Public Transit

After a resounding defeat to Proposition 1, a countywide measure that would have raised fees and taxes to address an ongoing budget deficit at King County Metro Transit, Seattle is scrambling to find the money to preserve local bus routes.

May 15, 2014 - KUOW

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is controversial all over the country. Controversy can often lead to compromises, such as mixing the buses into traffic. A recent article makes the case for overcoming controversy and committing to BRT in downtowns.

May 10, 2014 - Atlantic Cities

It's a pattern seen as recently as two years ago in metro Atlanta: a crucial transit measure wins in the central city but dies in the more populous suburbs. The fix is to craft a city-only transit initiative—just what advocates in Seattle will do.

April 28, 2014 - KUOW

With 55 per cent of the vote, King County voters on April 22 opposed increasing their sales tax by one-tenth of one per cent and increasing an annual auto registration fee by $60. 72 Metro Transit bus routes will be eliminated.

April 24, 2014 - Q13 Fox News

A recent article tackles the counter-intuitive state of transit investment in the St. Louis region: “While the abundance of transit possibilities create a veneer of progress, the region is quietly in a public transit state of crisis.”

March 12, 2014 - nextSTL.com

Following on the recent, promising news of increased transit ridership around the country, one writer calls for an end to the institutional bias toward cars. The key point of the appeal: public transit infrastructure benefits the middle class.

March 12, 2014 - The Week

A new report points to the 10-15% of vehicles in California that cause half the smog caused by light duty vehicles. Rather than urban strategies such as transit or TOD, the authors support improving the vehicle retirement and replacement program.

March 9, 2014 - Napa-Solano Times-Herald

A pair of recent articles examine what it’s like to use public transit every day, year after year. One examines the mechanics of on-time delivery and service—the other, the unwritten rules of ridership.

March 5, 2014 - Greater Greater Washington

Bus rapid transit (BRT) is well known among planners as a cheap method to improve bus service and provide an alternative to rail, but BRT projects around the country have met resistance from an array of status quo interests.

February 26, 2014 - Atlantic Cities

The Regional Connector, a light rail improvement project in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, is one of the closest watched transit projects in the country. The federal government recently allocated a $670 million grant for the project.

February 21, 2014 - Los Angeles Times

The developers of a transit-tracking app have some for exciting news for public officials: There's a way to improve transit rider satisfaction without reducing fares, buying new vehicles or expanding service. Just give your users more information.

January 22, 2014 - The Atlantic Cities

New York and Washington D.C. are among the U.S. cities looking to revamp the payment systems for their trains and buses over the next several years. Many will ditch paper and plastic farecards in favor of credit cards and smartphones.

January 9, 2014 - The Washington Post

Though new streetcars, light rail, and subway projects get much of the attention, the lowly bus does most of the heavy public transit lifting across the U.S. Even in rail-heavy cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, bus ridership exceeds trains.

December 22, 2013 - Next City

Former Treasury Secretary LaHood made distracted driving a pet cause. The dangers of walking and texting are well documented. But would could straphangers have to fear from smartphones? Plenty, as the death of a S.F. Muni rider illustrates.

October 15, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle

Carrying 2.3 billion passengers a year, London's buses are the most popular they've been in more than fifty years and 60 percent more utilized than in 2000. Is the city doing enough to plan for future demand and threats to service?

September 11, 2013 - The Guardian

Chicago's Fulton Market's new transit stop is attracting attention and investment in the neighborhood. Increasingly, more cities in the Midwest are embracing transportation projects as a means to revitalize downtowns and historic districts.

September 4, 2013 - The Architect's Newspaper

A scholar and former New York City planner has an interesting idea for improving the financial state of America's often beleaguered public transit systems: let non-profits run them instead of public agencies. Eric Jaffe explains his reasoning.

August 18, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Forget reducing congestion and improving the environment; a new paper makes perhaps the strongest argument yet for investing in public transit based on its ability to agglomerate, or cluster people together, raising wages and productivity.

August 14, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

When it comes to meeting the transit needs of millennials, real time information about train arrivals is as important as the transit itself. This is one of the key findings of a New York MTA survey conducted to inform strategies for the future.

July 25, 2013 - The New York Times N.Y. - Region

Is your city's transit agency caught in a cycle of rising fares, declining service, and chronic financial problems? Mark Aesch has used an innovative approach to turn around the bus systems in Rochester and Detroit. Could it work in your city?

July 19, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities