James Robertson, the Detroit factory worker who walked 21 miles to and from his job every day, made international headlines this month. His story is a profile in perseverance, determination, and strength, as well as a testament to compassion and generosity.
After the Detroit Free Press publicized the 56-year-old Detroiter’s plight, hundreds of people donated a total of $350,000 to help Mr. Robertson, and a suburban auto dealer gave him a new Ford Taurus. Mr. Robertson will need the extra cash, because auto insurance in Detroit will cost him $5,000 a year.
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Behind this feel-good report is a larger narrative about public transportation and jobs in any urban region, including Toledo. Low-income workers without vehicles in the central city need transportation to suburban jobs, which often pay little more than minimum wage.
Often practically heroic, commutes to work can take three or four hours each way. These trips are often aggravated by unreliable and infrequent bus service, as well as myopic communities that reject regional transit service.
In suburban Detroit, Rochester Hills, where Mr. Robertson works as a machine operator, is one of dozens of communities that have opted not to pay the suburban transit millage and, therefore, are not served by the regional bus system. Bus routes service part of Mr. Robertson’s commute.
With a perfect attendance record, Mr. Robertson earns $10.55 an hour — not enough to buy, maintain, and insure a car, especially in Detroit. That too is familiar. In the Motor City, nearly 30 percent of households don’t have vehicles. And in Toledo, nearly 14 percent of households — disproportionately poor and African-American — don’t have them, Census figures show.
Metropolitan Toledo ranks among the worst U.S. metro areas for having jobs in neighborhoods served by transit. In suburban Toledo, only one-third of jobs are accessible to transit users, depriving many businesses of potential workers.
Both the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority and SMART, the suburban Detroit system, use local property taxes to fund service. Both regions also allow communities to opt out of transit service, resulting in service gaps and, at times, a patchwork system of routes that leaves many riders stranded.
Funded by a 2.5-mill property tax, TARTA reports roughly 3.5 million passenger boardings a year. Communities without TARTA service include Oregon, Springfield Township, Monclova Township, Spencer Township, Waterville Township, Perrysburg, and Whitehouse.
The density and location of Oregon and Springfield Township make them prime candidates for TARTA membership. Spencer Township and Perrysburg recently dropped out of TARTA. In an encouraging move, Rossford voted last November to remain in TARTA.
“The case in Detroit is extreme, but it’s certainly not unheard of here in the Toledo area to have people walking because of the gaps in service,” TARTA spokesman Steve Atkinson told The Blade’s editorial page.
TARTA now serves Toledo, Maumee, Rossford, Waterville, Ottawa Hills, Sylvania, and Sylvania Township.
The transit authority does not track how many passengers can’t ride all the way to their destination because communities don’t support regional transit, but such cases are not uncommon.
A TARTA line that carries workers at the Spring Meadows Shopping Center in Springfield Township stops on Airport Highway in southwest Toledo. That forces workers to walk more than a mile, including on a potentially dangerous bridge over U.S.-23/I-475. A bus rider walking on the expressway bridge in 2008 was hit by a car and suffered minor injuries.
Whether changes come from a regional sales tax or some other means, TARTA and the Toledo area, like metro Detroit, need a more sustainable and comprehensive funding source that will enable the regional transit system to serve employers, employees, and other passengers throughout the area.
Area communities without TARTA service should consider joining. Doing so would make them more welcoming and help the region attract young people, who flock to areas with good public transit.
James Robertson’s extraordinary efforts to overcome adversity made a beautiful story — but one that regions such as Toledo should try not to replicate.
First Published February 13, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
