Ddot and Smart

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DDOT and SMART

Jamal Hamade

Monday, December 8, 2014

Urban and Regional Economics

Economics 5800

Jamal Hamade

Monday, December 8, 2014

Urban and Regional Economics

Economics 5800

Introduction

Most of my life I have commuted via Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT). As a child sometimes, my mother had a car for our commute and travel experience but most of the time we were on the bus. In my adulthood, rarely did I have a rental, and I never had my own car so my commute is primarily on the DDOT. The other major regional transit system in the Tri County City of Detroit is Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART). SMART is my secondary transit mode for my life’s commuting experience. What I want to discuss is the economic effect of DDOT to their passengers over the last six years. I will provide some factual statistics or numbers from DDOT operations but some information is not readily available however, that is not always needed, and sometimes the witnessing of the transit operations speaks volumes for itself. For an instance, in October 2013, there were reporting of urine thrown on a bus driver and two other drivers were physically attacked. These violent behaviors lead to a one-day strike for all DDOT drivers. Detroit government promised police presence and a camera on every bus by the summer. Sometimes advertisement says police presence is on the bus in plain clothes but from my witnessing, there is no police on the bus. You may say how I know. This and more is what I will dive into within this paper, explaining how human behavior and decisions effects people life and their economic response.

Development

As stated above, I commuted via DDOT and SMART for most of my life. Since January of 2008, I have traveled from Southfield to Downtown Detroit via SMART and mostly DDOT, mostly to attend class at Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD). As the years went by I...