All the same, I can't get behind the idea that SMART as exists right now works. That is that it does its job of efficiently and cheaply getting people from place to place in a timely manner, which by the way is something that I consider essential. We have to make this work. We can't just keep shrugging and dusting it's failings under the rug. Don't get me wrong it's better than nothing but if we really wanted to (i.e. supported the RTA) we could do better.
So here is a list of long-standing gripes big and small I have with SMART many of which, though not all, the RTA plan explicitly seeks to fix
- The ordinance that keeps SMART from picking up passengers in the city of Detroit (the word is that it's not being enforced but still).
- I don't know if it's a hole but I'd like to take a train to Ann Arbor. It's a nice place I don't get to visit often.
- The service holes in Oakland and Wayne Counties (Novi, Rochester Hills, and Livonia specifically but there are many more. )
- Even for communities that opt-in if they boarder an opt-out community it can wreak havoc on passengers attempting to make return trips if they get off the bus on a main road that also acts as a municipal border. (LATHRUP VILLAGE!)
- Moreover, it's absolutely infuriating when a bus THAT'S IN SERVICE flies right past you or where you need to go but can't stop because it's an opt-out. ("Sorry I can't stop in ...")
- Opting out gives cities who don't really know that much about SMART's routes essentially the ability to force the institution to make radical changes to move around the holes at best extending the time it takes to complete routes and at worse moving and cutting off stops that have nothing to do with the opt-out communities themselves, especially if those stops act as service hubs. IT DOESN'T JUST AFFECT THEM!
- The buses for SMART come roughly once every hour which is a pretty long time between buses, especially if you need to transfer to get to where you got to go. I have spent a lot of dead time.
- While you can use transfers between some of the multiple systems in the region they are limited and we could really use a universal fare system so you don't have to get more than one transfer per trip.
- The SMART buses generally don't run past around 7 pm which often makes return trips impossible and may strand people particularly those coming home from work or school.
- This doesn't have much to do with the SMART themselves but we need more crosswalks. Over the past few years, I have heard horror stories about people trying to cross the street to get to a bus stop. A quarter-mile, maybe a half-mile tops off the top of my head is about the length of road to walk before the temptation to just screw it and jay-walk sets in especially if the stop is right across the street in the first and getting to a crosswalk doubles the walk.
- I don't really use the SMART BUS phone app to track buses but I've heard complaints about it.
- Right now Northland is kind of a mess and it kind of acted as a hub where people could transfer from the SMART buses to the DDOT busses and vice versa. I know with the construction why did what they did but all the same, it went from one central stop for nearly 10 routes to a lot more stops all over the place and it's confusing to understand which buses stop where and course correct if you're wrong.
- While I'm on the subject of Northland it acted as a sort of de facto transit center and I think we could use more of those. They're expensive but they make things so much easier for passengers with clear markers for different routes and places to buy passes. Plus if you put a convenience store in you can make a mint on cigarettes, soda, and newspapers.
- Speaking of which add a convenience store to the Rosa Park Transit Center. I see folks selling cigarettes and water at the stops getting hassled occasionally, but people really want that stuff on the go. And on a hot summer day who doesn't want water.
- You can argue they're obsolete and redundant with smartphones but Ann Arbor's bus system used to put out a single information booklet of all the routes, schedules, and maps instead of individual pamphlets. I preferred how the information was organized there over the pamphlets.
- Which brings me to something there are fewer paper bulletins than there used to be. And I know arrow of time, creative destruction and all but a lot of people don't have smartphones or your phone runs out of battery. It sucks to have to take a leap of faith when the next bus is coming.
- I haven't had much of a problem with SMART buses being that late and DDOT buses are better than they used to be but it's been an issue in the past and a lot of it was due to aging buses that were unreliable.
- Again it's getting better but safety has been an issue, especially on DDOT buses.
- We could use more benches, and the schedules, and waste bins at the stops are nice. We could use more of those. Let's just call it "pedestrian amenities"
P.S. As it is the RTA plan is dependant on SMART. So we actually need both SMART and RTA millages to pass in order to actually enact that plan.