Talk:Detroit People Mover

List of Detroit People Mover stations redirects here
Its failed AFD seemed to support this, so I made the editorial decision to redirect. Johnleemk | Talk 09:24, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

steel
i don't believe the south african steel was actually replaced... proof?

I would find that hard to believe, too. Nevermind1534 (talk) 02:58, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

http://www2.metrotimes.com/archives/story.asp?id=670 “Detroit’s People Mover: Made in South Africa?” August 1988

Rosanne Less did it again — she disclosed another Detroit-South Africa connection. With the help of Frank Provenzano, they produced a story revealing that “Made in South Africa” was engraved on some Detroit People Mover steel railings — a major embarrassment during the late ’80s in a city where the majority of residents are African-American. Their scoop forced the city to have the contractor responsible for the steel remove it — costing no less than $30,000. What Less and Provenzano were unable to find out — though the Metro Times filed a lawsuit against the Detroit Transportation Corporation for all documents related to the DPM construction — was whether other parts of the public transit train were also made from South African materials. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gylgamesh5 (talk • contribs) 10:15, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

didn't there used to be a train system in detroit that GM bought out and then destroyed?
I thought there was a train system in detroit that GM bought and then destroyed the tracks to make more money with cars. Is that true or a wives tale? If true, can we put a piece about it in this article or in an article about public transportation in detroit? Have the people watching the detroit articles seen the LA Trans articles on wikipedia?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority Where are they for detroit? Tkjazzer 04:17, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Detroit did have an extensive streetcar (trolley) system until the 40s. It is my understanding that GM did indeed buy up the system so that they could replace it with GM-made buses. Apparently this was done in many cities, not just Detroit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.114.255.83 (talk) 18:23, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

The last trolley that ran down Woodward Avenue was shutdown in 1956. The current Mayor at that time was Mayor Cobo. It was said that GM and Cobo came to the conclusion to replace the fixed route trolley buses and streetcars with diesel buses produced by GM. In 1956, Detroit became the largest city in the United States without any sort of mass transit. jbutera 16:22, 10 February 2008 (UTC)talk —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbutera (talk • contribs)
 * GM was found guilty in federal court of conspiracy to destroy trolley networks in cities around the country. But by the time the verdict was made, the damage was already done. Detroit is one of many cities that suffered because of this. It's not really pertinent to an article about the People Mover, though. -Jdmalouff (talk) 17:47, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Operations
My heading change was reverted as counterintuitive to readers, and not suitable to content. I beg to differ. Currently the heading of "Operations" disorganizedly covers history, cost effectiveness, and future planning. With appropriate headings, the reader can anticipate what the aim of a section is.--Loodog 02:59, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Personally, I think you are bringing a standard of care to the article that I lack. Meaning you want to change the article headings to inspire and drive further additions, which is beyond my purview to be honest. I like Operations for the very reason you don't- it covers a variety of topics with one general heading. I also noticed your comments about ridership statistics and footnotes, which again- to my mind I cannot really care about- I mean the specific numbers are irrelevant to me. So as general principle, I guess the wikipedia contributor that cares for the article more should be free to improve it, so go ahead, I really don't have any objections if you want to improve the article and I won't revert. --Mikerussell 22:55, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Siding
"A siding allows the system to be used in a two-way bypass manner when part of the circular track is closed." What does this mean? What is a siding? --User101010 (talk) 13:22, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * A siding is a passing loop; in this case, it’s a brief section of double track on an otherwise single-track line. David Arthur (talk) 16:29, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * When the track cannot be run continuously, two trains run the track from each end, overlapping service to a couple stations in the middle to allow for transferring between the trains. MMetro (talk) 14:47, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Ridership Numbers for Fiscal Year 2008
I want an opinion on something. I've been able to find ridership numbers for Fiscal Year 2008 (July 1 2007 to June 30 2008), but I want to know if you guys want to continue using the quarter numbers from the American Public Transportation Association, or the official fiscal year numbers from the Detroit Transportation Corporation, which operates the Detroit People Mover? I have daily average ridership numbers, as well as the average ridership numbers for Saturday and Sunday independently. --Criticalthinker (talk) 02:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * APTA numbers are always preferable for the sake of comparison. There's no telling the differences in methodology from one agency to another.--Loodog (talk) 02:45, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Ridership Numbers & Graph
Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but it appears that the graph File:DPMridership.jpg is improperly labeled. If it is "ridership in thousands" and 1996 is just a hair above the horizontal bar labeled "20000" then wouldn't that be representing a number a hair over 20,000,000?

