UM Dearborn faculty, staff, and students racing through the mall to catch the bus? Not cool.

Image courtesy of Motor City Freedom Riders

“My name is Aurora Harris. I live in Detroit, MI. I am a Lecturer at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus.” 

Lecturers’ teaching schedules frequently change from semester to semester and typically do not fit the traditional 9-5 work schedule. These two details are major factors in how Aurora commutes to work without a car. There is only one SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) bus that stops intermittently at campus, following traditional ‘rush hour’ scheduling. There used to be a DDOT (Detroit Department of Transportation) city bus that dropped off at UM Dearborn, but now the closest stop is at Henry Ford College to the north, with no direct sidewalk between the two campuses.

“For 2 years, during winter months,  I was forced to take the northbound Hamilton buses to Northland mall when it was open, to take an Evergreen bus that used to drop off on campus (more than 1 hour and 30 minutes of travel and wait time). My choices were to be stranded and get frostbite,  wait over an hour to get to work with over an hour of travel time, which resulted in frostbite, or spend a high price with Lyft or Uber. I have seen newly employed workers and students cry on buses and at bus stops because busses were late or no shows, or they didn’t know the SMART Michigan 200 bus didn’t run to Fairlane mall after 8:30 am. during the week and not at all on the weekends.” 

Screenshot of the SMART bus schedule from downtown Detroit (Rosa Parks Transit Center) to Fairlane Town Center. Note the large gap in service.

“Michigan 200 Eastbound bus does not stop in front of the campus between 8:50 am and 2:44 p.m. After 5:34 p.m. the bus stops picking up in front of the campus. Since I teach at night until 8:45 pm., I literally have to run from the College of Arts Sciences, & Letters (CASL), across the parking lot, across the dormitory grounds, and across the Fairlane mall parking lot in attempts to reach the mall doors before they close, to walk fast through the mall to take the escalator, walk to the other side of the mall, and across the other mall lot to get to the bus stop. 

Approximation of the 15 minute pedestrian path from CASL (College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters) on UM Dearborn campus to Fairlane Town Center bus stop, the current end of the line for #2 Michigan DDOT bus.

I can no longer continue to do this in winter months or any other time that puts my safety and job  at risk. I can no longer afford to keep paying the high prices charged by rideshare services to or from campus. Riding buses late at night to face the fact that there are no buses to get home safely and worrying about whether I will arrive on campus to teach my classes has taken a toll on me.”

Here is a link to Aurora Harris’ full testimony that goes into the byzantine details of her commute that is time consuming, stressful, and frequently very costly and unsafe. Her commitment to teaching and her students cannot be questioned once you have read her story: https://tinyurl.com/vzw9wt7

“Extend The 2” proposal to add stops

for the #2 Michigan DDOT bus route on the west side of Evergreen Rd.

The two new bus stops to be added to the #2 Michigan route are indicated in yellow ochre. All other bus stops indicated on this map are for routes that do not connect with the Rosa Parks Transit Center in downtown Detroit, or only do so intermittently, causing confusion for riders. Having no bus stops on UM Dearborn campus is an issue of accessibility & safety.

image courtesy of Motor City Freedom Riders

SIGN THE PETITION

Please sign this online petition from the Motor City Freedom Riders (MCFR) to demand a change from DDOT & the City of Dearborn to make it safe for students, faculty, & staff to get to both UM Dearborn and Henry Ford College by Extending the 2!: https://tinyurl.com/rqrc3jc

Here is a link to LEO’s Union Council’s endorsement of MCFR’s petition to Extend the 2: https://tinyurl.com/sv5pxbq

The Extend the 2 petition is also endorsed by UM Dearborn Student Government.