The Michigan House and Senate returned to work on Tuesday for one and two week sessions, respectively. At the top of their agenda is a mass transit bill (HB 5467) that lawmakers failed to pass last summer. The bill would place the Detroit Department of Transportation and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation bus systems under the authority of a newly created Detroit Area Regional Transportation Authority, intended to improve the efficacy of and add new routes to the current systems.

Since its initial draft in June 2001, HB 5467 has been the object of contentious debate in both state legislative bodies and around southeast Michigan. Critics have questioned the logic behind supporting a measure they consider costly and useless. Supporters believe the bill is essential to the area's economic and environmental future.

After numerous setbacks and compromises, legislators agreed on a version of the bill shortly before the summer break. Now that they are back in session, it is crucial that they pass the bill.

The benefits of public transportation are manifold. It has the potential to reduce harmful emissions from cars, alleviate traffic jams and provide affordable transportation between low-income areas and jobs.

Moreover, passing the DARTA bill would mark a positive step toward regional cooperation - a spirit that Metro Detroit sorely lacks. For years Detroit and its suburbs have competed with each other to attract new business and funding. They have failed to work together to eradicate the socioeconomic inequity that has helped make Detroit the second most segregated metropolitan area in the country. Last year the Detroit News sponsored a one-day conference to address segregation in the metropolitan area. Only two mayors - Detroit's and Southfield's - attended. The inability of Detroit and its suburbs to work together has had a profoundly negative affect on the region. The creation of DARTA would signify a new willingness, however hesitant, by Detroit and its suburbs to work together.

DARTA, of course, represents only a small fraction of Detroit's mass-transit reform potential. It is the first of what should be many proposals directed at replacing Detroit's woeful public transportation system with a comprehensive system worthy of an area as large as Metro Detroit. If the region is to someday enjoy an efficient transportation system, it will have to move beyond scattered bus service. DARTA should be the impetus for the development of a large-scale plan that will address Detroit's present shortfalls.

But the bill is not without problems. Opponents of the bill fought successfully last summer to remove labor protections for bus drivers and suburbs have been given the option to withdraw from the authority in the future.

Congressional supporters should work to include the slashed provisions in the final draft of the bill. But despite the importance of these issues, none of them should prevent the DARTA bill from being passed. This move toward regional cooperation and improved public transportation far outweighs the bill's deficiencies.