One of TRU’s greatest accomplishments over our twenty years of advocacy is that we changed the Detroit region’s public perception about the value of transit.
- When we started in 1999, a lot of people said, “Transit? Who cares? Why bother? We’re the Motor City!”
- Over time we shifted that to, “Well, it’d be nice to have better transit here, but it’s never going to happen. We’re too sprawled. The auto companies and suburban leaders won’t let us.”
- While our region still doesn’t have the transit we need, there’s a broad sense that we need more and better transit. The questions remaining focus on what types to build where and how to pay for them.
How did we bring about that change? A lot of public education about and mobilization in support of public transit! Here’s a sampling of what that entailed:
While 894,000 voters in 2016 supported investing in transit expansion, that wasn’t quite enough. So our work continues and grows.
In 2022, we’re reviving our Let’s Talk Transit speakers bureau to present to more community groups. We continue to educate through the media, train interns, and much more.
If you haven’t recently, please donate to TRU today to support this vital education and mobilization!!