Miscellaneous
Two years ago, southeast Michigan voted down what I think may have been the region’s best chance at a sensible and affordable regional transit service. Had the ballot proposal passed, a network of special rapid buses with their own lanes would have been built throughout the four-county area of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw. People without cars would have been able to easily get to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport. I thought it would pass, even though the campaign to promote it seemed less than inspired. It did pass overwhelmingly in Washtenaw County. Wayne also voted yes, though by a narrower margin than expected. But the proposal failed by a thousand votes in Oakland, and was obliterated in Macomb County. Overall, it lost by barely one percent. The next day, I heard students at Macomb Community College being interviewed about this. One said he’d voted against it because “they would use it to come up here from Detroit and sell meth.” The meth, I could have told him, was far