Detroit People Mover
Coordinates: 42 ° 20 ′ 1 ″ N , 83 ° 2 ′ 49 ″ W.
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 DPM in Times Square
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| Route length: | 4.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Detroit People Mover is a 4.7 kilometer long, automatically operated elevated train system that surrounds downtown Detroit . The people mover is operated by the Detroit Transportation Corporation of the city of Detroit. The passengers are mostly business travelers, tourists and workers from downtown shops and offices.
history
The Detroit people mover has its origins in 1966 with the establishment of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) by Congress. UMTA had the contract to develop new local transport systems for the big cities of the USA. In 1975, after no great results were available and the pressure to succeed increased, UMTA developed the Downtown People Mover Program (DPM) and announced a nationwide competition. In the end, the costs for planning and construction as well as the costs of the insurance clearly exceeded the available federal funds. After a selection of proposals from four cities, UMTA recommended that Detroit, Miami, and Baltimore build such mass transit systems, but only if they could do so while respecting existing federal funding. Although two of the four selected cities eventually withdrew from the program, Detroit and Miami decided to build the people mover.
The planning of the 1980s saw the people mover as an inner city distributor for a city-wide rapid transit system. However, funding was withdrawn. At that time, the system was designed for a daily number of passengers of 67,700.
The railway opened in 1987. It uses the same technology as the SkyTrain in Vancouver or the Scarborough line in Toronto . In the first year, the people mover was used by an average of 11,000 passengers a day.
The people mover stops at 13 stations. Eight of the stations were integrated into existing buildings. The stations have been individually artistically designed.
business
Operation is automatic, without a driver. The route is single-track and is driven clockwise. Two-way operation is practically impossible, as there is only one alternate point at Times Square. This is also the access to the depot located there. Until August 2008, the route was driven counterclockwise. The change to clockwise operation meant above all an acceleration of the operating speed.
The 4.73 km long route is bypassed in 13 minutes 35 seconds. Depending on the time of day, up to 10 of the 12 existing railcars are used in the form of two-car trains. This results in a minimum train interval of 2.5 minutes. The people mover could carry up to 15 million passengers annually, in fact it only carried around two million passengers in 2008, according to official figures from the Detroit Transportation Company.
Incidents and business interruptions
In 1987 a 6 year old boy was trapped in the door of a departing train.
In 1990 a train derailed at Cadillac Center station due to a manhole cover being thrown on the tracks.
On January 22, 2015, a train derailed at Rosa Parks station.
On May 16, 2016, a man fell between two cars at Times Square Station and was dragged to death. Driving operations resumed two days later.
From June 12th to 26th, 2016, operations had to be completely shut down to carry out track construction work.
Tariff
A ride on the people mover costs $ 0.75, but according to the Detroit News, the City of Detroit publicly subsidizes it at around $ 3.00 per trip. The fare can either be paid directly with a coin or you can exchange your paper money for so-called tokens, which represent the equivalent value or a ticket. There is no time limit.
Detroit People Mover in Art
The photo book "Moving Picture - A Look At Detroit From High Atop The Peoplemover" by the photographer Manni Crisostomo, published in 1987 in the Detroit Free Press, deals with images that were made out of the people mover. The illustrated book clearly shows the importance of the people mover as a tool for creating a media stereotypical image of Detroit. Here, Crisostomo works out in detail what he writes: "Effect of this direction of the image or tracking shot".
criticism
The main point of all criticism is the never-before connection to connecting local transport structures, which should connect the people mover as downtown operator with the surrounding or outlying districts of Detroit. This point degrades the people mover in the public perception to a tourist attraction that connects the sights of Detroit in a similar way to a sightseeing tour.
Literature on Detroit People Mover
Manni Crisostomo: Moving Pictures - A Look at Detroit from High Atop the People Mover. Free Press, Detroit 1986, ISBN 0-937247-02-2 .
Web links
- YouTube : Ride in the Detroit People Mover (June 2012)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Archive link ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.semcog.org/AADD.aspx
- ^ The Downtown People Mover Program
- ↑ Wendell Cox: Analysis of the Proposed Las Vegas LLC Monorail (PDF; 408 kB) Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ↑ a b Detroit People Mover Reopens and Makes Changes ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Word ; 987 kB)
- ↑ Leaflet with general information about the system
- ↑ Various accidents
- ↑ People Mover train dragged man for up to 14 minutes
- ↑ Track renewal work 2016
- ^ Manni Crisostomo: Moving Pictures - A Look at Detroit from High Atop the People Mover . Free Press, Detroit 1986, ISBN 0-937247-02-2 .
