggling video of a billowing, high-carbon, high-sulfur cloud from the mountain of petroleum coke - waste from Canadian tar sands shipped from Alberta to Detroit, and the dirtiest potential energy source ever - illegally stored by the Koch Brothers along the Detroit River. Produced by Marathon Refinery but owned by Koch Carbon, the pet-coke piles have for months been producing "fugitive dust" - ie: thick black crud - that blankets the homes of outraged residents and lawmakers; analysis shows the dust contains elevated levels of lead, sulfur, zinc and the likely carcinogenic vanadium. Environmental officials say the Koch Brothers broke the law by not getting a permit for their toxic dump, and they can't guarantee there won't be another "dust event,""

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