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The Detroit Journalism Cooperative is an integrated community media network providing insight on the issues facing Detroit. It features two radio stations, an online magazine, five ethnic newspapers, and a public television station-- All working together to tell the story of Detroit.The DJC includes Michigan Radio, Bridge Magazine, Detroit Public Television, WDET, and New Michigan Media. To see all the stories produced for the DJC, visit The Intersection website.Scroll below to see DJC stories from Michigan Radio and other selected stories from our partners.

Is Detroit's bus service improving?

A DDOT bus in Detroit.
Sarah Hulett
/
Michigan Radio
Snyder discussed DDOT busses during his townhall meeting online Wednesday.

We continued our week-long Detroit Journalism Cooperative series with a look at how Detroit is functioning under bankruptcy and the leadership of Mayor Mike Duggan.

Today, we focused  on mass transportation in the city.

Lester Graham of Michigan Watch and Megan Owens, the executive director of Transportation Riders United, joined Stateside.

Graham said one out of three Detroit households doesn't own a car and relies on the bus system. Megan Owens said it’s hard to measure whether things are improving because the bus service stopped publishing the daily pull-out rate. That’s the actual number of buses that operate versus the number scheduled for a day.

“So we don’t have any explicit data to show concrete improvements,” Owens said.

At the main garage at DDOT headquarters, they’re working to get more buses on the road.

Detroit needs 270 buses to properly serve its 100,000 passengers a day. The city only has 228 buses and a lot of them are broken down.

Read Lester Graham's report here

*Listen to full story above. 

Stateside is produced daily by a dedicated group of producers and production assistants. Listen daily, on-air, at 3 and 8 p.m., or subscribe to the daily podcast wherever you like to listen.