How Will People Movers Affect Downtown Areas

The year 1980 was a pivotal one for the downtown automated people mover development process in both Detroit and Miami. In that year both cities completed their preliminary engineering/environmental impact statement preparation process, and both selected system suppliers who would carry out final engineering and system construction. The major purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which events since 1980 indicate that these actors have anticipated the completion of people movers in their respective downtown areas. As the impacts of the anticipation of major public works/transportation projects are explored in Detroit and Miami, three related objectives are also addressed in this paper: to determine the differences in impacts by city; to review the predictions of future conditions made in each city in 1980; to compare these predictions to the changes which have occurred in the 1980-1985 period.