| You miss the bus; the next one isn't for 30 minutes. The subway pulls in just as you hit the platform, but it's too packed for you to squeeze in. For some who take public transit, this is already a daily reality. But if the federal government doesn't write a very big check soon, it promises to become the status quo. Like so many of the United States' public services, public transit is buckling under the pressure of the pandemic. Ridership and local sales taxes are way down, dragging revenue with them. The people who do still ride are the people we need most right now—childcare workers, health care providers, grocery store clerks—and it costs agencies extra to keep the systems shiny and clean for them. The American Public Transportation Association, an industry group, says transit needs $32 billion in help next year to keep trains, buses, and subways running. New York's MTA says it might need to cut service by 40 to 50 percent; BART, in the Bay Area, is hoping to dodge layoffs; Washington, DC's system says it might have to stop running weekend subways altogether. Floundering public transit isn't just painful for the 11 percent of US residents who ride regularly. Cities are networks, and the effects of breakdowns cascade. Take the New York region, the most transit-dependent part of the country. There, analysts at New York University predict service cuts and layoffs will ricochet around the area, leading to 450,000 fewer jobs and tanking the GDP by $65 million.
Subways and buses are the lifeblood of US cities. Here's what has to happen to get them back on track—and on time.
Aarian Marshall | Staff Writer, WIRED |
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