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All change, please

Jon Fasman: Washington correspondent, The Economist, NEW YORK

Cash-strapped cities will need to be nimble in managing distressed public-
transport systems

The new normal

THESE DAYS, says Nicole Gelinas, a New York-based writer at a think-tank, working on
a book about the history of public transport in her city, “when I ride the subway, I’m
tempted to tweet, ‘The subway is great—you should come join me’.” But if everyone is
taking the subway, she adds, “we shouldn’t be on the subway.”

Welcome to the paradox of public transport during a pandemic. Buses and subways
have never been cleaner; masked, socially distanced riders never more quiet and
considerate; and people never more frightened of riding. Ridership bottomed out with
declines of more than 80% in New York, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area and
Washington, DC. To make riding safer, cities innovated with deep cleaning, different
routes and changed boarding methods for buses. Some of these innovations will survive
and mature into 2021, and change how public transport sustains and shapes American
cities—provided that transit agencies can find their way out of the financial pit into
which the pandemic shoved them.