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Transportation agencies are trying everything to lure you back

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Last week The management of the Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, DC did something it had almost never heard of: it offered pilots more services with less money.

Throughout the year Covid-19 due to the pandemic, horseback riding caused economic problems, so the agency reduced the area’s subway and bus service. He has now promised to increase the number of buses and trains on weekdays, weekends and late at night, as some bus lines operate more frequently than before the pandemic. Cyclists, on the other hand, will pay a fixed fee of $ 2 on weekends, instead of the amount of travel, they will not have to pay for bus transfers and will have a break on weekly bus passes. The plan “will better meet the needs of existing cyclists, reflect new travel patterns and lifestyle changes, and attract new and new customers.” The head of the meter said.

These new travel patterns are unclear. Officials in Washington and elsewhere are considering the roles that buses, subways and trains will play in cities transformed by the year-round public health crisis. They want to win the riders again, and they are ready to try some strategies that are ready for that.

Agencies Boston, Cleveland, Las Vegas, San Francisco Bay, and New Orleans they are offering reduced fares or free rides to attract temporary people to transport. Others are considering a complete removal of tariffs. It’s Los Angeles Exploring a 23-month-old pilot which would provide free rides for students and low-income residents. The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority disbanded fares in March 2020 and he has no intention of returning. “The return on investment for empathy, compassion and social equity is much higher than the return on investment in concrete and asphalt,” said Robbie Makinen, the agency’s CEO. said Stateline in the first week.

Others are looking for an even more sacred cow: an hour-long service.

Historically, those who move away from suitcases and laptops have been the mainstays of the transition public. So. public transport it was designed to suit their needs. Suburban trains, which ran between suburbs and downtown business districts, ran more frequently during rush hours. Agencies bought more buses and subway meters to manage the rush hour crowd and sometimes gave drivers extra pay to get in for a few hours during travel times. They created parking services, drove part of the work but helped people who didn’t want to deal with traffic in dense cities.

Now the future of rush hour is complicated. Big employers like Apple, Amazon and American Express have said they will continue to give employees permission telelana a few days a week, even after most have been vaccinated and reopened offices. On average, the rush hour crowd will be smaller. Meanwhile, organizers have indicated increased interest in the higher service from the middle, and the service has begun to be redesigned to make it more useful for those who do shift work, make requests after school, or travel to social situations.

Agencies are using the dark times to recover from the pandemic to begin schedule changes. In Los Angeles, local Metra suburban train officials said this month that they will test new schedules that “deviate” from the pandemic’s pre-peak hour rules so that trains “have a more balanced approach” to have more uniform spaces. throughout the day. In Boston, in April, officials continued with pre-pandemic plans and began commuter trains more frequently outside of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is part of a larger vision of becoming a more equitable regional rail network that serves more than traditional office workers. High-level cyclists tend to include immigrants, women, people of color, and lower incomes. Pandemic, as a local defense group TransitMatters he observed, may give the local agency “political space” to make long-planned changes. There are fewer people now to complain that operators have removed their specific train.

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