Living in the D

• Enlarge

Category: Transportation

I guess this means my pedestrian experiment is over

I am back to being a citizen of the Motor City - sort of.

After seven months, just as winter is about to set in, our one-car household is becoming what I'd call a 1 1/2-car household.

I now have a car available for those days when I can't bus or bike. It's a 1977 Mercury Monarch that I inherited (OK, took off Dad's hands) and has taken two years to get running and legal. Although it's a pretty cool car, it's far from an ideal commuting choice. It sucks down the gas and its exhaust stinks horribly, which I'm told will go away as the old gunk gets burned out of it, but still, ick. As someone who tries to live an earth-friendly lifestyle, I can't in good conscience go cruising around every day in the lumbering beast.

Now that I have options, I can officially say goodbye to the pedestrian life. I'll still be out there busing and biking to work, but I awaken each day now knowing I don't have to. It's weird. Sure, it's liberating. Yet it still feels wrong in a lot of ways. It's troubling to be reminded that in Detroit, a one-person, one-car lifestyle is the norm, to the point of ridiculousness.

Last Friday, the first time I drove the beast, I stopped for drinks downtown after work. When the bartender asked if I wanted another, I responded with my usual, "Why not? I'm not driving ..." Oops. Yes, I was driving - and so was everyone else. When our group of three left to head to another bar in Hamtramck, I groaned at the sight of each of us climbing into a separate car and forming a convoy to the next destination, where we'd have to find three parking spaces and regroup.

What's wrong with this picture? In the name of convenience, we've transformed ourselves into 150 pounds of flesh chained to a ton of steel - a money-sucking, energy-gulping, space-taking ton of steel.

So I'm back as a citizen of the Motor City. It doesn't mean I have to jump in with both feet and I really don't want to.

Category: Transportation

The pedestrian life, month 7: I'm worn down

When my car kicked the bucket in April I was bummed at first, then I became intrigued with the challenge of getting by without it. It was spring and there was a bus stop nearby. I wouldn't have to worry about parking tickets or spikes in gas prices. Maybe I'd lose a few pounds. Yippee!

The weather's still decent enough to leave the house with a smile and I've learned a lot. I'll admit my optimism had blinded me to the nagging reality I already knew: It's really, really difficult being a pedestrian in Detroit.

The walking-bus-biking-bumming rides plan works, but only if circumstances line up just so. A heavy rain, a blister, an encounter with an angry thug - any little bump can make things difficult and erode one's sense of control.

I've found myself watching someone in a wheelchair boarding the bus and wondering how much harder it is for him. How far did he have to roll to the bus stop and were the sidewalks paved and passable? Without a window to roll up and a door to lock, did he feel vulnerable to the weather and meanness of the streets? Do all the buses have working lifts?

Not that it's anywhere near the same thing, but I cut the bottom of my foot a week ago and have been walking with a limp, wishing it would heal already. That small obstacle was enough to scare me away from the bus routine. Pain aside, would a hobbling woman be a target for a knucklehead looking for someone to mess with?

I've been riding my bike instead. I can bundle up against the 40-degree chill, but what about when there's a foot of snow on the ground? What if I need to transport something heavy to somewhere out in Sprawling Burbsville?

All this makes me thankful I'm not in a wheelchair, on crutches or working a job that requires carrying anything other than myself and a change of clothes 12 miles from home. Problem is, plenty of people are. It shouldn't be that way.

It's been eye-opening, I'm worn down and angry about what kind of community - or lack thereof - we've built in Metro Detroit. Much like the U.S. health care system, which the late Walter Cronkite neatly summed up as "neither healthy, caring, nor a system," we have a nonsystem in Metro Detroit that's been carved out by those with health and money to exclude those without. If you can't drive or be driven, for physical or financial reasons, and your circumstances don't line up just so, you're out of luck.

