Thanks to public transit, Kathy Meagher has been able to get around on her own despite being unable to drive. However, the shortage of bus drivers in the region threatens her freedom of mobility. TRU interviewed her to illustrate the challenges and opportunities faced by transit users in Metro Detroit.
Kathy Meagher (pronounced ‘MAY-er’) lives in Grosse Pointe Park with her husband & two cats. She’s a lover of music – in fact, she has a master’s degree in music.
Kathy is visually impaired. Despite a recent surgery to correct cataracts, she’ll remain unable to drive. Instead, she depends on SMART and DDOT bus service for transportation. Her most frequently-used routes are SMART’s 610 and DDOT’s #9, in addition to the QLINE and the RTA’s new D2A2 service to Ann Arbor.
“Transit lets me do things on my own.”
“Since COVID, the service has been cut back, and because of missed runs, I have to rely on Uber or Lyft to pick me up, or call my husband to pick me up – which is a real pain in the neck.” Kathy’s well aware of SMART’s driver shortage crisis and feels frustrated that SMART has been struggling to provide service levels she can rely on.
Kathy, who’s been a transit rider since high school, is a passionate advocate for the transit she relies on. She used to live in the Ann Arbor area and volunteered in 2014 to help with a get out the vote campaign for an expansion of Ann Arbor’s bus system.
After moving to Grosse Pointe a few years ago, she got involved with TRU’s volunteer team and shared her experience as a transit user at TRU’s annual meeting earlier this year, in front of leaders from the major Detroit transit providers.
Kathy wishes SMART would have 30-minute frequencies or better on most routes on weekdays, instead of so many coming just once an hour. Her visual impairment also makes it hard at times to see where bus stops are, and she wishes SMART would do a better job of making its stops visible and accessible.
“I wish I could get across town.”
“I wish I could get to the east side, to Oakland County, to places on the ‘west side’ like Livonia and Novi, on my own.” She’s quite pleased with D2A2, but wants to see more frequent and more direct transit services, especially to Wayne County locations like Laurel Park Place in Livonia.
“If we want Detroit to ‘come back’, we need to bring much more reliable transit to the area”, she opines.