Transportation Equity Project

Archdiocese of Detroit
Detroit, MI

When Cardinal Adam Maida of the Archdiocese of Detroit delivered his speech to a crowd of nearly 1,200 Catholics on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2001, he highlighted a number of the problems Detroit faces due to its inattention to mass transit issues:

• The lack of economic opportunities for inner-city residents (they cannot reach better jobs in the suburbs)
• A segregated city
• More traffic congestion
• Increased air pollution
• An inability to attract businesses to the city center

Through the leadership of the Archdiocese, with a coalition called the Transportation Equity Project, citizens of Detroit have begun to address the social, economic, and environmental consequences of sprawl in metropolitan Detroit.

As they proceeded, archdiocesan staff targeted three spheres of influence:

• The leadership of the Catholic Church in southeastern Michigan, including clergy, laity, and diocesan administration;
• Catholic leaders beyond metro Detroit, including the five other dioceses across the state and the Michigan Catholic Conference, in order to replicate Detroit’s experiences and develop an effective public policy voice in the state capitol; and
• All people of faith and other like-minded secular organizations -- i.e., anyone who shares in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching on issues related to land use, the environment, transportation, and economic development.

In the first year, the Transportation Equity Project engaged over 25 religious and citizen groups joined together with the stated goal of creating the nation’s largest new mass transit system. The project connects an amazing array of partners, from the Sierra Club to the University of Detroit, and from the Farmland Trust to the Transit Riders Union -- not to mention nearly a thousand citizens and pastors trained and united by the coalition.