Category: Transportation

The clunker's still in the garage and I'm still walking

Ah, the pedestrian life. It's been almost four months now since my trusty '97 Escort wagon (now there's a "Hey baby!" car) bit the dust. At the time, I figured I'd wait it out to see if "Cash for Clunkers" happened. Turns out the ol' Freshcort wouldn't qualify anyway. I realize now I don't really want a new car. What a horribly non-Detroit-friendly attitude, I know.

I'm not completely without wheels; it's just that my husband needs our Jeep for his business most days, while all I gotta do is get myself downtown and back to the east side. I do drive occasionally.

For the most part, I'm enjoying the adventure of a automotively challenged lifestyle. Maybe in a few months, when it's 10 degrees and snowing sideways, I'll be singing a different tune. For now, I like not worrying about traffic and parking and I honestly don't know what a gallon of gas costs. Plus, I experience things every day from bike, bus or blades that bring a smile to my face.

Take last week, for example. Had I been doing a standard commute - from home straight to the office - I would have missed:

* Four adorable chattering kids on the bus, excited to be going to Auntie's house and pointing out landmarks along the way.

* Brandon, the wild-haired sax player, who sent me jamming down Fort Street with a jazzed-up rendition of "My Favorite Things" after I put a dollar in his case and asked him to play something that would "stick in my head."

* Four wedding parties I passed Saturday on a bike ride along the RiverWalk from downtown to home, with a detour around Belle Isle, which was packed to the hilt with family reunions, church picnics and well-fed geese.

* The way the soaring canopies at the new Rosa Parks Transit Center make me feel like I'm on a ship about to set sail.

* Having time to study Spanish while I'm on the bus and chatting up the guy behind me who spotted my book and said he'd never seen words like that before.

* The yummy, spicy smells wafting from Mexicantown restaurants that are way more noticeable from a bike - though it is frustrating not being able to transport a cartful of groceries from La Colmena. (Note to self: Look into a refrigerated sidecar.)

Yes, it's downtown, it's summer and it's a good time to get out and breathe it in. So I'll wait awhile before I trade in my ol' clunker. A good pair of sneakers is still cheaper.

Category: Transportation

The pedestrian life, Chapter 3: The search for a bus schedule

OK, now either this is ridiculous or I'm too blonde to figure out public transit in Detroit.

Yesterday, after getting off the No. 7 Cadillac-Harper (I like to joke that "honey, I'm taking the Cadillac to work today") at Woodward and Congress, it occurred to me that it was Cinco de Mayo and it might be fun to head to Mexicantown after work. To do that, I'd need the Vernor bus, and I wasn't sure where and when to catch it. And the Detroit Department of Transportation website had given me a "404 not found" page repeatedly the day before. No problem, I'll go find a schedule, I told myself. How hard could that be?

A fellow pedestrian friend had mentioned that there was a kiosk with bus schedules in the Penobscot building, so I headed there, and thus begun the wild goose chase.

No bus schedules here, the lobby attendant told me, but you can get them at the First National building. So I backtracked to Woodward and asked the lobby attendant there. No, he said, the SMART office moved, and I said I was looking for DDOT schedules, and he directed me to the Buhl building. So I backtracked to Griswold again, past the Penobscot to the Buhl, and got the same story about how the SMART booth wasn't there anymore and I said no, DDOT, and I was laughing at the silliness of it all by this point. The attendant there pointed me toward Capitol Park and said I could get them at "that store over there."

So off I tromped up Griswold to Capitol Park, saw a sign in the convenience store on the corner for "bus passes," and thought, ah-hah. Inside, the clerk, in his limited English, pointed me toward "the other store" across the street. Still no dice. By then I decided I'd just look at the signs on the bus shelters, because for some reason the city had the common sense to put maps on the sides of the Capitol Park shelters to inform riders which buses stopped where (but not when). Turns out even that's not correct; people waiting on State Street informed me that the Cadillac-Harper didn't stop there as indicated, but over on Woodward. Then, finally, I asked a random guy: Where in tarnation can a gal get a bus schedule 'round here? "Over there, behind that statue, there's a guy," he said.

