[nfbmi-talk] story on smart bus cuts public hearing

[joe harcz Comcast]

SMART bus cuts will hurt, riders warn at meeting | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

BY

MATT HELMS

 

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

 

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• Metro Detroit

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Dearborn

 

Sandra Nader of Dearborn is unable to drive because of vision impairments and other disabilities and says cuts proposed by the suburban bus system will

be devastating to those who rely on public transportation.

 

“We’re not second-class citizens. We’re human beings,” Nader, 62, said during a meeting tonight at Dearborn’s Ford Community and Performing Arts Center,

the first of three public hearings on proposed route cuts at SMART.

 

Some of the most vulnerable people will be hurt if the cuts go through, riders and others warned; struggling workers who rely on buses will lose their jobs,

students will have a harder time getting to school, and people with disabilities will be stranded without options.

 

SMART last month announced that it hasn’t been able to win enough concessions from unions to overcome dramatic losses in revenue from its regional millage

on property taxes as real estate values in metro Detroit plummeted in the recession.

 

Despite pay cuts, staff reductions and a fare hike on its average 40,000 daily riders, SMART said it will lay off 123 employees and cut 22% of its service.

The cuts include eliminating about 15 of its least-traveled routes and terminating at Detroit’s border routes that cross into the city.

 

SMART’s cuts come as the Detroit Department of Transportation has cut its service a third or more in recent years amid the city’s financial crisis.

 

Final SMART route decisions will be made Nov. 14 and implemented Dec. 12, officials told the audience.

 

Daniel Spyker, 59, a southwest Detroit resident and longtime bus rider, said the cuts don’t make sense given a poor economy in which more people are relying

on buses.

 

“The political impasse on this issue has doomed us as a viable economic entity,” he said. “The solution of curse is a regional system.”

 

SMART and the DDOT operate independently though they share federal funding. Advocates say the region’s inability to set up a single regional transit system

undercuts the bus services and hurts metro Detroit’s chances at a modernized and expanded system traditional and high-speed buses and light rail.

 

“I’m scared to death,” said Kathy Scott, 64, of Dearborn. “I don’t drive. I have cerebral palsy. I have epilepsy.”

 

Hank Johnson, executive director of The Arc Detroit, an advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities, said public transportation cannot be considered

a “courtesy” service that may be taken away in tough times.

 

Johnson and others urged SMART leaders to fast-track discussions on a coordinated regional transit system.

 

“We see mass transit as a civil right,” Johnson said. “Any reduction in SMART service is a reduction in civil rights.”

 

Other public hearings are set for 4-7 p.m. Monday at the Pleasant Ridge Community Center, 4 Ridge Road, and 4-7 p.m. Nov. 9 at Roseville City Hall, 29777

Gratiot.

 

Contact MATT HELMS: mhelms at freepress.com, @matthelms or 313-222-1450.