Transportation
Houston's Plan to Get an Amazing New Bus System for No New Money
By eliminating route redundancies and emphasizing ridership, the city thinks it can get a better trip at the same price.
One of the biggest challenges facing cash-strapped mass transit agencies is how to improve service without raising costs to the public. Many reach the conclusion it can't be done and opt for an either-or approach: either increase fares or decrease service. Which makes the massive expansion that Houston has planned for its bus network all the more impressive.
Calling attention to the new Houston Metro plan at his blog, Human Transit, planner Jarrett Walker calls it perhaps the "most transformative transit plan" in the city's history. Walker, who led the redesign of the system, is of course no impartial party here. But the proposed network maps speak for themselves.