Detroit Peoplemover
The Detroit People Mover is a 4.7 km long, automatically operated overhead railway system that surrounds the city of Detroit. Holdings is the People Mover of the Detroit Transportation Corporation of the City of Detroit. The passengers are mostly business travelers, tourists and workers from the shops and offices downtown.
The Detroit People Mover is automatically operated without driver. The track is a single track, but has a system of bypasses, which basically allows operation in both directions. Companies is the people mover but only in one direction.
History
The Detroit People Mover has its origins in 1966 with the founding of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration ( UMTA ) by Congress. The UMTA had the order to develop new transport systems for major cities in the United States. In 1975, after previously were no major results and the success of pressure rose, the UMTA created the Downtown People Mover Program ( DPM) and wrote a nationwide competition. At the end of the costs for design and construction as well as the cost of insurance significantly exceeded the available federal funds. After a selection of proposals from four cities, the UMTA recommended that Detroit, Miami and Baltimore should build such transport systems, but only if they could do so in compliance with the existing federal funding. Although two of the four selected cities ultimately withdrew from the program, Detroit and Miami decided to build the people mover.
The planning of the 1980s saw the People Mover as a downtown distributor for a city-wide rapid transit system. The funding was withdrawn. At this time, the system for a daily ridership of 67,700 was designed.
The railway was opened in 1987. It uses the same technology as the SkyTrain in Vancouver or Scarborough RT in Toronto. In the first year of the People Mover was used daily average of 11,000 passengers. When the people mover was opened, the direction of travel was traditionally counterclockwise. In August 2008, the direction was changed and now runs in a clockwise direction, although still both directions can be served if necessary. The change to the operating clockwise meant primarily to accelerate the speed of operation.
The People Mover stops at 13 stations. Eight of the stations were integrated into existing buildings. The stations have been designed individually artistically.
Capacity
The People Mover year could carry up to 15 million passengers, in fact, he has transported about two million passengers, according to the official figures of the Detroit Transportation Company in 2008.
Tariff
A ride on the People Mover will cost $ 0.75 but is publicly subsidized, according to Detroit News from the City of Detroit with about $ 3.00 per trip. The fare can be paid either directly with a coin or exchanged but you have paper money in so-called tokens to represent this cash value or a ticket. A time limit does not exist.
Detroit People Mover in art
The 1987 published in the Detroit Free Press book " Moving Picture - A Look At Detroit From High Atop The People Mover " by the photographer Manny Crisostomo deals with images that have been taken from the People Mover out. The book clearly shows the importance of the People Movers as a tool for the creation of a media stereotype image of Detroit. Crisostomo works here in detail which, he writes, " effect of this scene editing or camera movement " out.
Criticism
Main point of all criticism is never carried out after connecting transport structures that should connect the People Mover as downtown operator with the surrounding or lying outdoor areas of Detroit. This point degrades the People Mover in the public perception into a tourist attraction that combines the similar sights Detroit a sightseeing tour.