About tonight's meeting:
Every year, Transportation Riders United (TRU) @DetroitTransit brings transit riders and advocates together with transit agency leaders and policy makers to review the current state of Detroit area transit and efforts and opportunities to improve it.

@DetroitTransit Tonight's meeting is hybrid, there is an online and in person option which both require registration.
Here is a link to the registration page:

Yesterday it was announced that the event location was moved from Tech Town Detroit to the WSU Industry Innovation Center, 461 Burroughs St to meet registration demand.

Their website has a detailed breakdown of agenda items and speakers for this evening.

To catch up on some transit related reporting from @media_outlier, last November @DetDocumenters spent 50 hours riding the bus around the city, read more here!

Seated for the Zoom session

Starting to hear some room audio now, but the waiting screen is still up in the Zoom.

Getting a video feed now - looks like the room is still getting settled.

Audio is low, there is a note from the moderator to make sure our volume is up. However, the audio is kind of distorted and doubled. Going to try with headphones on.

Volume is really unintelligible/distorted, it's not a matter of how loud the speakers are talking.

Some understanding and troubleshooting comments in the chat while the audio issue is being investigated.

Here’s a snippet of the audio if anyone has suggestions for the team

Moving into the presentation, still can't get much out of the audio but I'll post the slides:

"The very best transit is preferable" to other types of personal transit.

Reliability has been the biggest struggle.

Audio is a bit better now, although there's some distortion/echo still. Picking up about 50/50 of what's being said.

Transit funding is a major issue, it must improve for us to make this progress.

Here's what TRU @DetroitTransit has been up to:

@DetroitTransit getting it done!

@DetroitTransit Transitioning to another speaker now.

"We've got a lot more work to do...keep us in mind when you're doing your personal giving."

Transitioning to the next speaker.

The speaker is now introducing the panel.

Thank you to the moderator for muting the audio during applause! It's helping me out haha

The panelists:

"Why is transit important to you personally?"
- Access to jobs
- It's freeing to take transit at any time of day/night
- Don't have to own a car, pay for insurance, pay for repairs
- Retain young people
- Connects the whole region

"Why is transit important to you personally?"
- Allows people to live their lives: work, school, dr appointments, seeing friends and loved ones
- Connects people to the world
- Young people want transit
- People 85 and older is the fastest growing population in MI

"Why is transit important to you personally?"
- Describes having to walk miles to get to the next bus after school, it would take 2.5 hours each way.
- Transit can help desegregate cities.

"What are 1 or 2 things you're working on to help?" is the current question but I'm having a hard time hearing the answers.

"What are 1 or 2 things you're working on to help?"
- Senator is working to break down silos and think about the region, not just the cities they represent.
- Organizing "Transit Caucus"
- Reclaiming funds that are already allocated to transit in the budget

"What are 1 or 2 things you're working on to help?"
- Not afraid to ask for more in the budget.
- Incentivize companies to support transit solutions.

Couldn't make out the next question. I think it was, how do we make sure we are moving away from the talk and into the action?

"Political will is what pushes things in the right direction." With a caucus, there will be one loud voice in Lansing standing behind this cause.

Thank you @HerbergRadio! Follow along in this new thread, I'll keep trying to pick up what I can from home.

Here’s the zoom audio situation at home, some speakers are easier to understand than others

I’m trying for you guys, but…it’s tough

The panel is now over, and we are transitioning to the next section.

We now have a speaker narrating over a video, describing long transit journeys after work, getting home at 10 or 11pm.

Moving into the next panel discussion - if someone is talking I'm not getting any audio.

Here is our Transit Agency Leader panel:

"What is some progress you've seen in the past year?"
- Applause over the ridership numbers for the QLine last year.
- A lot more accomplishments, but wasn't able to catch the details due to audio.

Next question, "What are some of your biggest challenges and what do you need to solve them?"

"What are some of your biggest challenges and what do you need to solve them?"
- Getting those who are not inside our echo-chamber to understand our perspective and what is important to us.

Next question, "What are you looking forward to?"
- The NFL Draft.
- 2024 being the year of partnerships (ie, QLine and RTA)

"What are you looking forward to?"
- Airport express service (up and running by end of March)

Some voices from the chat:

This panel is now wrapping up. Moving on to the last business items.

Oh man it sounds like in person was the way to do this event, they have cookies and nachos!

The speaker now is sharing his experience as a transit rider.

Speaker stresses the importance of this year's elections.

Next up: Board Elections.

The candidates! Adam Goodman, Farai Gundan, Mitchell Mantey

All three are elected to the TRU Board!

Question from the chat:

Closing thoughts: Legislators need our help to raise the voice and energy behind this cause.
- Please donate to TRU if you are able. @DetroitTransit
- Join us in meeting with your legislators, watch for an email for more information.
- Explore more ways to get involved with us

@DetroitTransit 🚨 If you find anything inaccurate in my tweets, please email documenters@outliermedia.org with the subject “Correction Request.”

@DetroitTransit Meeting adjourned at 8:02 PM. This concludes the The State of Transit 2024: TRU Annual Meeting. For more meeting coverage, check out .