For 70+ years now public transportation has both allowed and embraced success to be defined on the basis of a single metric – ridership. “Butts in seats” is what people would say at industry gathering after industry gathering. This was then, and continues to be, limited thinking. Ridership goes up and down for a whole lot of reasons. TransPro recently did an analysis and factually demonstrated the single correlating metric to ridership elasticity is actually the price of a gallon of gasoline. Not under public transportation management influence nor control. Unsurprisingly, media and elected officials grilled transit executives on the singular metric of success. “What are you doing to attract more riders?”, elected officials would ask. The wise answer would have been “waiting for you to raise taxes on a gallon of gas”.
In 2021, that all changed. In the second year of a global pandemic, and ridership at 70-year lows, elected officials were able to see what transit executives hadn’t. That value came in a much more complicated formula. And so elected officials invested – at record levels.
The President of the United States met with, toured with, and spoke to the proud employees of KCATA in Kansas City. Unsurprisingly, KCATA has also been at the forefront of a national conversation regarding zero fares.
The Vice President of the United States met, toured with and spoke to the proud employees of CATS in Charlotte. Unsurprisingly, CATS has also historically produced industry leading customer satisfaction.
The Secretary of Transportation met with, toured with and spoke to the proud employees of LTD in Eugene, OR. Unsurprisingly, LTD has punched far beyond their weight in being at the forefront of a Bus Rapid Transit model.
There is a common theme amongst these three agencies. And a reason such powerful federal officials selected them for a personal visit. They’re challenging the status quo. They never bought into the “moving more people is all it’s about” dialogue. In 2021, the platform was built by elected officials that they were open to and embraced a new way of thinking about the value of public transportation in the national dialogue. In 2022, the opportunity is for the industry to prove they were right to have done so. Industry leaders like KCATA, CATS and LTD are well out in front. Having a conversation that the raw number of riders is but a portion of how they bring value to a community and to the country.
Elected officials raised the profile significantly in 2021, through funding and personal acclimation. They were able to see it was a time to have a different conversation – even when ridership was at historic lows. Elected officials were right to have had transit’s back. In 2022, they will be expecting the public transportation industry to have theirs. Agencies that are having a different conversation beyond simply “getting riders back” – are the ones that will flourish in 2022.
