In Detroit, a Long-Overdue Push to Create a Cohesive Transit System

It is nearly universally accepted that transit agencies must serve entire regions to succeed in American cities. They can't be splintered into separate entities with one serving the center city and another serving the fringes. As homes and jobs have traversed city borders, transit agencies must not only get suburban residents to downtown jobs, but increasingly, carry urban dwellers to suburban jobs.

While most cities made the transition to regional transit years ago, one of the last and largest holdouts is the city of Detroit. For decades political leaders have intermittently pushed, and failed, to merge the urban transit authority with a separate suburban carrier in the Motor City, where the issue is complicated by an ugly history of strict racial segregation.

But now it appears the political leadership in southeast Michigan may finally be poised to act. Joel Batterman at Network blog Transport Michigan brings us details on a new state bill that would make transit regional in metro Detroit, along with a glimpse inside a rally held by a faith-based advocacy group -- MOSES -- that is working to make sure, this time, the measure sticks:

Transport Michigan is encouraging local residents to contact Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing or write state legislators to urge support for the regional transit authority.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Transportation for America breaks down Chicago's new comprehensive regional plan. Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space helps explain the controversy over crossing guard wages in D.C. And Grist reports that a new study has found young people prefer apartments to houses and iPhones to cars.