How to Save Charlotte's Dying Bus System

American bus transit is in a bad state, and by the numbers, Charlotte, North Carolina is in the worst shape of any large city in the country. "The current CATS transit network simply isn’t working very well for many of the 75 percent of its riders who use the bus. The average one-way travel time for a CATS passenger who has to transfer between routes is 90 minutes," Shannon Binns argues for the Charlotte Observer.

The city has a plan to redesign and grow its bus network to make it more frequent, walkable, and direct. "A redesigned bus network will not only better serve current riders, but also attract new ones. TransitCenter, a New York-based foundation dedicated to transit reform, identifies growth in the number of people who ride transit often and for multiple purposes as an important indicator of whether transit is serving its function of helping a city meet its “triple bottom line” of economic growth, environmental stability, and social equity," Binns reports.