Source: Works in Progress
American transit agencies have become policy dumping grounds—forced to solve emissions, equity, public health, and urban revitalization simultaneously while lacking funding for basic operations. When bikeshare systems are tasked with air quality improvement and transit networks expected to be social services, the infrastructure itself becomes secondary to political wish-lists, guaranteeing mediocre performance on all fronts. Policymakers won't fund transit adequately, so they layer on free community missions instead, ensuring nothing works well. The problem is governance, not transit design.