DDOT Virtual Community Input meeting, October 2022
Many transit users and advocates wondered why seating and shelters are “disappearing” from certain bus stops, and why DDOT isn’t replacing them. Several bus riders said they were stuck in gridlock during the Detroit Free Press Marathon.
Some advocates were skeptical in private paratransit operators People’s Express and Transdev. The city may soon renew a contract with Transdev, which operates the MetroLift service, and Executive Transit Director Mikel Oglesby expressed confidence in the proposed contract.
“I’ve been back in Detroit for 15 years. And every year that marathon has caused me problems.”
More generally, several riders complained of poor customer service. Oglesby promised new standards in how DDOT trains staff in customer service.
Oglesby teased that the agency will soon be “doing something” at the State Fair Transit Center. He reported that construction of the new transit center is on time.
Table of Contents
Documentation
The meeting was live-blogged on Mastodon and Twitter for Detroit Documenters, which offers its own report.
Documents available on Documenters.org, including the meeting agenda and more documentation by Colleen Cirocco. Conrail Twitty also live-blogged this meeting.
The agency’s last meeting on Sept. 15 was documented by Claire Nowak-Boyd. No documentation could be found for its next meeting on Oct. 27. The next documented meeting on Nov. 17 was documented by Claire Nowak-Boyd.
Visit the agency’s website for official information.
Related news articles
- “Detroit transit chief promises paratransit will improve under $49M contract, riders say 'we're not caving'”
Nov. 17, 2022, Sarah Rahal, The Detroit News - “Advocates question Detroit paratransit contracts”
Oct. 18, 2022, Annalise Frank, Axios Detroit - “Detroit’s buses are rolling, but are they reliable?”
Oct. 4, 2022, Bryce Huffman, BridgeDetroit
Materials
Archived pages
Mastodon posts and meeting page are archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Audio
The actual start of the meeting (5:05 p.m.) can be heard five minutes into the recording.
Images
Screenshots of online meeting. Due to limited resources, image descriptions are provided on request — contact me.
Meta
Page published Nov. 19, 2022.
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All original content in this documentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Share and republish to everyone, freely.