I have found another public initiative supporting BRT for the corridor:
CATA BRT: http://bettertogetherbrt.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CATA-BRT-273747082999261/
Video "Small Businesses Support CATA's BRT": https://vimeo.com/180321845?ref=tw-share
Previously I had also mentioned this group of supporters:
Capital Area Transit Supporters: http://catslansing.wixsite.com/home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CATSLansing/
I suggest engaging with both groups and sharing whatever video/content they produce.
This is exactly what they need to put into an info-commercial on local TV. Show that it is a fairly normal system that many huge urban areas use successfully. Show folks that the BRT will set Lansing apart from every small town in Michigan that has a traditional bus system. I think people from Greater Lansing and the whole state will be proud to have a modern transit system in our Capital City.
You might not know it, but people out side Lansing think to live in Lansing is kind of special, they have an impression formed maybe when their class visited the Capitol, or attended a game at MSU. It often surprises me when people react to my living in Lansing, and say "that must be nice". It is nice and let's make it nicer with the BRT.
Their proposal, which is the general proposal being promoted by non-BRT people, is to simply fix roads. That is a short-term view that, as many weaknesses as it has, I don't think CATA has addressed them appropriately. Why spend tax dollars to fix Michigan Ave now and later do something else, and spend more money, to implement mass transit? Instead, why not make an efficient use of resources and take this opportunity to fix the road and incorporate the BRT design? Still, as I have said before, I don't think that CATA has done a good job in affirmatively promoting this project. Instead, they are somewhat answering to the opposition.
I definitely don't like the whole sense that keeping Michigan Avenue in a proper state of repair should be a special project! It is to the city's great shame that they cannot keep perhaps the major road of the city in proper repair with normal monies.
That's going to change with the new money to come in in the coming years from the state transportation bill. Either way, Detroit eventually coordinated the reconstruction of Woodward with the construction of the QLINE. This is not that hard or that big a deal. Obviously, Lansing is not going to fix the road to only have it torn up; it'd be coordinated with the BRT. And they most certainly wouldn't construct the BRT line on the road as it is today. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying for their own means.
I can not think that the possibility of a future BRT is the reason that Michigan Ave. is in it's present sorry state. Let's not fix it because some day we will have to dig it up is crazy. As with W My Hope they will dig it up within months, so that reason really does not fly. The street needs to be paved today. One day when the BRT comes along pull up the pavement and reuse it for the new street surface. What about all the other streets in the downtown area, why are they all so bad. Because one day we might have to dig up the new pavement in the future so don't do anything today? My shocks and kidneys are being rattled today. I do not think a smooth Michigan Ave should stop the BRT.
I live in a strange world out here in CA, where all these people I'm surrounded by complain about their taxes, but don't realize how much better their infrastructure is than a lot of parts of the country. And then I talk to family/friends back in Michigan, where roads near by dad have car sized potholes, and they complain constantly about the state of things, but don't want to pay anything to fix them.
I realize higher taxes are a panacea, but there has to be some give and take.
To be fair, California roads don't deal with the contraction/expansion of the ground as they do in Michigan with the seasons. The salt on the roads and the plows scraping deteriorates them faster too.
We're near Tahoe though, and they get way more snow (albeit with lower temperatures). The roads there are still in great shape. It's a major tourist area though, so maybe that plays into it.
Comments
Another name could be "LOL RT" for "Lansing -> Okemos -> Lansing Rapid Transit"
CATA BRT: http://bettertogetherbrt.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CATA-BRT-273747082999261/
Video "Small Businesses Support CATA's BRT": https://vimeo.com/180321845?ref=tw-share
Previously I had also mentioned this group of supporters:
Capital Area Transit Supporters: http://catslansing.wixsite.com/home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CATSLansing/
I suggest engaging with both groups and sharing whatever video/content they produce.
You might not know it, but people out side Lansing think to live in Lansing is kind of special, they have an impression formed maybe when their class visited the Capitol, or attended a game at MSU. It often surprises me when people react to my living in Lansing, and say "that must be nice". It is nice and let's make it nicer with the BRT.
Their proposal, which is the general proposal being promoted by non-BRT people, is to simply fix roads. That is a short-term view that, as many weaknesses as it has, I don't think CATA has addressed them appropriately. Why spend tax dollars to fix Michigan Ave now and later do something else, and spend more money, to implement mass transit? Instead, why not make an efficient use of resources and take this opportunity to fix the road and incorporate the BRT design? Still, as I have said before, I don't think that CATA has done a good job in affirmatively promoting this project. Instead, they are somewhat answering to the opposition.
I realize higher taxes are a panacea, but there has to be some give and take.