Mass Transit - Metro Detroit: Can it Act as an Economic Stimulator?: Eco Living Articles: Eco20/20

Mass Transit - Metro Detroit: Can it Act as an Economic Stimulator?

John Kateel is a Michigan native who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Owner of JM Alexander(www.jmalexander.com), producer and distributor of eco-friendly bags and products.

The famed investor, Warren Buffet, has consistently had a winning investment strategy. Invest in companies whose assets are undervalued and spend capital to boost up the long term value of that investment to the benefit of all.

If Metro Detroit were a firm, it would be the most undervalued asset in the developed world. Its' international reputation is tattered. Its' main industry is in financial free fall. The mood on the street is depressively glum and anxious.

What is the reason? The innovative game changing product that Detroit has mass produced since the turn of the 20th century is now viewed as a primary source of the world's climate problems. People are now buying less of the autos that Detroit makes.

The car made suburbia possible. The life of suburbia is now dependent on the fuel that is controlled by foreign entities which also needs to serve the rest of the world that longs for their own version of American suburban life. If you can not afford the fuel; you are trapped in your cul-de-sac, physically isolated from the rest of the world.

Can this change? Yes. Must it change? Yes. Because an angry and agitated populous may have just reached its' tipping point.

I have traveled the world looking to see how mass transit can be used to stimulate economic growth. The best examples I have seen are in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Salt Lake City, Utah. Mass transit does not have to be owned by the regional government. But the government can play a roll in shaping the region's transit policy. For instance, the mass transit that most Americans use is privately owned. It is the airline operated for profit. The public interface is the regionally owned airport. So our main form of mass transit is a public/private hybrid.

So what can Metro Detroit learn from these regions? Use the airport as your investment catalyst. Salt Lake City continuously touts its' accessibility to the airport in promoting ski tourism. UTA is building a light rail link to connect downtown to the airport. Singapore gloats about how seamless the transit is for the business traveler to go from Changi International Airport on light rail to the Central Business District. Malaysians are rightfully proud of the fact that you can check your luggage and get your airline boarding pass at the train station at KL Sentral in downtown Kuala Lumpur and take a high speed train to the KLIA and board your flight.

Can private firms competitively bid on building high speed mass transit that links Ann Arbor to Detroit Metro airport then Greektown? This transit can be an HOV lane for clean fuel buses to zip down I-94 in the middle of the median for example. We have all those smart minds up at MSU too! How about a high speed train down I-96 to Royal Oak? How about Auburn Hills to Detroit Metro airport? A park and ride bus that departs from a bowling alley parking lot in Allen Park that funnels fans to Comerica Park? How about the Grosse Pointes to Pontiac? You get the picture.

The only requirement is that the firms bidding run clean fuel transit and offer riders optimal safety. It would reduce drunk driving. It would let workers unwind after work. It would allow for more easy access to the airport for most residents. College students could afford to come home for the weekend. It would give international tourists the ability to explore the area without having to rent a car.

Where do we get the money for the stations and administrative overhead? That is where the Warren Buffet reference comes into play. Sovereign wealth funds by national governments from city-states around the world are looking for places to invest. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah who used to be the U.S Ambassador to Singapore knows how to play that money game. Utah is booming because of foreign investment and slick transit. Maybe it is time that Jennifer Granholm and Jon Huntsman Jr. have a bipartisan governors' summit where they can share ideas and Rolodexes.