Eric D. Lawrence

Detroit Free Press

Think outside the route.

It’s a phrase Neil Greenberg uses as he describes changes the Detroit Department of Transportation is trying to implement and those he envisions.

Greenberg, the bus system’s 34-year-old manager of service development and scheduling since August, says bus routes are often thought of as being set in stone, a kind of transit Ten Commandments, but that hewing to routes as unchangeable can mean inconveniencing the people the system is meant to serve.

Neighborhoods grow and die. Populations shift. Bus routes, the thinking goes, should change, too.

Waiting for the No. 11 Clairmount bus several weeks ago at a stop on Clairmount Avenue on the northern border of the Detroit's Virginia Park neighborhood, Greenberg, whose enthusiasm for transit topics is infectious, used this philosophy to talk about the route he was waiting to board with SuVon Treece, marketing manager and graphic designer for DDOT, and two Free Press staffers who were along to chronicle what bus riders experience.

As recently as the mid-1980s, the Clairmount route had 13,000 riders per day, but that has dropped to about 500 per day, Greenberg said. Rather than change the actual route, DDOT’s response has long been to cut service — hours of operation or bus frequency — on Clairmount and similar routes, which only makes the routes less user-friendly.

“This route itself probably doesn’t make sense in its … current form, but that’s not to say there aren’t parts of it that do make sense. So our challenge is to kind of isolate the dead weight, find alternate ways to serve those people because there are people using the entire route, and then take areas of the route that are growing and find ways to pump up service,” Greenberg said of a route that serves Detroit’s east and west sides.

On a particularly desolate stretch of the Clairmount route along Epworth, for instance, no passengers got on or off the nearly empty bus on a late Friday morning. In contrast, Corktown “desperately” needs more bus service, and southwest Detroit is the city’s most underserved section, Greenberg said. DDOT has 36 routes, and moves an estimated 106,000 riders every day.

DDOT to add 24-hour bus service on key routes

Unfortunately, route challenges are not the only issues facing DDOT or its riders. As Greenberg and company waited for the Clairmount bus to arrive — it was on time — the group got a taste of what some DDOT riders have often complained about.

The bus kept on going, forcing Greenberg to sprint after it. The bus pulled to a stop after a short distance, and the bus driver, Al-Muqaddim Muhammad, said later he assumed he was passing a group of tourists because a photographer was there. After the group got on board, Muhammad and Greenberg engaged in a lively discussion about issues on various routes and the challenges drivers face, often unbeknownst to the public.

“The most misunderstood people are Detroit bus drivers,” Greenberg said.

The drivers, after all, tend to get the blame from riders for problems that may be beyond their control.

“You deal with different situations on each route. I just try to stay consistent on how I’m running it no matter whether it’s high volume or low volume,” Muhammad said.

The last couple of years have been an active time at DDOT. The system added 80 new buses last year, including 10 of the larger, articulated variety, 24-hour service has been restored on Woodward, Gratiot and Grand River and the system has finally started hitting its daily goals for getting buses on the road for the first time in decades. In October, DDOT had its highest weekly ridership — 600,077 for the week ending Oct. 17 — in more than two years, and in January, DDOT also rolled out a slew of service changes, including new schedules for certain routes.

And DDOT has just announced plans to hire up to 60 more drivers, which Greenberg said would allow the system to offer more responsive types of service.

More route changes are proposed to begin on April 23, including adding pilot service to Belle Isle on the No. 12 Conant route. Joel Batterman, a coordinator with Motor City Freedom Riders, an advocacy group, has praised the addition of service to the island, saying it sends a positive message to Detroiters that they are welcome on Belle Isle, which became a state park in 2014.

But issues clearly remain for the city’s transit system.

Despite arguably improved maintenance efforts at the Rosa Parks Transit Center and hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent and planned investments there, many of the same complaints about inadequate restrooms, a lack of amenities and non-functioning message boards continue to dog the center as they have for years. On the recent Free Press ride-along, which traveled parts of three routes — the Clairmount bus did not initially stop, the No. 49 Vernor was several minutes late and the heat was stifling at the rear of the No. 18 Fenkell bus, although Greenberg noted that buses are not known for their effective temperature control.

Carlton Allen, 50, a Detroit resident riding the Fenkell bus saw an opportunity to vent a bit when he approached Greenberg and company and asked what the group was doing. He described the Fenkell bus as good in the morning, but said that in the afternoon, riders are “out there (waiting for a bus) like a scarecrow on a stick.” The No. 30 Livernois, he noted, is “real ugly,” because of the long wait times.

Allen singled out drivers' attitudes as a problem on DDOT buses. He said the attitude of drivers for the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation seems better by comparison. Fair or not, rider complaints about the attitude of DDOT drivers are not new.

Allen, who said the system seems to be improving, also offered some advice:

“It has to be not just you all fixing things, it has to be everybody that works for DDOT (moving) as one entity,” Allen said.

Asked to respond to such criticism, Fred Westbrook Jr., president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26, which represents the drivers, offered a different view, citing low bus frequency as the pressing issue. Problems with individual drivers, he said, can be handled using department discipline.

“I haven’t seen that,” Westbrook said of concerns about drivers' attitudes. “The drivers are mostly talking about the harassment they hear from people who are waiting for an hour for a bus.”

Riders, he said, want their bus frequency increased, which he maintained would also likely boost ridership on routes like Clairmount. No. 46 Southfield, No. 39 Puritan, No. 41 Schaefer, No. 18 Fenkell, No. 30 Livernois, No. 15 Chicago-Davison, No. 9 Chalmers and No. 40 Russell are the routes that Westbrook said need the most help. Fenkell and Livernois are, however, among the routes included in the proposed April 23 service changes.

During the bus trip, Greenberg acknowledged that “we’ve got a way to go, no question,” but he also said DDOT’s actual performance has improved dramatically.

Batterman, of the Motor City Freedom Riders, might agree, but he notes that DDOT’s hurdles remain high.

“Most of us agree that service is much better than it was a few years ago because of the new buses and some of the other improvements (DDOT has) made,” Batterman said this week. But “there’s only so much that can be done given DDOT’s current fiscal constraints. The department simply doesn’t have the resources it needs to provide the level of service that (is needed).”

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence,



Proposed DDOT service changes set for April 23:

No. 7 Cadillac-Harper: Revised times to improve schedule reliability and new transferless transfer* to No. 10 Chene on Saturdays.

No. 10 Chene: Slightly revised times on Saturdays and new transferless transfer to No. 7 Cadillac-Harper on Saturdays.

No. 12 Conant: Pilot service to Belle Isle, with bus stop near Aquarium, and revised times.

No. 14 Crosstown: Revised times to improve schedule reliability.

No. 18 Fenkell: Revised times for reliability and minor frequency improvements.

No. 21 Grand River: Boosted frequency on Saturdays.

No. 30 Livernois: Revised times to improve reliability.

No. 48 Van Dyke-Lafayette: Revised times to improve reliability and additional afternoon trips.

* Allows riders to transfer without leaving the bus.