Detroit and the metro area have forever been challenged with offering good, reliable public transportation like in other cities including Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
With that in mind, here's some some depressing news from the Detroit News in an article titled: "'A broken system': Why one-third of Detroit's buses are routinely broken down."
Reporter Aya Fayad writes:
One-third of the Detroit Department of Transportation's buses routinely are in disrepair, stretching out wait times for riders, hamstringing the agency's ability to cover all of its routes and forcing drivers already on the clock to wait for buses in a system one maintenance department union chief calls "broken."
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan acknowledged the number of DDOT buses out of service, which represents about 96 of the department's 292 bus fleet, earlier this summer and attributes part of the issue to the city getting behind on purchasing new buses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But more than a year after the pandemic's official end, bus operators, passengers and some mechanics who work on buses said the shortage of working vehicles affects the entire system's ability to operate. Some said part of the problem is hiring mechanics without enough experience. At least one expert said the pandemic upended public transportation in many big cities, which are still recovering.
