Michigan

The service levels on state-supported routes depend on how much money each state department of transportation is willing to pay.

Eight years in the making, the project was undone by suburban opposition. Now, transit advocates in Michigan's capital are figuring out what can be done to improve transit while their opponents take a victory lap.

Yesterday's elections returned some of the nation's most anti-urban, anti-transit governors to power in races where they were supposed to be vulnerable. Pro-transit candidates were unexpectedly routed in some states, though a few did manage to hang on.

A tipster in Chicago sent over these images of an impressive street redesign planned for downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. The treatment shown above -- a two-way parking-protected bike lane with planted pedestrian islands -- will apply to about a mile of Michigan Avenue, near Western Michigan University. Protected lanes would continue north on Rose Street and east on Water Street, linking up to the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail.

A lot of state transportation departments talk the talk when it comes to designing streets that are safe for everyone. But Michigan -- forgive the pun -- is literally walking the walk.

Amtrak riders tested new bike racks in the snack car of a train to Michigan last month, as the railroad prepares to launch roll-on service for trains to Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Lansing. Derrick James, the director of government affairs for the central region of Amtrak, sent these photos of the event.