The year in brilliant, confounding &
lamentable transportation developments.
1. Least-vetted gigantic multi-billion transit proposal unveiled during an annual mayoral address: Bill de Blasio’s “BQX”
2. Best piece ever written about Uber and public policy: Wired/Aarian Marshall’s “3 hot tips”
3. Most flabby, overused term: “Smart cities.” Here’s transit use in a few of our “smartest” cities
4. American city that’s killing it: Seattle’s rail ridership has tripled and bus ridership continues to skyrocket
5. American city that’s killing transit: Washington, D.C., obviously
6. Transit savages: ridership is actually up on Boston’s T despite trains that conk out, catch fire and derail
Photo by Florian Penzkofer for Universal Hub
7. Best Fake Agency Twitter Feed: @mbtasnafu 
8. World’s best Mayor: Anne Hidalgo of Paris continues to remove roads and expand walking, cycling and transit
9. Best “better in Europe” coverage: our look at Paris trams
10. Harshest dollar per person transit investment: We declare a tie! Honolulu struggles to build rail system at $9.5 billion for 119,000 projected riders, while the Fort Worth Transportation Authority invests one billion for a projected ridership of 13,000
11. Hotter than Hotcakes award: More cities catch on to reorganizing bus systems around frequent service
12. Literal Gordian Knot of a bus route: DC’s W2/W3
13. Best response to bus underperformance: Charlotte transit boss John Lewis reads advocates’ position, launches bus system reorganization
14. Worst: NY’s MTA claims “they’re already doing it” in response to Bus Turnaround recommendations
15. “Ooh shiny!” knucklehead award: To any outlet who wrote non-satirically about the Chinese “straddle bus” 
16. Best & Worst amNY covers: Bus Turnaround vs. Melo
17. Most Times-ian local story: Brutal finding a cab during Ramadan
18. Most glorified sidewalk masquerading as urban transportation project: The Atlanta Beltline
Dustin Chambers for the New York Times
19. Worst bus tech choice: USB over TSP in New York
20. Weirdest tenet in the automated vehicle cult: when the taxi drivers become robots, people will sell their cars
21. Best ‘This is Fine” Transit moment – Montreal bus / car sledding
22. Best gif we won’t get to use to criticize the president’s transportation policies
23. Best way to defend transit during the next four years: Donate to your local transit advocacy organization
On the Brink: Will WMATA’s Progress Be Erased by 2024?
The experience of being a WMATA rider has substantially improved over the last 18 months, thanks to changes the agency has made like adding off-peak service and simplifying fares. Things are about to get even better with the launch of all-door boarding later this fall, overnight bus service on some lines starting in December, and an ambitious plan to redesign the Metrobus network. But all of this could go away by July 1, 2024.
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A Bus Agenda for New York City Mayor Eric Adams
To create the “state-of-the-art bus transit system” of his campaign platform, Mayor Adams will have to both expand the quantity and improve the quality of bus lanes. We recommend these strategies to get it done.
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