The heads of two major chambers of commerce voiced support this week for a proposed rapid transit plan that would link Detroit with Macomb and Oakland counties.

“We believe regional transportation to be a key to the economic vitality of the region,” said Grace Shore, chief executive officer of the Macomb County Chamber of Commerce.

Two organizations representing more than 2,000 Macomb County businesses and nonprofits are backing the “Golden Triangle” transit plan for dedicated regional bus corridors, advanced by county board Chairman Paul Gieleghem.

Paul Gieleghem has a big idea. As Bill Shea reports, the chairman of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners wants to use federal transportation funds to support a “golden triangle” for rapid-bus transit along three major corridors: Woodward and Gratiot avenues and M-59.

The high-profile light rail project on Detroit’s Woodward Avenue gets the headlines, but a $927 million system of three dedicated bus corridors dubbed the “golden triangle” is the true core of the region’s proposed mass transit plan.

Too much transit talk the past two years has centered on rail. Buses of some sort, conventional or rapid transit, will carry most mass transit riders in southeast Michigan for as long as anyone reading this is breathing.