Culture
Why the People in Charge of Transit Systems Should Be Required to Actually Ride Transit
It may sound obvious, but it's a big problem in cities across the country.
Christof Spieler moved to downtown Houston about nine years ago and began a reverse commute to a suburban office park. He took the No. 9 Gulfton Metro bus because he liked to get things done during the ride and hated sitting in traffic, but the service left much to be desired. The bus didn't run very often (every 20 minutes or more, even at rush-hour); transfers were hard to coordinate; and the pedestrian infrastructure near the stops was terrifying (to reach the office, he braved five lanes of car traffic without a signal or a crosswalk).
"It really gave me a good feel of what the system's like," he says.