By Tiffany J. Gunter, General Manager and CEO, SMART
On August 4, Wayne County voters made a choice that will shape this region for a generation. They chose connection. For the first time, all 43 communities in Wayne County are part of one transit network, including many that have sat outside the system for years.
I want to start simply. Thank you.
But gratitude without a plan is just a press release. So I want to spend less time looking back at what voters approved, and more time telling you what we intend to build with it.
This is a local investment with a local return. Every dollar collected in Detroit stays in Detroit, roughly $8 million a year going directly to DDOT and the community providers who serve Detroit neighborhoods. That same principle holds across the county. Communities that have gone without fixed-route service, Redford, Inkster, the Downriver cities, the fast-growing suburbs out west, are now part of a system built to reach them.
Eighteen percent of working-age residents in Southeast Michigan don’t own a car or share one among several workers. For those families, the bus isn’t a convenience. It’s the plan for getting to a hospital shift, a doctor’s appointment, a classroom.
What comes next
We know what this looks like when a region commits to transit and follows through. In 2022, Oakland County voters made a similar choice. Since then, SMART has added three new routes, extended six more, upgraded 170 bus stops, and reached 100,000 additional residents. Ridership on our busiest routes has grown by roughly a third.
That’s not a promise. That’s a record. And it’s the floor, not the ceiling, for what we intend to deliver in Wayne County.
Here’s what that looks like in practice over the next year:
We will listen before we build. Service rollout will follow how people actually move through their day, shift schedules, school hours, medical appointments, not a map drawn from a conference room.
We will report back in plain language. Riders and taxpayers will know what’s been delivered, on what timeline, and what’s next. No jargon, no vague progress updates.
We will treat every community as equally worth connecting. Detroit and the suburbs. The communities that have had service for decades and the ones getting it for the first time. One system means one standard.
A full partner, not just a provider
Transit works best when it’s not an afterthought bolted onto a region’s growth — it’s part of how that growth happens. Employers deciding where to locate. Developers planning housing near job centers. Schools are scheduling around when kids can actually get there. SMART wants to be at that table from the start, not called in after the plans are already drawn.
That’s the kind of partner this region needs, and it’s the kind of partner we intend to be: financially sound, operationally serious, and genuinely invested in Southeast Michigan’s future, not just the routes we run today, but the region we’re helping build over the next decade.
The standard we’re holding ourselves to
I take this seriously because the alternative, asking for trust and then coasting on a single successful vote, isn’t good enough. Wayne County voters didn’t approve a slogan. They approved buses that come on time, routes that reach the places people actually need to go, and an organization that shows its work.
To Wayne County: thank you for the trust. We understand exactly what it means, and we intend to spend the next several years earning it, one route, one stop, and one rider at a time.
Tiffany J. Gunter is General Manager and CEO of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART).