Cal-ITP was created by the California State Transportation Agency and its partners to facilitate easy and accessible travel planning and payments across the state and recommends that transit agencies implement GTFS in the real-time mode to provide more frequent updates to train and bus schedules.
An aspect of every urban transport system is making interchange between modes work well. Interchanges are widely discussed across Europe, but the outcomes vary widely across the continent.
Many of the old ways of doing business in the transit world are now in flux. Funding is not as stable as it was, ridership dropped, and full bus occupancy, once a measure of success, is now a thing to be avoided.
What if every single city or state had their own way of managing traffic with versions of solid/dotted/colored lines, sign shapes, and signal lights, and none of them followed a standard convention? As we consider many aspects of public transportation across the country, this scenario is somewhat the reality.
Much as September 11th redefined how we travel and handle security, the COVID-19 pandemic will define the ways we work, socialize and travel.
While service continues to run in most parts of the country, public transit is viewed as a hotspot for possible contamination of COVID, putting everyone at risk — from the operators and conductors to the passengers.
Long after the initial threat of the pandemic has faded, Covid-19 will continue to be a catalyst for change.
Exactly what operational model will operators, cities, and public health authorities adopt once the restrictions are eased and we get back to "normal?"