These Boots Are Made For Walking…
The New York City transit strike creeps into it’s 2nd day as millions of people walk for hours, or drive (4 to a car minimum mind you) in snail-like traffic just to get to work. My sister, Ali, is among them, walking 46 city blocks, through 11 degree weather to work mid-town, and then the tiring return 46 blocks back! (plus she has a 4 story walk-up!)
Back To Detroit: What if the bus system went on strike here? Would a transit strike, in Detroit, even be noticed? Imagine the people-mover “out-of-commission” and the bus system taken off the roads. What if they stop the Detroit subway (oh wait a moment, disregard that, we never had them!)
To be sure, plenty of people do take the bus to work (though I don’t know anyone who does) and I’ve seen as many as 4 people crammed on to city buses at one time! Why? What I’ve heard, it generally takes hours to navigate the bus-system to your destination (with all of the switching and waiting for bus transfers). Not to mention how wildly bus drivers drive (there must be a traffic-ticket ambassador waiver for bus drivers in this city).
We are, in essence, in a sort of transit strike – with no real, cheap, easy, nor fast way to get from one place to the other. Our cars are also subject to the lack of a hospitable transit system. When you look at the congested freeways (ever filling with more and deeper potholes and ever present road construction) and the sheer lack of convenient, easy, and cheap parking – we’re ALMOST resigned to walking.
Don’t believe me? Just wait and see what the double-whammy of the Detroit Auto Show AND the Cobo Superbowl Experience will do… I’m buying some snowshoes this weekend to get ready!
i hear ya jeff… the lack of a mass transit system has taken it’s toll on metro-Detroit… what makes it even harder is that many people don’t feel safe walking the streets of Detroit, so having to walk makes people hesitant to head down…
reading your post made me think of the last time i went to the auto show… my wife and i tried to take the people-mover, but sometimes we’d have to forego getting on one of the trains because it was just packed (with people who just might have been scared to walk the streets)… eventually we just decided to walk…
The people mover already works only when it feels like it. Lets not push it too hard now. Heck it broke down last night after the hockey game…
has anyone here ever been to a third world country??? sometimes, when i’m in Detroit i feel like i’m in the Philippines or something…
too expand on the previous comment, when i was in the Philippines, things were always breaking down or things just seemed to be “unfinished” and/or dilapidated…
Some friends and I decided to go on a little Downtown-Detroit tour last Saturday and if you ever wondered how Gotham City looks like at daytime … visit Detroit in the afternoon. Altogether we met about 10 people while walking from State Theatre down to the river and back. Could be relaxing if it wouldn’t be so sad.
Ilka (www.usautocom.blogspot.com)
this is the most recent of several comparisons between Detroit and Gotham that i’ve heard as of late…
makes sense… steam out of the sewers… art deco buildings… corruption… maybe we should call it New Gotham?
Detroit’s CBD isn’t perfect by any means, but comparing it to Gotham? That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?
okay, “New Gotham” is a little harsh… our corruption isn’t as bad, but our steamy sewers and art deco buildings are second to none!!!