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Transit
AAATA Community Relations Staff & Managerial Pay Up Significantly Since 2010
IN SEPTEMBER 2011 former Ann Arbor News government reporter Tom Gantert filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information concerning the compensation of then AATA managers. The FOIA revealed that while AATA was running a deficit of…
Crosswalk Ordinance Groups Take To Change.org To Try To Exert Influence
Editor’s Note: Kathy Griswold is the Chair of The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board.
THE WASHTENAW BIKING and Walking Coalition, a small local alternative transportation advocacy group, recently launched an online petition drive to…
EDITORIAL: AAATA’s Urban Transit Plan
THE BOARD MEMBERS of the AAATA (formerly the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority) include individuals who live outside Ann Arbor. Most Board members have little experience in transportation policy. This is because rather than appoint members…
Council Members Discover Pedestrian Crosswalk Ordinance Passed Without A Professional Engineering (PE) Report
Editor’s Note: Katherine Griswold is the Chair of The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board.
WARD 1 COUNCIL member Sumi Kailasapathy conducted an email exchange this Fall with city staff, including the city’s transportation project…
AATA Board Members “Retiring” In Face of County-Wide Transit Debacle
Long-time Ann Arbor Transportation Authority Board members Jesse Bernstein and David Nacht will be "retiring." The public story is that the two have served their terms and are happily busing off into the sunset. Political insiders, however,…
So, How Much Did AATA Spend on Its Failed Regional Transit Scheme? It’ll Cost Ya $1,538 to Find Out.
by P.D. Lesko
Freedom of Information Act requests are governed by the notion that public government has the obligation to err on the side of transparency. It is also governed by the principle that if public records released would benefit…
Almost ALL Washtenaw County Townships/Cities Opt OUT of $500M Dollar Regional Transit Plan
by P.D. Lesko
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje doesn't have a good track record of getting other politicos to jump on board his transit schemes. The WALLY commuter train was supposed to run between Washtenaw and Livingston counties and be…
East Lansing Amtrak Station on MSU Property Gets $6 Million Federal Grant For Expansion
P.D. Lesko
This is not satire. Those who support alternative transportation and expanded transit should read it and weep.
Elected officials in East Lansing, Michigan—along with officials at Michigan State University—recently showed how…
How Much “Fire, Ready, Aim” Leadership Cost Taxpayers This Time
by P.D. Lesko
The University of Michigan picked up its marbles and is going home. Officials there are now looking to build the U.'s next parking garage anywhere but on a 10 acre parcel of riverside parkland on Fuller Road. While the U…
Residents Say “No Go” to Mayor’s Plan To Pay For County-Wide & Regional Transit With City Millage
by P.D. Lesko
The public speaker, an older woman who rides the bus regularly, recounted a conversation with a friend who lives outside of Ann Arbor: "My friend said to me that she wished the AATA buses would run near her house so she could…