The transition of leadership in Oakland County is giving new hope to efforts to improve a southeast Michigan mass transit system widely recognized as among the nation’s worst.

Last month’s controversial appointment of former Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter as county executive is boosting optimism of transit activists that a multibillion-dollar transit proposal not only will go before voters next year, but be approved.

Coulter, a Democrat who supports mass transit, ascended to the office following the Aug. 3 death of L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican who ran the county for 26 years and resisted efforts to improve regional transportation.

“That factor definitely improves chances,” said Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United, a Detroit-based transit advocacy nonprofit.

“It’s far from a guarantee but a successful ballot measure went from 30 percent to 60 percent with the changes in leadership in Oakland County. Now we have someone who deeply believes in regional transit and will work to get a strong plan on the ballot and will vocally share why it’s a good deal.”

Similar good feelings about transit improvements, however, were voiced in 2018, 2016 and many other years since the demise of Detroit’s streetcar system in the 1950s. But more than 25 plans since then went nowhere.