Opinion: It’s time to pay workers and double DDOT

It’s hard to find anyone who denies the need for better public transit service in Detroit. That’s why we can’t understand why the city is still in labor negotiations with Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) workers, some of whom have been without a contract for more than a year. In April, Mayor Mike Duggan and the City Council allocated an additional $23 million to DDOT in the city's budget. The goal, as the mayor said at the time, was to bring DDOT bus service back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of his 12-year tenure. Currently, more than five years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Detroit still has fewer buses on the road than it did in February 2020. Advocates have repeatedly called on the city to “double DDOT” beyond 2024 levels, as called for in the city’s “DDOT Reimagined”