How 'Awful Transit Policy' Led a Man to Commute 21 Miles by Foot

According to an editorial by Stephen Henderson, the outpouring of support for James Robertson since the story of his epic commute went national acknowledges a particularly honorable example of resilience. But it also misses a larger point about the transit system in the Detroit metropolitan area: "It's a basic in nearly every other major metro area. Here, it's a pipe dream."

"Robertson's troubles reflect profound policy failures: a pitiful arc of non-action, stretching more than 40 years, that has made this one of the nation's least commuter-friendly metro areas….This region has been unable -- and unwilling -- to weave together a sensible public transit network. While Robertson's circumstances are extreme, he's but one victim of our collective neglect.

Henderson lays the blame at the feet of the politicians and bureaucrats pulling the strings of the region's two "under-funded, dysfunctional bus systems," run by the the Detroit Department of Transportation and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation. Henderson focuses especially on the system that allows communities to opt out of the SMART system. According to Henderson,  the opt out policy "has always sported a sharp cultural edge, because it nudges up against the notion that some communities don't want 'those people,' be they Detroiters or blacks or bus riders, coming through their locales."

And as a final example of the strong words Henderson uses in reaction to the state of transportation in and around Detroit: "If the opt-out's cultural noxiousness weren't enough, its practical failures should badly embarrass leaders in every corner of metro Detroit."