In Washtenaw County, buses are city dwellers. The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, aka TheRide, runs an extensive system in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, with connectors stretching east to Canton and west to Chelsea. But the only local mass transit in Saline, Dexter, and Chelsea is provided by small, shared-ride vehicles–People’s Express in Saline, and the Western-Washtenaw Area Value Express, or WAVE. Both run weekdays only, require advance reservations, and, though available to anyone, serve mainly seniors, the handicapped, and other “transit-dependent individuals.”

All that may soon change. TheRide has developed a thirty-year “countywide transit vision,” and almost all communities in Washtenaw County have signed on. The roadmap will create a regional transit board to implement a plan that, in its most ambitious form, could connect all of Washtenaw County with mass transit–at a cost of $465 million in capital improvements and $52 million in annual operating expenses.

Chelsea, Dexter, and Saline have all agreed to join in creating the new transit board. So have most, though not all, of the county’s townships. But the initiative came from TheRide.

“There is a recognition on the part of Ann Arbor that there are transportation needs that go outside of the city,” explains Michael Benham, project coordinator for the countywide plan. “The boundaries of Ann Arbor have been in place for decades, but the need for our services has outgrown those boundaries.

“A strong county makes for a strong Ann Arbor, and vice versa.”

The most expensive parts of the plan would be hoped-for commuter rail lines linking Ann Arbor with Detroit to the east and Livingston County to the north. But if the vision moves to implementation, the biggest expansion will be in the county’s outlying communities–that is, if they choose to be involved.

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Saline mayor Gretchen Driskell is all for the plan. “It will help our citizens be more mobile,” she says. “We have a lot of restaurants who have staff who would like to take transit. It’s an economic development issue … with the commuter rail, a more robust bus system, our nonmotorized plan, and the complete-street plans [designed to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians], it’s a whole system–it’s not just a road and a car,” says Driskell. “It’s nice to be moving forward. I think [Washtenaw County is] one of the leaders in the state in transit. I’m really excited for it.”

Dexter village councilmember Jim Carson also needs no convincing. According to the 2010 U.S. census, since 2000 the village’s population has grown by 74 percent, more than any other municipality in the state. All of those new residents have brought new issues to the village government.

“Transportation definitely plays a part in that,” says Carson. “Based on the census figures we’ve determined that we have a young population, often with two working members of the family.” And Carson doesn’t believe that residents should have to own two cars–or even one–to live in Dexter.

Currently the only mass transit within Dexter is the WAVE’s door-to-door service, which runs 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Going any farther means waiting for WAVE’s Community Connector, which runs every two hours to the nearest AATA stop, at Jackson and Wagner roads. According to Carson, who’s tried it, the trip from his home in Dexter to Ypsilanti currently takes about an hour and fifteen minutes and costs about $3.50.

“We’re limited in the number of riders because of the frequency of rides,” he says. “So they’re not using it because it’s not convenient. Now, they have to meet our schedule because we don’t meet theirs.”

Should the next thirty years look anything like the TheRide’s master plan, Carson expects buses to stop in downtown Dexter every twenty minutes and carry riders all over the county.

WAVE plans to become a partner to the now-forming countywide board, into which TheRide would eventually become absorbed. “The master plan is a good thing for WAVE customers,” says executive director Michaelene Pawlak. “For several years now, WAVE recognized the need for more vehicles on the roads to keep up with ridership demands, but has been unable to do so because of lack of funding.”

WAVE has been a part of the development of the master plan from the beginning, seeing a connection between Ann Arbor’s desire to connect the county and their own mission to provide affordable transportation to residents of Dexter and Chelsea who can’t or don’t drive. Pawlak envisions the expanded system continuing to serve those riders, while also luring so-called “choice riders” out of their cars and onto buses.

“The approved Smart Growth Plan has the potential of doubling WAVE ridership when route frequency, longer hours, weekend services, and vehicle enhancements are put in place,” says Pawlak. “The only [negative] impact to existing WAVE customers that I can foresee would be for residents in townships that opt out of the master transit plan process.” According to Pawlak, “residents in townships that have opted out are at risk of losing existing or potentially new or enhanced transportation programs in their areas.”

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Though the official paperwork won’t need to be filed for some time, three townships have already stated their intention to opt out: Salem, Bridgewater, and Sylvan.

“One of the reasons is the board doesn’t like the weighted vote,” says Sylvan Township supervisor Robert Lange. “There was one vote for all of western Washtenaw County [on the countywide board]. For the eastern side they had about a dozen.”

Lange says Sylvan’s other concern is funding. “We know that down the road there will probably be a millage,” he says. “We didn’t want to be a part of that. We didn’t see much of an advantage. We have WAVE, and the board didn’t see that it is used much.”

While there is no guarantee that a property tax millage will be part of the new plan’s funding structure, taxes of some sort will have to be: fares cover less than 20 percent of TheRide’s operating costs, and none of its capital expenses. A recent report includes a long list of funding options for the transit board to consider, including a millage, “tax increment financing” that diverts future increases in tax revenue to transit, and local sales taxes.

Opposition to new taxes is also the issue in Bridgewater. “The anticipated cost of the transit project is close to billion–this cost clearly outweighs the benefits that taxpayers would receive,” emails supervisor Jolea Mull. In August, Mull says, her board “voted unanimously not to even send a representative to attend the organizational meeting. We want no part of it. There has been much propaganda to try and sell this project, but we are not currently experiencing nor do we foresee in the future an overwhelming need in our township for countywide transit.”

TheRide’s Benham says that while he would prefer that the service area not “look like Swiss cheese,” state law permits municipalities to decide whether or not to join the new authority. The governments that opt in will choose representatives to the new countywide board, which begins meeting in October.

The board will begin its work by setting its own list of financial and operational priorities. Early steps in Dexter, Chelsea, and Saline could include enhancements to the WAVE and local commuter hubs.

Benham says the opt-out communities will always be welcome to join the countywide transportation system in the future, even if they decide against it now. But it appears that in Sylvan Township, as in Bridgewater, buses will remain an urban species: Lange is convinced his board has had its final say.

“It’s a dead issue on our part,” he says.