Beginning May 8, the MDetroit Center Connector will add the Matthaei Botanical Gardens as a new weekly bus stop between Ann Arbor and Detroit.
In addition to five bus stops in Detroit, the Matthaei Botanical Gardens will be the first new Ann Arbor stop since the service was launched in September 2013.
The added bus route is a collaborative effort between the U-M Detroit Center, Semester in Detroit program and Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.
“We’re grateful for this new partnership with Matthei Botanical Gardens, which we see as a sign of both the university’s growing demand for creative collaboration and the southeast Michigan region’s need for greater transportation connectedness,” says Addell Anderson, co-director of the MDetroit Center Connector.
“Stopping at the Botanical Gardens offers many benefits,” says Karen Sikkenga, associate director of Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. “I see great potential for programmatic cross-pollination. Our Cultivating Community student gardening group can use the shuttle to travel to Detroit, while Detroit schoolchildren can take field trips to the gardens.”
And a combined shuttle service is more cost effective, she adds. “We can run the shuttle more often instead of administering two parallel services.”
The MDetroit Center Connector currently offers round-trip transportation for U-M students, faculty, staff and their guests from Central Campus in Ann Arbor to multiple locations in the city of Detroit.
As the busy spring season begins, excitement about the new stop is running high at Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, Sikkenga says. “Joining forces with the MDetroit Center Connector and Semester in Detroit is a perfect opportunity to show the U-M communities in Ann Arbor and Detroit what we have to offer.”
Interested riders can visit DetroitCenter.umich.edu/MDCC to make reservations, view bus schedules, get service updates and find out additional information on all MDetroit Center Connector stops.
Reservations and a valid MCard are required. Riders must present their U-M ID cards to ride the bus.