Sure enough, behind the statue, inside a tiny booth, with a tiny hole in the glass, a man sat surrounded by schedules, actual paper schedules, the Holy Grail I'd been seeking. I requested a 7, a 10 and a 49 and skipped merrily on my way to the office, about a half-hour late to work.

All this time, I'm asking myself, remember taking the subways in New York, Paris, London, any other city for that matter, where there are maps everywhere and any idiot can figure out where they're going? Why can't it be like that here? Can you imagine being a tourist in this town without a car?

At the office, I checked to see if the DDOT site was back up. This time there was a page redirecting to the general city of Detroit government site, and the bus schedules were buried several clicks away, but they were there, glory be.

The final laugh I got out of this? The top of the page read "May 5, 2009. The Official City of Detroit Website. Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick."

As of last night, that was two mayors ago. C'mon guys.

Category: Transportation

The pedestrian life

It's been a few weeks now. My '97 Escort has been moved off the street and into the garage for "hospice" while we figure out what to do with it, and I'm getting along all right as a Detroit pedestrian. I'm learning, and the biggest thing I've learned so far is to plan ahead.

That means checking the weather before hurrying to the bus stop and realizing I should've worn more than a T-shirt and hoodie. It means carrying a big bag to hold an umbrella along with whatever book or magazine will keep me occupied on the 45-minute bus ride downtown. It means taking a pair of flip-flops (when I'm dressed better than usual) to walk the nine blocks to the office, because, unlike Carrie Bradshaw, I can't do it in cute shoes.

Speaking of Carrie Bradshaw, I was hanging out with a friend who I jokingly call the downtown Detroit (as in, fabulous, but broke) version of her, wining and whining about trying to keep it together while relying on public transportation on a limited budget.

"It wears you down after a while," she admitted. She'd gone shopping and had to carry her bags past a gaggle of not-so-polite liquor store loiterers to the bus stop, and waited there for a half-hour in the rain, then had to stand because the bus was full. She's been mugged once. I bought both of us adorable cans of pepper spray that look like perfume after that.

She's a little better off than me in that she lives downtown and her "commute" is literally two blocks. She uses the People Mover regularly. She doesn't do the 'burbs at all, unless someone else is driving, and we've both realized we really don't need to go there anyway.

So at least I have someone to lean on for advice, especially on days like today when the bleepin' DDOT site is down and I can't check the bus schedules. Carrie Bradshaw never had to live like this.

• Enlarge

Category: Transportation

Is Mass Transit in Detroit for real this time?

That's the question that your fearless Editorial Writer took on in a recent essay. The December 8th unanimous vote by regional leaders in favor of the 25 year, three-pronged plan for mass transit is in rarefied air. Of the 24 transit proposals submitted to Metro leaders in the past half-century, only this one has made it to the point of broad agreement. Much more work remains.

Transit is of particular interest not only to the young professionals who read and participate on this blog, but also to the parents who've seen their children leave Michigan for more transit-friendly locales such as Chicago or New York.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. There's also a video component available for the more visually inclined among us. Enjoy!

• More Images

Category: Transportation

Is it Saturday yet?

No. No, it isn't. Which means that, technically, the Woodward Dream Cruise hasn't even begun.

Someone forgot to tell the cruisers, though.

Those of us who live mere inches away from Woodward Avenue either wait all year to celebrate the event being right on our front lawns, or get the heck outta town at the first sounds of a rumbling motor.

Normally, I'm the latter. In fact, last year I spent the weekend posted on my front porch hollering things like "Slow down! This is a neighborhood!" or "Hey, jerk-face, does that look like a parking spot?". This year, thanks to the expanding seediness and constant sounds of engine gunning, I was looking forward to playing a new game - Cruiser or Beater?

I've been sucked into the excitement, though. This afternoon I got out of work early, my house was begging to be cleaned and the sun was just a-shinin', so I decided to take a stroll.

Woodward remained a mixture of normal traffic and a few cruisers but Nine Mile just east and west of Woodward was packed with activity. Head west into the kids' area and you can ride a Mustang. Not the car, but the mechanical horse. East of Woodward was the emergency vehicle show, with fire and police vehicles both old and new. Highland Park's vintage paddy wagon was my hands-down favorite.

Click the picture to see some of my camera-phone masterpieces.

Category: Transportation

D-DOT holds meetings on 5-year service plan

The Detroit Department of Transportation is meeting with residents four times from Tuesday to Thursday at various sites about the department's five-year service plan. The plan is a work in progress. It comes as the city sees an increase in ridership on many routes, transportation officials said. The plan will be available at themeetings or online at www.RideDetroitTransit.com. The first meeting is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 19) at the Northwest Activities Center, 18100 Meyers. Another is set for 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at the Wayne County Community College's Cooper Room on its eastern campus, 5901 Conner. From 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, officials, will meet in Room 107 of the D-DOT office at 1301 E. Warren. The final meeting this week is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Thursday in Room 107 of the D-DOT office at 1301 E. Warren. For more information, call (313) 933-1300.

Category: Transportation

Now for this evening's traffic report...

While I've thoroughly enjoyed bunking with Mom, making sure that chores are done and pills are popped, there is one thing that's been driving me out of my mind. I've added about 25 round-trip miles to my daily commute.

You see, I'm a bad daughter of this motor city. I. Do. Not. Like. Driving. At all. And I especially eschew freeway driving. I've got it real cushy now that I live so close to work, but back when I was a permanent resident at Chez Mama, I had mapped out a whole slew of routes that allowed me to bypass I-75.

Turns out I forgot most of them.

On my last trip I was inching up Woodward, until even that got a little too crowded for my liking. I hung a right on 6 Mile, gassed it up to proper cruising speeds, not carin' a bit about the eastside geography I was once so familiar with when it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I had just passed Van Dyke, and was now faced with the mother of all traffic problems, City Freakin' Airport.

Staring at the dead end, my respect for the fight of Mr. Happy and all the rest of Fletcher Field's friends growing, I did the only thing that made sense at that moment.

I glanced at the 'No Right Turn' sign on Tumey, muttered a half-curse half-apology, and spun an awkward u-turn.

I've got a new route planned for this evening's drive, but I'm open to suggestions. Anyone have a secret Cass-Corridor-to-eastside-suburbs path they want to share?

Category: Transportation

Can't get there from here

Ever wonder if the powers that be are conspiring to make sure you can't get anywhere in the summer?

I don't, actually. I suspect that there's absolutely no inter-crew coordination with all the road closures in Metro Detroit, along with no planning, no notice, and no give-a-flying-Ford about what it does to your schedule and blood pressure.

I had to laugh this morning at the story warning that I-96 is about to close near downtown. Everyone panic!

Dude, the road construction grand poobahs close down entire freeways on a whim already, what's another one? At least we got the memo this time.

Besides, I drove I-96 last night, and it was already shut down. Randomly, of course. Sure, I noticed the sign westbound that the freeway was closed between West Grand and Livernois, but I didn't believe it. There's no way they'd do that on a weekday, during rush hour, with I-75 torn up nearby... would they? There are plenty of false alarms like that; you can't count on what the signs say. And sure enough, it was only down to one lane, not closed, and it wasn't the stretch the sign warned about.

So I attempted to take I-96 back eastbound later, thinking those signs were just another crock of MDOT foolishness, and yup, it was closed this time. A big snarl of traffic was trying the maneuver up the ramp at Grand River, and wouldn't you know it, EVERY ONE of my secret escape routes had some sort of closure blocking the way home. Davison to Lodge? Cool, but I couldn't get from the Lodge to I-94; the ramp was closed. East Grand Boulevard through New Center and under I-75? Nope, that was closed for bridge work. It took a bunch of sly moves through dark side streets and under train underpasses to finally get on I-94 at Mt. Elliott, and boy am I glad I know the way around the 'hood. At one point I threw up my hands and said, "do they NOT want us to get to the east side?"

So, go ahead and panic over the latest closure that the MDOT bigwigs appear to have actually planned and warned us about. Me, I'm going to get a kayak and start commuting that way. They can't close the river. Can they?