Just as the bottom was about to drop out of the transit industry – ridership so low that a few systems abandoned fares altogether – new opportunities for increases in ridership are opening up. I am certain that the dysfunctional transit sector will squander the major opportunity. But it still interesting table talk. The opportunity is derived mostly by the substantial number of riders and potential riders working remotely – either totally or, more recently, on a hybrid basis. In either case, the roadways of many cities should thin out meaningfully (despite the dynamic known as “latent demand”), making transit
The clever title Eyes Wide Shut was wasted on a allegedly-sexual movie released in 1999. While there are plenty of mainstream events widely opening our eyes these days, this film’s expression is an understatement for events that have occurred in the United States public transportation field in the last seven or so years. I am not so sure even a dead man’s switch would open many eyes in our field. But I have been trying to do so. This installment is yet another alarm. I mourn the days when my National Bus Trader installments were either positive (like the year-long
The first five installments of this series prepared National Bus Trader readers for a large part of their future. Paying even marginal attention to national and global trends, the forces shaping this future should be clear: The rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. Most of Today’s drivers — in all public transportation modes, public and private — are earning perhaps a fourth of what they did 40 years ago, in Today’s dollars. Transit ridership had been declining by roughly 10 percent nationally two years before the emergence of COVID-19. Studies show it has recovered to reach 35 percent
