Mid-Size Cities Struggle to Provide Reliable Transit

While the focus of transit coverage skews toward big cities, mid-sized cities face their own transit struggles. In a piece in Streetsblog USA, Kea Wilson explains why smaller cities have a hard time maintaining reliable public transit systems.

A new analysis points to “the unique challenges of maintaining stable service in relatively less-populous urban areas that often gobble up outsized swaths of land” as a major reason why mid-sized cities had less reliable transit.

The article highlights cities like Baltimore, Orlando, Denver, and Sacramento, which all feature sprawling, car-dependent metro areas that “push residents to live and work on the auto-oriented edges of town and leave transit behind completely, starving agencies of the fares they need to make service improvements and making matters worse for the riders who remain.”

Smaller transit agencies face the same challenges as larger ones across the nation, including staffing shortages and budget shortfalls that make it difficult to improve service. Many also have a hard time tracking their service frequency and reliability because their vehicles lack GPS or other tracking devices. Meanwhile, a lack of dedicated transit infrastructure in smaller regions means bus service is impacted by car traffic. 

Some, like Portland and San Antonio, still rate highly for transit reliability for their combination of service and data availability. “And if Baltimore and cities like it can't follow their lead, it doesn't bode well for their ability to deliver everything else a great transit network can provide.”