Detroit Densha Seikatsu
In my fascination with the Detroit People Mover, knowing the 3 mile elevated counter-clockwise rail loop downtown was always meant as a nucleic circulator for a greater system that was never built, I wondered what we could build at this current moment to actualize a rail transit network in Detroit that elevates the DPM to that original purpose.
There is no shortage of entries to the compendium of Detroit fantasy transit maps. Some aim to illustrate the ideal regional system, some are more realistically-budgeted and focus on BRT, some are less serious and more for the “wouldn’t it be cool if” nod. Many are conceived by urban planners with far more professional experience in the sector than me, a person with none.
So what I decided I had to contribute, as simply an artist with a functional proficiency with Photoshop, who adores heavy public transit, dearly misses the subway experience of my decade in NYC, and dreams of a Detroit with a transit system of Tokyo’s complexity, was this:
a local system in the immediate vicinity of Detroit’s current active rail services (DPM, QLINE, Amtrak), using line types currently in existence (elevated rail, street car, heavy rail, respectively) to provide residential coverage to and through the near-downtown neighborhoods in a scale that would support a future Detroit where its vacant spaces were all occupied to full capacity.
Detroit Densha Seikatsu: This Network Does Not Exist
DDS Map as seen in I-R’s album artwork
