Some of us will NEVER ride the bus.Some of us will never shop downtown. So you want to try to FORCE people to ride the bus? Ever heard of urban sprawl and People moving and lower property values as a suburban area turns too urban for the likes of residents? Bus has long standing problems with violent youth on and off the bus. Reports of violence at Rivertown Crossings that necessitated a move of the bus stop and media reports of unruly youth at the transfer station are not mentioned either. This should of had its own dedicated road so no area suffers with unsafe traffic and it should of been a Fast bus. This is hardly faster than old one.

The silverline is a duplicate of buses we already have and it will be only mere minutes faster! Cities said this COULD spur development and you are changing it to claim it will spur developement. The current bus stops did not spur development. There's no reason to believe that a bus on a street that is made more congested will attract riders. There are two middle schools and a high school very close together on Division. Traffic Engineers designed this road with four lanes and a center turn lane to handle the traffic. Taking away two traffic lanes is going to paralyze this street and divert traffic to residential areas and 131. Other rapid Transit systems have been built on their own road dedicated ONLY to the bus line, so the safety of pedestrians, and drivers is secure. On Division children have been hit on the way to school and a young father was killed. . .These costly CHANGES are not even improvements that will help anyones quality of life. I wonder if it would be okay with E.G.R. supporters if we narrowed Lake Drive,Breton, Michigan st., Fulton, or Burton? This should of been designed on its own road so noone suffers with the congestion. Vote No May 5th

Bus stops do not Spur development. Never have never will. Look at the current EMPTY buses running all along Division avenue and other bus routes running unnecessarily till past 11:30 and reroute these buses during peak times. Remember that successful RAPID transit systems were built on their own road dedicated to the bus and only the bus. They did not ask everyone traveling a very busy street that is already congested during peak times to avoid their own neighborhood and charter a plane to get their kids to school safely so we can waste money and levy a forever tax on homeowners. A successful city would look at all the empty buses and the empty downtown mall and ask for grant money for a different purpose or a different route. Using sound business knowledge a successful city would remember that just because you build a bus or a business doesn't mean people will come. We have many vacant retails areas, and unused buses. Money will surely NOT come back to the community because people will AVOID this area and be forced onto 131 to avoid this as it is without a doubt going to be a bottlenecked disaster. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHfRmM8h5I

I have neighbors that need that 12 dollars for food, etc. You assume most residents are going Downtown on a regular basis and they are not. We have industrial areas in Wyoming and satellite hospital clinics all over so noone has to go downtown for medical tests. People use suburban malls and we have explosive development away from city around M-6 where St. Mary's Hospital complex and Metroplitan Hospital has been built. We have Davenport now on the East Beltline along with Calvin. We have poured MILLIONS several times into Mornoe mall opening it up and then closing it off and making it a pedestrian mall, and then opening it up again for acost of millions with all pretty new bricks and street lights and they said this would bring new retail development and EVERY TIME they were dead wrong. Monroe mall is a vacant ghost town. See here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHfRmM8h5I

Obviously you don't live near South Division avenue where several high school and middle school children have been struck by cars on the way to school. A young father crossing Divsion in Wyoming was also hit and killed. I took the bus before and my biggest problem was waiting 15 minutes to cross the Division street as my stop was 6 blocks from a traffic light. This will direct people away from Division and back onto 131 creating more traffic on both streets. This should never be done on Division. Other rapid systems were built on roads dedicated only to the bus for the safety of pedestrians and drivers.

Easttown services East Grand Rapids residents that have incomes on average four or five times higher than those folks living off Division avenue. Don't even think you can compare EastTown development to S.Division and attribute it to a bus. It has to do with their geographic placement as a gateway to East Grand Rapids. NO we don't have to play by their rules. Like the infamous Bus to Nowhere, they wanted to put infrastructure improvements where they were not necessary or intelligent. Oh well... Should we bail out Rogers Plaza or allow changes that are inevitable happen? People like Suburban indoor malls and NO bus is every going to get people downtown.

The logical step is to look at the current EMPTY buses running all along Division avenue and other bus routes running unnecessarily till past 11:30 and reroute these buses during peak times. Second: Remember that rapid transit systems like those in Portland were built on their OWN ROAD dedicated to only the bus. They did not ask everyone traveling a busy street that is already congested during peak times to avoid their own neighborhood and charter a plane to get their kids to school safely and levy a forever tax on homeowners. Money will surely NOT come back to the community because people will AVOID this area and be forced onto 131 to avoid this bottlenecked disaster. Many people will never use the bus, as problems with unruly youth and violent individuals is a norm on the bus that many of us would rather avoid forever. Why would owners of viable businesses want to sell their businesses? Why should we bail out owners of long vacant and unwanted property ?__http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHfRmM8h5I