Trains Buses People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit

About this book

What are the best transit cities in the US? The best Bus Rapid Transit lines? The most useless rail transit lines? The missed opportunities? In the US the 25 largest metropolitan areas and many smaller cities have fixed guideway transitrail or bus rapid transit. Nearly all of them are talking about expanding. Yet discussions about transit are still remarkably unsophisticated. To build good transit the discussion needs to focus on what mattersquality of service (not the technology that delivers it) all kinds of transit riders the role of buildings streets and sidewalks and above all getting transit in the right places. Christof Spieler has spent over a decade advocating for transit as a writer community leader urban planner transit board member and enthusiast. He strongly believes that just about anyoneregardless of training or experiencecan identify what makes good transit with the right information. In the fun and accessible Trains Buses People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit Spieler shows how cities can build successful transit. He profiles the 47 metropolitan areas in the US that have rail transit or BRT using data photos and maps for easy comparison. The best and worst systems are ranked and Spieler offers analysis of how geography politics and history complicate transit planning. He shows how the unique circumstances of every city have resulted in very different transit systems. Using appealing visuals Trains Buses People is intended for non-expertsit will help any citizen professional or policymaker with a vested interest evaluate a transit proposal and understand what makes transit effective. While the book is built on data it has a strong point of view. Spieler takes an honest look at what makes good and bad transit and is not afraid to look at what went wrong. He explains broad concepts but recognizes all of the technical geographical and political difficulties of building transit in the real world. In the end Trains Buses People shows that it is possible with the right tools to build good transit.