In this episode, I sit down with Transportation Riders United executive director Megan Owens to unpack Wayne County’s transit millage and what it could mean for riders in Detroit and the suburbs.
We get into how countywide service could end “opt‑out” communities, bring buses and microtransit to places like Livonia, Canton and Plymouth, and better connect rural townships to trunk lines.
I also talk with Megan about a new $25 million BUILD grant for Gratiot, Macomb County’s renewal interest in SMART, and how to actually find the transit question at the bottom of your ballot.
You can find a full transcript of the conversation below.
More on TRU: https://www.detroittransit.org/
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Episode Transcription
This has been lightly edited for clarity. Please refer to the original audio before quoting.
Wayne County Transit Millage
Jer: First up, the newest news: there is a millage on the ballot in Wayne County coming up on August 4th. Some listeners may have already voted, but it’s important to touch on it because it’s such a big topic. What’s on the table for August 4th?
Megan: Wayne County‑wide expansion is on the ballot. Everyone in Wayne County will have a chance to vote on expanding transit throughout the entire county.
For communities that have long had SMART bus service — Dearborn, Grosse Pointe, Inkster, Westland — this is purely a renewal. They’ve been voting on this every few years.
The exciting part is expansion into new areas, places like Livonia, Canton, Plymouth — places with thousands of jobs, school opportunities, and shopping — where, right now, if you don’t drive, you just can’t get there. Expanding into those areas is a major piece.
Detroitors will be part of it for the first time, and there are some interesting ideas for how DDOT could improve and expand service with the additional revenue this could provide.
Jer: So this would eliminate the concept of opt‑out communities. Wayne County was unique regionally and nationally in a lot of ways, where communities could decide to be in or out of transit.
Megan: It seems really absurd. Each town doesn’t get to decide whether they’ll have a highway or be part of other services, but for decades a few people on a township board or city council could decide, “We’re just not going to do transit,” and voters didn’t even have the choice to be part of a regional system.
Now we’re potentially days away from the entire tri‑county area having at least some level of public transit. This isn’t going to be world‑class rapid transit, but it’s a critical baseline to make sure no one in our county is left behind.
Just because your car breaks down, your whole life shouldn’t have to break down. You should have options regardless of where in the tri‑county area you are.
Benefits for Areas like Livonia, Plymouth, and other current opt-out communities
Jer: What are some of the benefits for those out‑county areas? When I say out‑county, I mean the areas that aren’t the city of Detroit.
Megan: SMART has released some ideas for the types of services they could provide. They’ll do more detailed planning as they get closer, but they’re looking at extending a lot of the routes — Fort Street, Michigan Avenue, Ford — that already have transit but currently stop at awkward locations.
They’re also looking at new routes downriver and on Telegraph, Warren, Middlebelt, 7 Mile, Haggerty. That could mean new bus service connecting to thousands of jobs, schools, and shopping opportunities, as well as expanded paratransit and senior shuttles.
Right now, each town has some level of senior shuttles, but a lot of them are very limited. If you’re in Plymouth and you’re a senior, you might only be able to get a ride between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and only within Plymouth. That’s all you can do.
Jer: I was recently in downtown Plymouth. That’s an area that currently does not have connection to county‑wide transit, but it would under this millage.
Megan: Exactly. Downtown Plymouth is great. Even if you don’t drive, you should be able to get out there and enjoy it. They’ve got so many cool events happening, and it’s super walkable with lots of shops. You should be able to get there.
Rural Wayne County and Microtransit
Jer: What about the more rural or open‑space parts of Wayne County? Metro Detroit has this geographic quirk: the county seat in Wayne County — Detroit — is in the upper right corner, and our population center is spread across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb.
That means all these counties, including Wayne, have sizable rural or less populated areas. How could this benefit them?
Megan: A lot of people don’t realize there are three more townships after Romulus when you go southwest. Every one of Wayne County’s 43 communities has transit needs, but they’re not the same. What works in one place won’t necessarily work in another.
SMART has been piloting flex service for a couple of years. It’s an on‑demand microtransit, similar to an Uber‑style service. You can use an app or call in — which is important for seniors or others who don’t want to use an app — and within 30 to 45 minutes a ride will pick you up and take you within a couple of miles in that zone.
