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Transit
May 15 Last Day to Give AAATA Feedback on Proposed Bus Service Cuts & Adjustments
by Dave Alexander
In 2014, local voters approved a new five-year transit tax, pumping an additional $21 million into the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority's budget through 2019. The promise to voters was more buses, more places,…
Decision on Whether to Sack RTA CEO Michael Ford Will Come Next Week
by Leonard Fleming
Regional Transit Authority officials said a decision on the future of the agency’s first CEO will be made by March 16 following questions raised about his job expenses.
The RTA board met Wednesday for two hours…
Gov. Appoints Ann Arbor Man to Michigan Council on Future Mobility
by Steve Innes
Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced appointments to the new Michigan Council on Future Mobility. Among the appointees was Ryan Eustice, of Ann Arbor. Eustice is vice president of autonomous driving for Toyota Research…
Ann Arbor’s Adaptive Traffic Signal Control System Being Expanded Throughout Downtown
by Aarian Marshall
A decade ago, Ann Arbor turned to tech to manage traffic flow on its streets.
Intelligent traffic systems have been adjusting traffic lights and signs to smooth out congestion in real time for more than three…
Former AAATA CEO Michael Ford Asked By RTA Board to Pay Back $18K in Questionable Expenses
by Robert Snell, and Christine MacDonald
The Detroit News is reporting that Regional Transit Authority CEO Michael Ford repaid $18,813 Thursday, hours after a closed-door meeting with board members amid an investigation into his expenses…
“Reimagining Washtenaw Ave.” With Project Manager Nathan Voght
by P.D. Lesko
NATHAN VOGHT IS the project manager who wants us to Reimagine Washtenaw Ave. as an economic development opportunity. Like the controversial WALLY commuter train project on which over $32 million in local and state funds…
EDITORIAL: Local Officials’ Roles in $12M “Debacle”
IN 2009, DAWN Gabay, then interim executive director of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) sent a letter to an MDOT official urging MDOT not to lease 23 outdated rail cars from a company owned by Louis Ferris, Jr. Ferris had…
Ann Arbor—First Stop in $12M MDOT “Rail Debacle?”
IN 2004, Superior Twp. resident Louis P. Ferris, Jr., purchased dozens of double-decker, stainless-steel passenger rail cars. According to an article published on Feb. 10, 2015 in the Detroit Free Press, “Metra, which operates the Chicago…
EDITORIAL: AAATA’s Next CEO Must Have Extensive Bus Transit Experience
AAATA’S FORMER CEO Michael Ford was hired because he had experience with light rail. In the end, he was unable to do little more than spend money on staff time, studies, marketing and consultants aimed at determining when and how the WALLY…
U-M Sustainability Survey Reveals 75 Percent of Faculty and Staff Snub AAATA and “Always Drive a Car” to Work
ACCORDING TO A new report titled “Monitoring the Culture of Sustainability at the University of Michigan,” dated Fall 2013, despite being provided with free rides on city buses, fewer than 10 percent of U-M’s 6,431 faculty and 35,846 staff…