In short, it appears that the graph either has one too many zeroes at the end of each calibration, or is titled incorrectly and should be "ridership in hundreds." --Ho0ber (talk) 14:53, 17 April 2009 (UTC) 6
 * Absolutely correct. Good catch. I fixed it by chopping a 0 off.--Loodog (talk) 15:33, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

General Information
Headquarters: 535 Griswold, Suite 400, Detroit, MI 48226 70.91.226.34 (talk) 18:19, 8 August 2014 (UTC) thepeoplemover.com

UMTA People Mover grants
Thanks for writing an article about the Detroit People Mover. I do find some discrepencies on the background of the UTMA grant program. I'm not claiming special knowledge, I'm just pointing out inconsistencies between the source cited and the Wikipedia article and suggesting a way to improve the article.

This is from reference number 4, "The Downtown People Mover Program". Faculty.washington.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-26: "In addition, Congressional pressure was increased on UMTA to show some positive results from their research and development expenditures. So, in 1975 UMTA announced its Downtown People Mover Program and sponsored a nationwide competition among the cities, offering them the federal funds needed to design and build such a system. Since UMTA was prepared to pay most of the costs of planning and building these systems as part of its demonstration program, the response from the cities was almost overwhelming."

In 1976, after receiving and reviewing 68 letters of interest and 35 full proposals and making on-site inspections of the top 15 cities, UMTA selected proposals from Los Angeles, St. Paul, Minnesota, Cleveland and Houston. It also concluded that Miami, Detroit and Baltimore would be permitted to develop DPMs if they could do so with existing grant commitments. In 1977, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Conference Committee told UMTA to include Baltimore, Indianapolis, Jacksonville and St. Louis as part of the program. UMTA also added Norfolk, Virginia to the program. Cleveland and Houston were the first to withdraw from the program. Later, St. Paul also withdrew after its voters did not approve their project."

Findings expressed in this citation:
 * UTMA reviewed 68 letters of interest
 * UTMA reviewed 35 full proposals
 * UTMA made on-site inspections of the top 15 cities
 * UTMA selected four proposals: Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, and St. Paul
 * In addition to these four cities, UTMA selected Baltimore, Detroit, and Miami to develop People Mover systems if they could do so with existing grant commitments.
 * In 1977, Congress told UTMA to add Baltimore, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and St Louis to the list.
 * After 1977, the selected cities list included Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and St. Paul.
 * Cleveland, Houston, and St. Paul withdrew their projects.
 * As many as ten cities might have developed such systems.
 * Only Detroit, Jacksonville, and Miami built People Movers.
 * All four of the originally selected cities withdrew their projects.

THe Wikipedia article says: "In 1975, following the failure to produce any large-scale results and increased pressure to show results, UMTA created the Downtown People Mover Program (DPM) and sponsored a nationwide competition that offered federal funds to cover much of the cost of planning and construction of such a system. Selecting proposals from four cities, the UMTA recommended that Detroit, Miami, and Baltimore be permitted to construct systems, but only if they could do so with existing grants. Though two of the four selected cities ultimately withdrew from the program, Miami and Detroit persevered to build theirs."

I propose that this portion of the article be rewritten to reflect the points from the list above, which is taken from reference 4 cited by the Wikipedia article.

Oldsanfelipe (talk) 01:49, 25 October 2014 (UTC)oldsanfelipe


 * Since you're particularly interested in this, YOU can make the changes. I'd just advise brevity and not overloading this section so choose carefully what needs to be added. --Criticalthinker (talk) 23:59, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Critical Thinker: thanks for the quick feedback. No problem on making the edit. I'll condense the info into a few points. This is really interesting, though perhaps most of this material belongs as a section on the FTA page. Thanks also for the perspective. Oldsanfelipe (talk) 18:29, 27 October 2014 (UTC)oldsanfelipe

Opening
This second paragraph...

"The Woodward Avenue Light Rail line, tentatively named M-1 Rail, beginning construction in late July 2014, will serve as a link between the Detroit People Mover and New Center Amtrak station with its current service and proposed SEMCOG Commuter Rail, plus additional access to DDOT and SMART bus routes as part of a comprehensive network of transportation in metropolitan Detroit."

...probably should be the very second paragraph of the article, and probably shouldn't even be in the opening. It only tangentially touches on the actual subject of the article. Plus, the system map mostly shows this, anyway. This is not usually what the opening of an wiki article is used for. If we had a "Description" or "Route" section, this is where something like this - showing its interaction with other modes - would go. Short of someone adding such a section, I suggest putting in in the "Operations" section. In fact, were it me, I'd just post the connecting services/modes in the "See also" section. --Criticalthinker (talk) 09:32, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Map needed
Please someone add a map 70.26.12.228 (talk) 12:59, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Cobo Center Station name change
With the Cobo Center being renamed the TCF Center in 2019, the DTC has chosen to rename the Cobo Center station as Convention Center Station instead. It is listed as such on the DPM's online Station Guide, although the DPM website is not completely up to date on other pages. Nevertheless, the name change has been implemented in the field. Kyojikasshu (talk) 19:20, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

"Detroit subway" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Detroit subway. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 November 3 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. feminist (+) 09:14, 3 November 2021 (UTC)