Can we survive without public transportation?
It’s not whether public transportation can survive COVID; it’s whether we can survive without public transportationVideo by Kelsey McClellan for The Verge
With government budgets strained as a result of the pandemic, experts worry that transit could be on the chopping block based on the historical reasoning that fewer riders means fewer dollars will be needed. That could create something called a “death spiral” — a cycle of terrible service leading to even fewer riders, leading to even more terrible service, and so on.
The emergence of the Delta variant has cast a shadow over transit’s planned comeback. Bus ridership has recovered to 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels, while rail ridership has recovered to only 40 percent. As hospital beds filled up in some states over the summer, many employers delayed their office re-openings until 2022. Experts predict it may take many months, if not years, for ridership to return to normal.
“I just know we’re going to get further and further away from that type of system,” Spronk said, “if we don’t start prioritizing mass transit systems more than we currently do.”Video by Kelsey McClellan for The Verge “I don’t know the answer, to be very candid with you,” Lambert said when asked how the pandemic will affect Houston’s ridership long-term. “We were on a different path, probably a couple of months ago, when we saw a decline in the number of positive [Covid] cases. In the last couple of months, we’ve seen those numbers go up a lot,” he said in August.
4:15PM on October 14th, 2021. A man wearing a face mask looks out the windowed doors of a METRO Blue Line light rail train moving northbound toward downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.7:45PM on October 13th, 2021. Two people and a pup ride the Northline light rail stop in Houston, TX.6:43PM on October 13th, 2021. A woman heads toward the Southline at the TMC/Dryden light rail in Houston, TX.Lambert and other agency leaders expressed bewilderment as to what will come next.
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