A view from
City Lab - posted to The Coffee Shop because there are many global lessons and suggests. What will work for Sacramento may work for Bristol. What will work for Baton Rouge may work for Bath.
Subway and bus systems in the U.S. face financial peril as ridership collapses due to lockdowns. To keep transit alive, here’s a playbook for immediate and long-term fixes.
Public transportation has been in a state of crisis since the coronavirus pandemic began. Ridership in major cities in the U.S., Europe and China is down by 50-90% from pre-crisis levels. ...
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But there is a way forward. We offer these pathways for saving transit, immediately and into the future.
What to do now
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What to plan over the next year
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Short-term cuts deployed to save transit agencies money during a crisis should not become permanent once the crisis is over.
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Big, structural change is needed
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As transit agencies struggle to find their footing in an uncertain future with dramatically less revenue from the usual sources, it’s time to rethink how transit agencies operate and are funded. If agencies reassess their priorities and push forward ambitious plans to reorient cities around their systems, with the assistance of the federal government, buses and subways can thrive when the country is ready to return to regular service.
