Slogan | Ride SMART |
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Founded | 1967 |
Headquarters |
Buhl Building Downtown Detroit, Michigan |
Service area | Metro Detroit counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb |
Service type | bus service, paratransit |
Alliance | D-DOT |
Routes | 48 |
Fleet |
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Daily ridership | 44,000 |
Fuel type | biodiesel |
General Manager | John C. Hertel |
Website | SMART |
Former SEMTA/GTW Detroit Commuter Train | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) is the public transit operator serving suburban Metro Detroit. It partners with the Detroit Department of Transportation. Beginning operations in 1967 as the "Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority" or "SEMTA", it operates 44 linehaul and three park-and-ride bus routes in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. Its name was changed to SMART in 1989. As of 2008, SMART has the third highest ridership of Michigan's transit systems, surpassed by Capital Area Transportation Authority and Detroit Department of Transportation. SMART has its headquarters in the Buhl Building in Downtown Detroit.
Some of SMART's routes enter the City of Detroit and serve the Downtown and Midtown cores during "peak hours" (Weekdays, 6-9A.M. and 3-6P.M.). Elsewhere in Detroit city limits, SMART policy does not permit passengers to be dropped off on outbound routes, or board on inbound routes. This is intended to avoid service duplication with Detroit Department of Transportation, which supplements the city of Detroit with its own bus service.
The Michigan Legislature passed the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities Act of 1967, which included the creation of Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA). SEMTA was charged to take over the ownership and operations of the fractured regional transit systems in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties, including the city of Detroit.
The authority acquired a number of existing transit authorities in the region, including the Detroit Department of Street Railways (DSR). However, the 1967 transportation act did not provide the regional authority with any means to levy taxes. Because of this, by 1974, the DSR had been reorganized as a city department of Detroit, leaving SEMTA only coordination over the suburban services. That same year, SEMTA acquired a commuter train service between downtown Detroit and Pontiac from the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. Due to declining ridership, the service was discontinued by 1983.