The "mo" in Motown stands for mo-bility

Last week I came back from my first trip to Detroit, after the C-19 years. Things have changed since I first got here in 1993. Many things. 10 years ago the city went bust and it had to reinvent itself. It did, and it still does. Fast forward to 2023, on the picture above we're at the downtown end of Woodward Avenue.

Did you spot all modes of mobility? Most prominent, there is the Detroit people mover on the rails above the streets. Second, we're at Woodward in Detroit, we see a car. Also on street level, more difficult to spot .. you see a bike sharing station at the left hand side and pedestrians walking on the right hand side. Most difficult to find on the picture above are the rails to the left of the car, here is the terminus of the Q-line tram.

You read that right, a tram, a trolley, a street car, whatever you like to call it, running up and down part of Woodward Avenue in Detroit!

While the tram does not run hands-free (yet?) the speciality here in Detroit is the use of 750-volt rechargeable batteries to run parts of the line without overhead catena!

So, downtown and cultural district you can visit without need of a car but how about Detroit Metro area in nearby Oakland county? Can you catch one of the rare busses to venture out into the vicinity to get to places like Pontiac, Novi, or Auburn Hills?

And while the Detroit area Beverly Hills is not so special compared to all the other "hills" places (Farmington, Bloomfield, Auburn ..), the actual "Beverly Hills of Detroit" is called Birmingham. A WALKABLE CITY.

Of course you need a car to get here and there is ample place to park your car in front or behind the european looking storefronts and restaurants.

Some of the houses got designed to look french - no idea why this place still is called "Birmingham"!? Walking around here feels out of touch as if we were visiting Disneyland or Las Vegas. But it's real and you don't have to pay entrance fee. And .. we spotted battery electric cars here! Still a rare sight in the Detroit area, here we saw a few Teslas and Rivians, with a very rare Polestar thrown in the mix. What a contrast to what we saw in West Coast cities earlier this year.

We stayed in Bloomfield Hills where pedestrians are kind of outlaws, no walkways, not even for a kilometer or two any means to legally cross Telegraph Road. Square miles of parking, you're supposed to get everywhere by car.

Which may bring me to the next article, super-sized "cars".

Since you read this far, here is another mobility mode to spot:

Did you see it? Towards the trees on the right you see the logo of Amtrak. This actually is the main train station of Detroit. Or what's left of it. See, we Europeans love to take trains. Here a goods train passes, bringing new cars from factories in nearby Windsor, Canada. No idea if there is any passenger service left.

At least the tram stops here.