Flint

 

As the last section might suggest, Flint is easy to get to, but can be difficult to get around without a car. MTA, the public transit agency, is a reasonably priced if time-consuming way to reach your destination, and if you expect to stay within the Downtown area, walking is certainly an option.

Mass Transportation Authority

Flint's MTA serves the city and inner suburbs through 14 routes that collectively cover most of Flint's 31 square miles. That said, buses once run once per hour meaning that a single transfer could mean a ninety minute trip across town, and all routes are local. Additional lines run at peak hours, and limited service to the suburbs is also available through Your Ride, a van service, for $2.50. MTA's Regional Services provide daily or weekly access to Genesee, Livingston, and Oakland Counties, including many of the Detroit suburbs.

By bike

Flint currently has little in the way of bicycling trails, although development is planned to extend these further throughout the city and suburbs, particularly throughout the West Side. The most extensive bike route is currently the Flint River Trail which extends north from downtown Flint to the city of Genesee on the Halloway Reservoir. Other routes link the Riverfront trail to Downtown, the Cultural Center, and Kearsley Park.

Due to Flint's relatively compact size, many attractions are within a short distance of each other by bike. Cyclists are urged to use caution, however, especially on major thoroughfares such as Robert T. Longway or Chavez Drive, as traffic can be fast and heavy, and hills and curves tend to obstruct vision for both cyclists and motorists.

By car

While it might be possible in theory to explore Flint without a car, very few people would want to do so. Even after one considers the time and effort saved here, there is something singularly appropriate about traveling the boulevards and parkways, the industrial zones and factory strips, in the vehicle this city helped popularize. Of course, it also helps that Flint is a delight to drive, with a coherent network of roads and expressways linking the city to the suburbs, and abundant parking and a lack of congestion ironically due to Flint's recent depopulation. Among the city's much-touted $400 million redevelopment efforts are miles of infrastructural repaving and repair, and it is generally possible to get between any two points of the city in ten or fifteen minutes, or to access the remotest suburbs in well under an hour.

The streetscape of Flint is based on two grids, one which conforms to the river for several square miles in proximity to Downtown, and another which is cardinally oriented. While Flint by-and-large conforms to its grids, there is enough topographical variation to cause many roads to split and angle. Some major roads the follow this pattern are Welch Blvd., Flushing Rd., Chevrolet Ave., Miller Rd., Sagniaw St., and Dort Hwy. Within some neighborhoods, the broader streets become curving boulevards with grassy medians, and sometimes this is the only relic of a formerly affluent area.

The Downtown area is uniquely frustrating for driving. Most roads are one way, sometimes in an unordered sequence, which is maddening given the lack of heavy traffic. Saginaw Street bisects this area from north to south, and dividing east and west addresses, while the bridge at Saginaw street divides the city into north and south.

In the larger grid, neighborhoods are divided by major "mile" roads: to the north running east-west one passes Hamilton or Davison, Pasadena, Pierson, and Carpenter, to the south running east-west Court, Lippincott, Atherton, and Hemphill on the half-mile, to the east running north-south, Lewis, Dort, and Center, and to the west running north-south Fenton or Saginaw, Dupont, and Ballenger or Clio. It will be important to have a map: while these roads are generally straight, they don't always connect up as one would expect, and it should be easy to navigate as long as you can maintain a basic orientation.

For getting around the city quickly, though, and for reaching most of the suburbs, nothing is faster than Flint's four expressways: I-69, I-75, I-475, and US-23. A trained Flintite can use this network of 70mph roads to go from a coney at Angelo's see below to a shake at the Atlas see below in about five minutes. I-75 runs to the west of Flint, with access from south to north to I-475, US-23 only driving south Bristol, I-69, Miller, Corunna, Pierson, Mt. Morris, and 475 again. I-475 runs through east Flint proper meeting up with 75 outside the city with access from south to north to Hill, Bristol, Hempill, Atherton, I-69, Court only driving south, Robert T. Longway, Davison/Hamilton, Stewart, Pierson, Carpenter, Saginaw St. in Mt. Morris, Clio Rd., and I-75. I-69 runs through south Flint proper with access from east to west to Center, Dort, I-475, Saginaw, Hammerberg, and I-75. US-23 splits from I-75 just south of Flint, serving the south suburbs.

With a map in your hand, this network is not only sane; it is comprehensible and convenient.