It won’t take you all the way across town, but it will either take you directly to your destination if it’s within a couple of miles, or to a main transit route so you can be better connected.
Microtransit tends to use more vans. You might be the only passenger, or they might pick up one or two other people. It’s a service that works much better in low‑density areas.
Every community has seniors, people with disabilities, people who don’t drive but still have places to go. We need to figure out ways to serve them.
Jer: It’s important to connect to trunk lines, because research shows microtransit works best when it ties into a strong spine or main route.
Megan: Exactly. People still need connections. It might not be exact door‑to‑door service, because transit has to figure out the most efficient way to move as many people as possible.
There’s a balancing act between ensuring everyone has some service — no one is left behind — and moving people efficiently. Flex service has proved to be an effective way to do that.
Maybe you’ll get picked up down in Huron Township, and they’ll take you up to Michigan Avenue so that route can take you the rest of the way.
Jer: I’m always stunned at how big this region is geographically. Our coverage area is Macomb, Oakland, Wayne, and sometimes Ann Arbor when it ties in, and you realize how far that is.
Megan: It really is a large region.
What This Means for Detroit
Jer: Let’s talk about the city of Detroit, because that would be a new addition to this millage.
Megan: Every one of Wayne County’s 43 communities is different. Detroit has long invested in its own transit service, and this millage wouldn’t change that. It would be a supplement on top of that.
Detroitors would be able to get to jobs and stores in places like Livonia and Canton, which have long been an absurd barrier for people without cars.
The plan is for dollars raised in the city to be invested in improving DDOT services. Detroiters would get a win‑win: more connections and better service.
We’ve been asking the DDOT director what that would mean. Over the last couple of weeks, he’s held public meetings and talked about improvements like better bus stops, but they’re also looking to pilot the same kind of microtransit used in deep Southwest Wayne County in parts of Detroit.
There are swaths of Detroit that are quite low‑density. Those four grandmas who’ve been in a neighborhood for 75 years still have places to go, but it may not be effective to have one bus once an hour serving them. On‑demand service could make more sense in certain pockets where the need is greatest.
Jer: An on‑demand service could be useful. It’s easy to go downtown, but if I wanted to go in another direction, maybe diagonally, on‑demand might be more helpful. If I only need to go a mile or two, it might be easier than trying to catch two different buses to get to someplace like Indian Village.
Megan: If you’re on the far east side or far west side, flex service might not take you all the way to your final destination, but it could take you directly to a shop within a couple of miles.
If you’re going downtown or to the airport, it might take you to Gratiot or Michigan Avenue or another major corridor, and DDOT can focus on running those major routes every 10 minutes.
The idea is to provide the best type of service for each area. It’ll be interesting to see how this works.
DDOT has struggled to get enough buses. It takes two or three years from the time you order a bus to get it delivered, so they don’t have the extra vehicles to expand fixed‑route service significantly. But they can expand microtransit, pilot it, and figure out how to make on‑demand service work in the areas that need it most.
Jer: We’re used to a very digital world, but when it comes to buses and transit, it’s very physical. There are real constraints.
I didn’t know it took so long to get buses. It feels like there are buses everywhere, but that makes sense.
Megan: Between Buy America requirements, there are only two major bus manufacturers. Demand is for a few thousand buses a year, not millions, so there’s a backlog.
Jer: Only two manufacturers you can go to.
Megan: Sadly.
Jer: That seems crazy.
Megan: It gets into broader issues. That’s my personal opinion, but it does seem crazy.
“Empty Bus” Critique
Jer: I have to ask a question I get a lot, especially about suburban transit. What do you say to someone who drives down a road, sees a bus with only a few people, and feels like not enough people are using it? How do you make the case that it’s worth investing in, or even increasing investment, especially in communities not used to seeing buses on their streets?
Megan: I’d ask: have you ever been the only car on a road? I certainly have, but no one says we should narrow that road because occasionally there aren’t other cars.
