Part 1: If At First You Don't Succeed: The Southeast Michigan RTA

Imagine you're in elementary school playing basketball, trying to make your first lay up.  You set yourself up at the foul line, dribble forward and scope the ball in the air only to miss.  Imagine trying again and again as you grow older and taller, until on your 23rd birthday, you finally make two points.  Finally.

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Now imagine your the Michigan State Legislature.  According to the Metro Times, it's taken 23 attempts since 1970 to create a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in Southeast Michigan.  As taken from SMART's History of Southeastern Michigan Transit, previously failed attempts include:

• 1976 – President Gerald Ford offers southeast Michigan $600 million to build a rail transit system. Other than the People Mover nothing was developed due to the lack of local/regional political support.

• 1979 – The Southeast Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) approves a regional transit plan which includes the development of rail lines and an improved bus system. However subsidies were cut and the plans were never implemented. 

• 1984 – Regional leaders approve the Regional Public Transportation Consensus Plan, a refined version of the 1979 regional transit plan. The plan was never implemented.

• 2006 – The Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority (DARTA) formed in 2003 through an interlocal inter-government agreement (IGA) that includes the City of Detroit, Wayne County, Macomb County, Oakland County, Monroe County and SMART, is dissolved by a Michigan State Supreme Court decision.

The RTA comes to Life

In the presence of balloons and a celebratory parade organized by Transportation Riders United, the first RTA board meeting was graveled to order at 3pm on Wednesday, April 10, 2013.  During public comments, Megan Owens, Executive Director of Transportation Riders United, joking lamented that, "There's got to be some benefit from being the last place in the country to do this." (Huff Post, June 25,2013)

The RTA seeks to coordinate, orchestrate and improve transit for Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties including the city of Detroit. 41% of suburban Metro Detroit communities currently do not participate in any sort of mass transit system.  However,  this new legislation makes it mandatory that all municipalities within the member counties participate (Data Driven Detroit.).

Among the RTA's first responsibilities is to oversee our areas existing transit providers. They are SMART (The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation), DDOT (Detroit Department of Transportation), AATA (Ann Arbor Transit Authority), DTC (Detroit Transit Corporation which controls the People Mover) and the upcoming M1 Light rail, which starts construction this summer.

The legislation also specifically calls for rolling rapid transit along four corridors: (1) a Woodward corridor, (2) a Gratiot corridor, (3) a northern cross-county line to operate between the city of Troy and the city of Mt. Clemens, and (4) a western cross-county 47-mile route between downtown Detroit and the downtown Ann Arbor Blake Transit Center.

The RTA's four rapid transit corridors
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Funding Sources

All federal transit funds currently being used within the region will now flow through the RTA and will be supplied to local agencies as if they had applied independently.  In other words, funds from one agency cannot be diverted for use with another.  By centralizing federal funding, it increases the RTA's ability to apply for additional federal funds for future projects.

How federal funds flow through the RTA to existing agencies
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The key to the RTA's power is its ability to generate revenue.  With the approval of voters, the RTA can impose a special property tax assessment or enact an additional vehicle registration fee of up to $1.20 per $1,000 of the list price of a vehicle. In order to protect a member county from subsidizing a project in a neighboring county (or city), 85% of the funds raised by a county must be spent on transit within that county.

Individual member counties can also impose their own voter approved vehicle registrations fees. However, these funds will be adjusted if an RTA fee is already in effect.

The RTA board is structured so that any vote to place a tax assessment or vehicle registration fee on the ballot for residents of the four-county region can be vetoed by the representative from Detroit, or by a dissenting vote from both representatives of a single county.

The RTA Governing Board

The RTA board is composed of two representatives from each county and two additional representatives — one from Detroit and one chosen by Michigan's Governor.  Each serves a 3-year term.  Paul Hillegonds, a former state GOP lawmaker, was appointed the RTA's first chair by current Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. The legislation also provides for the establishment of a citizens advisory committee.

The make-up of the RTA board
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A Bias Towards Rail

The City of Ann Arbor's City Council drafted a resolution objecting to the RTA enabling bill's “onerous and offensive provisions related to consideration of rail based transportation.” The legislation requires unanimous approval from the 9-member RTA board to “acquire, construct, operate, or maintain any form of rail passenger service within a public transit region.”  Efforts by Washtenaw county representatives to remove the requirement failed.

As explained by former Ypsilanti City Planner Richard Murphy and current RTA board member, the unanimous requirement was included to protect Macomb and Oakland counties from funding light rail systems within Detroit that would be more cost effective if built as bus rapid transit (or BRT).

He continues by arguing that the cost effectiveness of constructing a high-speed rail between Ann Arbor and Detroit has already been proven.  Quoting from a 2007 report (Ann Arbor-Downtown Detroit Transit Study Detailed Screening of Alternatives):

• BRT: $879-$969m to construct, $23-27m annually to operate.
• Commuter rail: $95.5m to construct, $6.25m to operate, for 8 trains/day on the existing tracks.

In Murphy's opinion, if cost is the main objection, then neighboring counties would be voting against their own interest if they supported bus service between Ann Arbor and Detroit.  Especially if the cost of current capital improvements being made to rails lines between the two cities is deducted from the estimated 2007 price tag.

The future looks bright, as RTA readies itself to finally implement a vision for Southeast Michigan regional transit.   And one of the center pieces of this plan, the M1 light-rail project, will be the topic of our next entry.

Next in our series on Southeastern Michigan Transportation:
Part 2: Reanimating Woodward Avenue's Street-Cars: The M1 Light-Rail Project

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Sources:
"The new Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority: A solid step forward, but many more ahead", DetroitHub.com, February 7, 2013.

"RTA sparks dissent in Ann Arbor", Michigan Daily, January 13, 2013.

"Ann Arbor Council Agenda: Ask for RTA Veto", The Ann Arbor Chronicle, December 7, 2012.

"Michigan Regional Transit Bills Unveiled", The Ann Arbor Chronicle, January 26, 2012.

"Michigan Regional Transit Authority Board Holds Optimistic First Meeting", Huff Post Detroit, April 10, 2013.

"How the funding works with a regional transit authority for Southeast Michigan", Ann Arbor.com, March 13, 2013.

"What's this RTA thing I'm suddenly hearing about, and what does it mean for Washtenaw?", Common Monkeyflower, December 9, 2013.