Cityscape

New Documentary Will Show Lessons Metro Detroit Can Learn About Transit

February 11, 2015, 5:03 PM

Freshwater Transit, a transit service firm in Detroit,  is working to create an hour-long documentary that will show how transit works in seven different U.S. cities, contrasting them with what's happening in Metro Detroit, according to the website Mode Shift.

David Sands writes in Mode Shift that the movie, "15 Minutes or Better," will explore what lessons the cities of Los Angeles, Seattle, Cleveland, Kansas City, Houston, Portland and Washington D.C. have to offer Southeast Michigan. Freshwater’s plans to make the movie available free online.

The website writes:

It’s impeccable timing for a project of this nature, coming at a moment when Southeast Michigan's RTA is mulling over a 2016 millage proposal and laying the groundwork for a regional bus rapid transit line.

Freshwater’s producers are consciously steering away from investigations of top-of-the-line transit cities like New York and Chicago in order to focus on places that are more similar to Detroit. The basic idea is to give viewers a first-hand look at effective transit in action.

The website explains the origin of Freshwater Transit.

For those who haven’t heard of Freshwater Transit, it’s a Detroit-based company specializing in transportation marketing and planning services. As far-fetched as it sounds, the organization sprung out of Freshwater Railway, a fictitious Michigan transit system dreamed up by a planner named Neil Greenberg, who posted his hypothetical maps, routes and schedules online in 2011. His idea attracted the attention of Freshwater co-founders Tom Choske and Stephen Maiseloff who helped morph Greenberg's passion into an actual business.

Below is a trailer of the film.

 


Read more:  Mode Shift


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