• Centro’s Better Bus Proposal - Centro just released the first draft of its proposed network redesign—Better Bus. The transit agency is proposing its first full network redesign in decades in response to changes in regional travel patterns (fewer riders need traditional Downtown-centric 9-to-5 rush hour service), changes in staffing (Centro has not been able to hire a full complement of … Continue reading Centro’s Better Bus Proposal →
• Building Bus Ridership Back - Centro buses carried almost 10,000 fewer people in May 2024 than they did in May 2023. That’s the second time year-over-year ridership has declined in the last 3 months after 35 straight months of growth. With overall ridership still 25-30% below pre-pandemic levels, the causes of the drops need to be identified and addressed. One … Continue reading Building Bus Ridership Back →
• What is Centro’s Lineup - Centro’s bus network is built around the ‘lineup’—a tool that facilitates connections between bus lines but constrains Centro’s ability to provide the fast, frequent, reliable service that Syracuse needs and deserves. The lineup influences almost every service decision Centro makes, and so it is an extremely important principle for understanding why Syracuse’s transit operates as … Continue reading What is Centro’s Lineup →
• Rome’s Bus Network Redesign - Centro’s newly announced service update for Rome offers a glimpse of how the transit authority might improve service in Syracuse. Rome’s new network features higher service frequencies on high-ridership routes, a clockface timetable, and on-demand service to cover lower-ridership areas. Centro currently runs six bus lines in Rome. The routes with the highest ridership (accounting … Continue reading Rome’s Bus Network Redesign →
• Centro’s post-pandemic ridership recovery - More people rode a Centro bus in September 2023 than in any month since October 2019. That marks the first time post-pandemic monthly transit ridership in Syracuse has exceeded any pre-pandemic mark. This is good news for Centro, but the ridership trends leading up to September tell a slightly more complicated story about the state … Continue reading Centro’s post-pandemic ridership recovery →
• BRT, a Timeline, and a Network Redesign - Centro’s recent Bus Rapid Transit announcements are fantastic news for Syracuse. We need better bus service to better connect people and neighborhoods, and BRT is the best way to make that happen. The actual content of these announcements confirms a lot of what we’ve known for a long time. Centro’s first two BRT lines will … Continue reading BRT, a Timeline, and a Network Redesign →
• Save81’s Environmental Nihilism - Of all the lies, half-truths, and obfuscations being peddled by the most recent iteration of the Save81 crowd, the biggest whopper might be their contention that I81 is good for the environment and that making it bigger will decrease greenhouse gas emissions. This is laughably wrong, but it’s helpful to have the opportunity to explain … Continue reading Save81’s Environmental Nihilism →
• Where to spend the marginal transit dollar - If you gave Centro one dollar to improve service, where would you get the most bang for that buck? Where would a marginal improvement in service—more frequency, more speed, better reliability, new service—have the greatest positive impact for the greatest number of people? Where would better bus service result in the greatest increase in ridership? … Continue reading Where to spend the marginal transit dollar →
• Transit, Traffic, and Growth in the Northern Suburbs - Micron’s proposal to build a large factory on Route 31 in Clay has a lot of people talking about public transit in the northern suburbs, but Onondaga County will need better planning to guide population growth so that public transit can actually work out there. The northern suburbs can’t accommodate much more population growth with … Continue reading Transit, Traffic, and Growth in the Northern Suburbs →
• Commuting to City Hall - The administration’s plan for an employee parking shuttle shows that City Hall needs to provide people with better options for getting to work.  In last week’s common council meeting, the administration described an increasingly untenable situation where there simply aren’t enough parking spaces for every municipal employee to be able to store their car right … Continue reading Commuting to City Hall →
• Transit to Suburban Jobs - There’s not much doubt that Centro will run a bus line to the new computer chip factory on Route 31 when it opens. What’s not so clear is how good the service will be, or if it will meaningfully improve anybody’s life. Centro designs its service—particularly suburban service—as a kind of social safety net. It’s … Continue reading Transit to Suburban Jobs →
• BRT on South Salina - Centro’s recent announcement that they are planning Bus Rapid Transit service along South Salina Street is great news for public transportation in Syracuse. Since 2017, pretty much all discussion of BRT in Syracuse has been confined to the two lines  described in SMTC’s SMART1 report, but SMART1 itself assumed the eventual BRT system would include … Continue reading BRT on South Salina →
• How to build rail transit in Onondaga County - Onondaga County’s extensive freight rail network—and particularly the elevated viaduct running through Downtown—has long inspired dreams of rail-based rapid transit in Syracuse. It seems like we’re this close to having big-city transit without the hassle of having to lay any new track or building much infrastructure. Just run passenger trains on the rails that are … Continue reading How to build rail transit in Onondaga County →
• Right-sizing Almond Street - When NYSDOT tears down the viaduct and builds the Community Grid, Almond Street should have the narrowest right-of-way possible. Last summer’s Draft Environmental Impact State showed Almond Street much too wide, but the Final Environmental Impact Statement NYSDOT released last week showed a path towards making Almond Street a more reasonable width. A primary goal … Continue reading Right-sizing Almond Street →
• Housing and highways in Onondaga County, 1940-2019 - Central New York’s highways remade the geography of where people live in Onondaga County. A new dataset makes it possible to track change in the number of housing units in each of the County’s census tracks from 1940-2019. These numbers show heavy housing losses in the few highway-adjacent neighborhoods that had lots of housing in … Continue reading Housing and highways in Onondaga County, 1940-2019 →
• The chronic financial stress of car ownership - Assemblymember Pamela Hunter’s and State Senator John Mannion’s proposal to subsidize car driving by defunding public transit will entrench the very problem they want to solve. They are right that household budgets are getting squeezed by a sharp and unexpected increase in the costs of operating a car. But they offer the same solution that … Continue reading The chronic financial stress of car ownership →
• Freedom from gas prices - Rising gas prices have politicians scrambling to find some way to mitigate the impact on car drivers’ pocketbooks. But because gas prices get set by multinational corporations, local politicians have pretty limited options for doing this. Most have settled on a per-gallon gas subsidy in the form of a gas tax cap or holiday. This … Continue reading Freedom from gas prices →
• The Hub of New York State - Syracuse is and has always been a crossroads city. Civic boosters used to call it “the Central City” and “the Hub of New York State” because it is so easy to travel from Syracuse to other parts of the state. Some highway enthusiasts have pointed to this history to argue that removing the I-81 viaduct … Continue reading The Hub of New York State →
• Two versions of the Grid - There are two possible versions of the Community Grid. The better version has safe streets, clean air, and quiet neighborhoods. The worst possible version of the Grid is one where interstate vehicular traffic drives through city neighborhoods instead of following I81 around Syracuse. NYSDOT risks building the bad version of the Grid because they continue … Continue reading Two versions of the Grid →
• The roundabout’s new spot - NYSDOT’s new proposal to place a highway offramp at Van Buren Street shows how their desire to maintain a high-speed highway through the City is incompatible with residents’ desire for safe, connected neighborhoods free of noise and air pollution. The offramp—designed as a large roundabout—was originally planned for MLK Boulevard on the Southside. When NYSDOT … Continue reading The roundabout’s new spot →