News & Events

September 2006

FERA and Loathing in the Suburbs

Name one thing slicker than a politician with a $70 barrel of oil. As the war in Iraq, hurricanes in the Gulf, corroded pipes at Prudhoe Bay, and threats of worker strikes in Nigeria keep the price of gas oscillating between painful and unbearable, Michigan commuters are looking to policy makers for new solutions. Have you heard this one? We'll build more fuel-efficient cars. Or, we'll set up more carpools. If I even mention transit, most of you will just laugh. Well, continued hesitance to address our transportation dilemma is digging yet another hole for suburban residents. And thus, suburban leaders. As Marilyn Lewis from msn.com reported last month, gas prices are having a surprising effect on homebuyers, 45 percent of whom now rate rising fuel prices as a "very important" factor in deciding where to live.

According to the Census Bureau, 156,000 people commute from the 'burbs into Detroit every day. Across the state, the average commute is 24 minutes each way, and 85 percent of us make that trek alone. We each spend about $26 a week on gas. That sure bites into the Starbucks budget. More importantly, it bites into the state economy as most of each dollar spent on gas gets shipped out of Michigan. The diversity of Metro Detroit's suburbs-bedroom communities, industrial centers, quaint downtowns-suggests that stabilizing the transportation paradigm in the state will also help stabilize the population drift that is encumbering our cities' economic growth.

Is change possibly on the horizon? Though I risk being labeled a Pollyanna, I'd sound a note of hope. Some major recent developments hint at increased opportunity to solve some portion of our transportation dilemma:

• Illinois Senator Barack Obama is leading a bipartisan coalition to put more fuel efficient vehicles into production. The Fuel Economy Reform Act (FERA) would dramatically reform the 1975 legislation that sets standards for corporate fleets by segregating vehicles by weight and class. (Incidentally, the fleet average today is lower than 1982 levels. Can you say energy crisis?)
• SEMCOG is leading the Detroit-Ann Arbor rail project development, and it seems near to certain that something will come of that effort after decades of failed attempts by others.
• The Metro's major leaders have joined together to hire John Hertel to build a coordinated bus system for the region under the auspices of the Regional Transit Coordinating Council.
• MDOT recently completed a major roundabout on US-23, signaling a new openness to creative road solutions that treat congestion as not just a pure capacity issue. Is there a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane in southeast Michigan's future?

Suburban vitality depends on a diverse and efficient transportation system. Without a doubt, the economic challenges that strain commuters throughout our region deserve the higher level of attention being paid to them. In the mantra of the Suburbs Alliance, transportation reform is part of that critical "triple bottom line" of economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and social equity that must be the hallmarks of development in our region.