Rebuilding more equitable public transit service

Public transit is in crisis, but this moment is an opportunity to rebuild our transit networks to address historic inequities in our transportation infrastructure. When transit ridership dropped significantly across the United States in March, the remaining ridership revealed exact when and where our most dependent riders need to travel. As expected there was significant overlap with the communities of color most impacted by COVID. The uprising for racial justice in the summer of 2020 makes it more imperative that the recovery address past injustices.

Right now public transit agencies in the US are addressing decreased capacity due to social distancing, decrease revenue, and the elevated need to provide access for essential workers. Even with additional federal financial intervention, most agencies will have to make some service cuts and potentially face long term revenue shortfalls. How those cuts are done and how service is restored as riders return will be critical to the equity of public transit and US cities.

COVID could have long-lasting impacts on travel patterns. Higher rates of telework could reduce peak trips. We need changes in how transit service is designed and delivered with a focus on serving all trips, not just peak work trips. Full-time transit riders, especially service workers, need service at different times of day, on the weekends, and to different locations. This makes all day frequency, especially on bus, more important as telework potentially reshapes white collar commuting patterns.

This is a moment with potential for large structural change. Given the scale of the crisis, we have the chance to fix the foundation of public transit networks and to be better equipped to respond to whatever travel pattern changes COVID might bring and to encourage a return to transit. But this will require agencies and traditional transportation advocates to change their usual responses. The conversation shouldn’t be about whether or not to cut service, instead it should focus on how to best serve the needs of the moment and the future. Some service might need to be scaled back due to lack of demand and in order to increase resources elsewhere in the network.