U.S. Cities Upgrading Public Transit

Across the country in cities including Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Seattle, citizens, policymakers, and transit advocates are working toward better public transportation solutions.

In Denver, the focus is on expanding the city's walkability, while in Phoenix, using autonomous vehicles to take residents to the public transportation is gaining steam. Seattle is using an "all of the above" approach, including new high-capacity light rail and bus lines, expanded cycling options, and the city's Commute Trip Reduction initiative, which has helped reduce the share of weekday trips to the downtown area in private vehicles, Curbed reports.

Curbed spoke with transit experts from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), Overhead Wire, Smart Growth America, the Eno Center for Transportation, and the National Resource Defense Council, asking them to identify U.S. cities with progressive transit plans or intriguing proposals to solve difficult issues. None of these cities has devised the perfect transit system—and some of these ideas haven’t even been realized yet—but, taken together, they show different means to make transit more effective.

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