At one point in time — maybe on the outer edges of a route or at 2:00 in the afternoon — there might only be one or two people on a bus. That same bus at 5:00 p.m. downtown might have 18 people on it.
It’s more efficient to run the same bus through the whole route. SMART is figuring out where it makes sense to use smaller, 30‑foot buses instead of 40‑ or 60‑foot ones, but in most cases, that “empty bus” is just a moment in time.
At other times or spots on the route, it may be quite crowded.
Jer: And that route running consistently creates certainty for everyone using it.
Megan: Absolutely. It’s a system. Not every road is packed even at 5:00 p.m., and it’s good to have some cushion in the system.
Transit agencies are always trying to get the most out of every dollar and looking for ways to adjust service to maximize ridership without leaving people out.
That bus you see with a few riders is probably crowded later or at a different point on the route.
How to Find the Wayne County Millage on Your Ballot
Jer: If someone’s looking at their ballot in Wayne County, what are they looking for?
Megan: First, turn the ballot over. This millage will be one of the last items. Don’t just stop at the top races; go all the way to the end.
One of the last pieces will be the Wayne County public transit millage. It doesn’t have a particular number, but the language is essentially “Wayne County Public Transit Millage.”
If you believe we should have transit options everywhere in the county, I’d encourage your listeners to vote yes.
Macomb County Transit Updates
Jer: There are a few other things happening around town we need to know about.
Megan: Sometimes when we talk transit, our friends in Macomb County get a bad rap. They haven’t always been enthusiastic about expanding transit into new places, but we’ve had two pieces of great news on Macomb County transit in the last couple of weeks.
First, related to elections: the Macomb Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to put the millage that would renew SMART service across Macomb County on the November ballot.
Oakland County voters approved a longer‑term millage in 2022. Wayne County has this August vote, and then in November Macomb County voters will decide on renewing transit across the county.
Previously, there was conflict between different parts of Macomb, but the entire board unanimously agreed to put this renewal on the ballot. Voters will have the chance to keep SMART rolling.
SMART also secured a big new federal grant. There aren’t many great federal dollars for transit projects these days, but SMART received a BUILD grant — “Building and Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation offers relatively large grants to a few big projects each year. I’m pretty sure Michigan hasn’t gotten one since funding for QLine construction, but this is a $25 million grant to improve transit along Gratiot.
It will make bus service safer, faster, and more accessible along the 23‑mile Gratiot corridor — from downtown to 23 Mile Road — with upgraded amenities, real‑time information, and safer crossings on a corridor we know can be dangerous.
It’s not rapid transit, but it will create a much better experience for riders along Gratiot. Detroit and Macomb County will both see improvements.
These changes aren’t immediate; it’ll take a couple of years. But it’s a real plus — there are still federal investments coming in to improve the system.
Jer: I desperately need a new bus shelter at Gratiot and Grand Boulevard. There’s a new bench at Warren and Grand Boulevard because it’s a three‑way intersection up there, but we desperately need new shelters after the repaving and everything else is done.
Megan: I’ll let you know. I assume there will be opportunities for public input as they finalize details, and we’ll make sure we get that ask in.
Supporting Transportation Riders United
Jer: Megan, I really appreciate you. For listeners who want to support or follow the work of Transportation Riders United, what can they do?
Megan: Our website and social media are at detroittransit.org. You can follow us on most major social channels.
We’ve been posting some fun videos about the Wayne County millage and about the big “round the mitten” transit tour and other efforts. Follow us on socials.
If you haven’t gotten your lawn sign, we have some available — go to the website for that. We’re a nonprofit organization, so please consider becoming a member and supporting TRU.
We’ve been advocating for almost 25 years for more and better transit for all of Metro Detroit, and member support helps us continue that work.
Jer: Megan Owens, thank you so much for catching us up. I’m sure we’ll talk again soon.
Megan: Absolutely. Thanks so much.
Outro
Jer: That’s it for today. Feedback is always welcome at dailydetroit@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail at 313‑789‑3211.
Norris Howard will be joining me tomorrow; I’m looking forward to it. Until then, I’m Jer Staes. Remember that you are somebody, and we’ll see you around Detroit.
