A long 200 yards

Michigan Flyer and passengers challenge Detroit Metro bus stop change

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Bogus.

That’s what Chad Cushman has to say about why his Michigan Flyer now has to drop passengers off two football fields away from the terminal door at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

"All I know is it has nothing to do with safety," said Cushman, vice president of the Michigan Flyer/Indian Trails company.

For the past four and a half years, the stop was right outside of a heated waiting room for international arrivals at the McNamara Terminal. But since Sept. 22, passengers have had to walk or wheel 200 yards to get to the same place.

The change could hit the Flyer’s bottom line. It’s also a matter some disabled passengers want to take to federal court.

The bus service offers an alternative from East Lansing and Ann Arbor to flying to the Detroit airport or driving and paying for parking.

It’s just another hurdle the popular bus service has had to endure. The bus stop change comes a year after the company struggled to get a federal grant to increase the number of trips it takes, serving more passengers. Capital Region Internationl Airport officials fought the grant out of fear the bus service could negatively impact traffic to and from the Lansing airport.

Detroit Metro argues the bus stop had to move because the traffic was simply too congested, and cars would often pass the bus – even on the right – as it was loading and unloading.

“(They were) really unsafe conditions,” said Michael Conway, the airports public affairs director. “Were obligated to address that.

“All were doing is moving the bus stop,” Conway laughed on a later conversation over the phone.

He added that all the other buses – with the one exception of the employee shuttle system – were also moved to the new location at the Ground Transportation Center.

But passengers Michael Harris, who uses a wheelchair, and Karla Hudson, who is blind, argue the move breaches the Americans with Disabilities Act by posing major mobility hurdles.

They filed a court summons for the Wayne County Airport Authority Sept. 19, arguing the new location at the Ground Transportation Center “discriminates against plaintiffs and others similarly situated” and “treats them like second-class citizens, unjustly disregards their basic rights to equality and dignity, and causes embarrassment, humiliation, harassment and emotional distress.”

On top of these discriminatory charges, they allege the new location also subjects them to an “unnecessary risk of bodily injury and death” because its not a curbside location.

A letter from the head of the State Transportation Commission and some 500 passenger emails also urged the airport to reconsider for the same reasons.

“I never experienced congestion there,” writes one Lansing resident, Dennis Groh, “I walk with a cane due to a medical disability and am 75 years old; and the new location will be exceedingly hard for me and others like me to get to the new stop.”

Cushman dismisses the safety claim.

He pointed to the airport maintaining employee shuttle drop-offs at the terminal, which makes 168 trips a day, while the Michigan Flyer makes 16 per day, he said.

Moreover, he said no one has been injured at the stop. And with proper road enforcement, any concern of traffic congestion or injury could be altogether alleviated.

The Detroit Metro Airport presented Cushman with a series of photos revealing heavy traffic. One photo depicted passengers exiting in the middle of the road while cars went around the bus on either side.

“Thats exactly what it looks like when you have no enforcement,” Cushman said. “They took (the photo) on a day when clearly there were some international flights that had arrived.”

He argued that scene wasnt typical.

“The bottom line is, if indeed they were concerned about safety, all they have to do is put some enforcement out there and it takes care of the issue,” Cushman said.

Cushman didnt offer any alternate theories for why the stop was moved to the Ground Transportation Center. But he knows one thing for sure.

“We know this can hurt business,” he said. Roughly 50,000 people a year use the Flyer to get from East Lansing to Detroit, Cushman said.

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