Rizzo

That's probably one reason why it won't pass. To some Ottawa county burbs the City of Grand Rapids is the boogie man. Anything can happen though, the birthplace of public transit advocacy was in the southwest suburban areas.

The DowntownGR and Experience Grand Rapids campaigns should use this as an opportunity to do a nice promotional campaign to spite the awesome distinction of "dying city." This is the stuff that rallies the troops. Pride for home should not stop at the front lawn.

A rendering of the expanded bus garage for The Rapid: http://shar.es/axYqh

They should be in the stages of planning the light rail station in this area to be center lane boarding to squeeze the street giving way to pedestrians.

Contact me through private messenger if that is available or [email protected]

Transit Potpourri: -Check out www.transitmeansmore.org to see a group of people uniting to develop transit options in eastern Ottawa County. The same group also commissioned a study with some surprising results which suggests strong support for public transit in this suburban area. -Consultants Nelson/Nygaard completed one of a couple of studies for the West Michigan Transit Linkages project. Creating the links will be an up hill battle. Good community support, but political suspicion and funding issues exists. Attached is the study (PDF) Linkages_Study.pdf -The Rapid will hold a public meeting Thursday, October 29, at 6:30 pm to discuss its federal obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act for the Silver Line. This is a formality to have inline just in case a 2010(?) voter initiative passes to fund and unlock federal money. The meeting will be held at Tommy Brann's, 4157 S. Division. -The Rapid is also commencing a mater planning process for public transit in the service area. A large outreach program will begin later this year with workshops at various suburban locations and Grand Rapids. A list of locations and dates are on www.rapidtmp.org

That statement from Ruth Stegeman about people using transit to make and spend money is a zinger.

Ridetherapid.org has been updated with more tools allowing for real-time updates and Google maps integration. No word when Google will be updating their site.

No way do they have 2$ billion. I bet they haven't secured capital, but good faith papers. All of the 2$ billion or nearly all of it is probably in paper. The money would be delivered once the ROW is secured. Hence the congressional action. Kind of like the Faust Mystery Development of Interstate Transportation Systems.

Well, if investors want to -- go right ahead. I have my doubts, though. I'd like to know who the drops are in this 2$ billion dollar pool. Take this propensity and apply it to concepts that are off the shelf and ready to go for markets that will drive ridership potential.

Channel 8 made the FAILBlog on YouTube.

This art piece improve transportation? Maybe it could improve boardings during ArtPrize. Have people ride transit to the art piece. Too bad The Rapid or DASH can't work in concert with ArtPrize and look at what art works are on routes. Then draw up a map and pass it out downtown and near DASH lots. I think I'll shoot some email.

Manifest

I'm probably in the minority here, but art is the last thing public transit needs to 'invest' in. Regardless, if the work is a duplicate or not.

ITP's Board of Directors will be meeting tomorrow (4pm) for their regular agenda. Nothing special, but those here that frequent the #18 and #5 should pay close attention. Apparently, both routes have entered into strategic planning -- i.e. realignment. By the way, any transit nerds want to see if ITP can look at holding board meetings in front of a web cam? Or having meetings published on Youtube?