Woodward Avenue Light Rail Transit Project City Of Detroit Wayne County PDF Download

ABSTRACT: Detroit, Michigan is the largest city by population in the United States without rapid transit. A combined public and private initiative has progressed through the FTA New Starts process and appears poised to bring a 9.3-mile light rail line to Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main street, within the five years. Evaluating the context within which this investment is set to occur - amid 60 years of dramatic population decline, extreme levels of racial and economic segregation, local government fragmentation, and municipal budget battles - shows that the project faces significant implementation hurdles. The report also seeks to establish criteria for measuring the success of the project, following implementation, given the wide array of metrics used to evaluate transit investments in other cities in the past. These metrics include meeting budget and ridership projections, creating transit system integration, and positively impacting the efficiency of service provision within Detroit, including but not limited to transit services. Maximizing the utility of the transit investment will positively impact the ability of Detroit to respond to its context of continued population shrinkage and make future rapid transit expansions in Detroit more politically tenable.