In his third State of the State address, Gov. Rick Snyder asked the Legislature to come up with a way to raise about $1.2 billion dollars that he says is needed to fix the state’s roads, bridges, buses, and trains. The state that brought modern transportation to the rest of the world is now fractured by crumbling roads, congestion, airport and train delays, and poor bus service. But questions remain, and local funding options should remain a high priority.
You can expect one topic to be high on the agenda when Gov. Rick Snyder delivers his annual State of the State address next week: How we’ll pay for transportation in Michigan. The Republican governor, who set out to change the way Michigan invests in its road and transit network, is expected to unveil more details of his long-term strategy for fixing Michigan’s broken transportation system.
We traveled onward, toward Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, where transportation challenges surely exist, but there’s good reason to be optimistic. What we saw in those cities reminded us that Michigan’s transportation system could grow into a good one some day.
Shaan and Sofie are from a place where you don’t need a car. They walk, ride their bikes, the bus or tram to anywhere. Now they’re in northern Michigan, writing a thesis about transportation here.
Economists know that Michigan’s future, including Traverse City’s, is inextricably connected to the fate of Detroit. And Detroit cannot succeed if Michiganders don’t stop the terrible, twin trends of public disinvestment and population loss from our state’s largest city.
On March 20, a group of us embarked on an Odyssey of our own. We spent three days using only buses and trains to travel to and around our state’s largest metropolitan regions.