How Grand Rapids Became a Transit Success

Rachel Dovey asks a question after acknowledging the surprising success of Grand Rapids: "As much larger cities on the progressive coasts struggle to prioritize multi-modal transportation against car-loving codes, infrastructure and voting populations, what is the Midwest city’s secret?"

Dovey interviewed Mayor George Heartwell to find a few answers to that question, which includes a regional transportation agency, The Rapid, that provides a voice for the city's surrounding suburbs, as evident by the voter-approved property tax that helped pay for a $40 million bus rapid transit line that opened in August.

Also enabling the city's successes is a 2002 update of the city's master plan, explained in the article by Planning Director Suzanne Schulz. "Two bold decisions came out of that update to encourage transit-oriented development," writes Dovey. "First, the planning commission can now waive all parking requirements for new developments that are located next to transit, a definite carrot for developers when parking is an expensive add-on."