The Detroit People Mover Deserves More Love as an Icon of Michigan

Public Transportation in metro Detroit has always been a bit of a touchy subject. Proposals for rails and subways never got beyond the initial stages. The one project that did come to fruition is the People Mover.

Transportation infrastructure like the People Mover doesn't get the same kind of reverence as, say, the Mackinac Bridge. Perhaps it should.

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Born from the heady, perhaps somewhat hippy-dippy 1970s, the People Mover motorail is a three mile loop around downtown Detroit passing 13 stations hitting places like Greektown, Grand Circus Park as well as the Renaissance Center and the former Cobo Hall.

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The People Mover grew out of a late 60s-early 70s plan to establish the use of these automated transit systems around the country. While they did prove popular for places like airports and zoos, only Detroit, Morgantown, West Virginia and more recently Las Vegas have developed the concept for mass transit.

An Ode to the Detroit People Mover

Filmmaker Jesus Arzola-Vega has released a short film on the People Mover, part of his Spirits by the Straits series. The film nods to the grander ambitions of the People Mover as well as the more recently established Q Line, the streetcar system that runs along Woodward Ave.

The film also nods to the longstanding city and suburb divide that exists so strongly in Metro Detroit as a likely cause for the shortcomings of the region's mass transit systems.

Still the People Move does move over a million people per year around Detroit. And, as of 2024 the fares have been eliminated under a pilot program set to run through the end of 2025.

As a free to ride, open to all option that connects Detroit's casinos, stadiums, shopping, dining and workplaces, the People Mover deserves to be recognized as iconic to Michigan as the Mackinac Bridge.