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“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director of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) sent a letter to an MDOT official urging MDOT not to lease 23 outdated rail cars from a company owned by Louis Ferris, Jr.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…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: AAATA Endangering Pedestrians
AAATA is using the whole of the 3 block faces (5th, William, 4th) as de-facto loading zones, and creating a dangerous situation for traffic and pedestrians alike. It is impossible to turn northbound on 4th off William much of time, and…
Michigan Solar Car to Defend Title in Cross Country Race
THROUGH TEXAS HEAT and tornado alley, the University of Michigan solar car team hopes to bring back its fifth consecutive trophy in the American Solar Challenge, which starts July 20 in Austin.
Reigning national champions, U-M has won…
A2POLITICO: AAATA Betrays Voters’ Trust (and The Ann Arbor News)
by P.D. Lesko
ONE OF THE first things the mayoral appointees on the Board of AAATA bus system did after spending millions of dollars to pass a $4.4 million annual millage was to raise AAATA CEO Michael Ford’s salary and pay him $174,836…
France is Paying People to Bike to Work—Could Ann Arbor Do the Same?
by Liz Dwyer
NEXT TIME YOU head to Paris, you might see more people riding bikes across the Seine. That’s because France has just launched a trial experiment that will pay 10,000 people to bicycle to work.
According to Reuters, 20 of…
Highest Percentages of No Votes on AAATA Millage Came From Ypsilanti Township and Ann Arbor
THE AAATA MILLAGE vote was costly. Ted Annis, former treasurer of the AAATA Board of Directors placed the amount spent on the special election, staff time, surveys, consultants, marketing and materials by AAATA at around $1.5 million.…