Last month PBS aired a documentary highlighting the efforts of several community leaders and private developers to introduce a comprehensive plan for mass transit in the Motor City.  The plan—dubbed the M1 light rail project—would focus on implementing an approximately three-and-a-half mile long route down Woodward Avenue.  The route would include 12 stops starting from Hart Plaza, near the river, and end just north of Grand Boulevard near the New Center area.  

Primarily private investors, including big Detroit names like Roger Penske, Mike Illitch and Peter Karmanos Jr. to name just a few, are funding the plan.  The private funding will allow for federal matching grants to be rewarded in the near future in order to fund and complete the second stage of the project. 

When compared to other major cities like Chicago or New York, Detroit is severely lacking in regards to mass transit and has been lagging in that area for several decades.  Understandably, being that Detroit is the Motor City, it only made sense that the personal automobile was promoted as the main, ideal form of transportation in and around the city for so many years as it was.  But, these times, they are a-changin’, and it is inconceivable now to think that the city will ever be rebuilt successfully without realizing that there has to be a better way developed for getting around.

Being a freshman in college, while living in a city without a car, I have found it absolutely imperative to have a viable way to get around town.  Much to my chagrin though the bus system does provide that convenience for me.  It is both a cheap and efficient way to get around in the absence of personal transportation.  And, even if I did have my car, trying to find a place to park around campus is definitely less than an enjoyable activity, not to mention a costly endeavor as well.  Now visualize living in Detroit, a city almost 10 times the size of East Lansing while trying to get around without a car.  How are we ever going to put people back to work in Detroit if they cannot even find a way to get to their job in the first place? 

Many opponents to the M1 project have compared it to the people mover downtown claiming that its nothing more than a pipedream and it simply won’t be enough of a solution in terms of solving the problems posed by a lack of mass transit.  Simply put though, the M1 is just the beginning of a much bigger, thoroughly planned-out project to eventually connect the city of Detroit to other metro areas including Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and the airport in Romulus.  This plan will also bring much needed revitalization to a stretch of Woodward Avenue that has long been stuck in the “emerging” phase, as CNN put it, for quite some time now in terms of business development and such.

With Detroit area philanthropists stepping up ready and willing to set this into motion in a city that’s already strapped for cash, it seems increasingly apparent that now is the time to begin anew.  Granted, it may seem like a small aspect of Detroit’s problems but it seems, at least, like a logical starting point.  Finally in the city of Detroit we are seeing a sizable number of people who are standing up with more than just empty promises and futile visions of what could have been but instead with tangible plans for a rebirth and a new beginning.  Stay tuned for more and feel free to sound off and make comments by clicking on “Comments” below.

Also be sure to check out the video expert below from the PBS doc “Blueprint America”