The Michigan legislature gave the RTA an “85 percent” rule that requires most money to be spent in the county where it’s collected. In this case, transit also follows money. Poor transit access is linked to unemployment, low income, and low economic mobility. For them, no bus means no way to get to work, or anywhere else. The remaining 66,000 households that make up Detroit’s carless population aren’t so lucky. They called him the “Walking Man.” A local car dealer gave Robertson a brand-new Ford Taurus, and now he drives to work. Last year, a Detroit factory worker named James Robertson became a local celebrity after the Detroit Free Press wrote about the daily 21-mile commute he made on foot. The Detroit area’s shambolic system is a burden on residents who can’t or don’t drive. The region spends $69 per capita on transit each year for comparison, Atlanta spends $119 per capita, Cleveland $177, and Seattle $471. Boston San Francisco Chicago and Philadelphia as well as Baltimore. It’s not for lack of need that the region doesn’t support transit: Despite its autocentric reputation, Detroit is eighth nationally in its percentage of carless households-behind the nation’s transit capitals of New York Washington, D.C.
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