Years ago, general wisdom held that transit systems must bring people into a city’s central business district. The idea was to create a corridor from home to job. But the idea and the systems remained long after jobs left the city center.
The mindset is changing in some cities — in one recent example, reported by our Emily Badger a few months back, Tallahassee decentralized its entire bus system. And generally speaking, these multi-destination transit systems have been much more effective than the downtown-only systems they replaced. They’re generally more productive than their counterparts, according to recent research, carrying more passengers at lower cost.
But while multi-destination transit systems may be better suited to modern life than their radial predecessors, it’s unclear whether or not they divert passengers from single-occupancy vehicles. That’s because transit riders can be broadly divided into two categories: “dependent” riders, people who are more or less forced to ride given the high cost of car ownership, and “choice” riders, those who simply prefer riding to driving.
Read the entire article at the Atlantic Cities
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