[llamaorama]

This is something I've been thinking about for a while.

Basically, most transit systems have a hub and spoke topology with downtown as the focus. This works in the largest cities with the most transit ridership. However it feels a little off in smaller cities and also in sunbelt cities. This is because comparatively few people live and work downtown and the people who do are probably more likely to own a car.

On the other hand, we know that suburban transit ridership in the US is dismal. The transit agencies with successful reforms, like Houston's Metro, focused on urban routes and cut back on suburban ones.

However, I think what's missed is just how dispersed jobs and services have become. It's been a trend that's only grown stronger. CBD's and central cities are weaker than they've ever been when it comes to having things that aren't either high-end office space or destination dining/entertainment.

To me the solution is obvious but you never see it looking at transit maps. Why not have a network which inverts the hub and spoke? Instead of peak hour only routes and park and rides in the suburbs, and central hubs in the core, what about district circulators and limited stop routes to suburban employment and services hubs going to multiple parts of the city where the ridership originates?

For example, here in Fort Worth few people use Trinity Metro. It has daily ridership of something like 15,000 people a day. That's it. There is a a commuter bus getting federal funds. It runs from a parking lot on I-35 north next to a feeder road with nothing walkable to it, with only a few hundred parking spaces. That's it. It goes to a downtown that's not as prominent as it used to be. I don't think it will perform well.

What's interesting is across from the freeway in North Fort Worth, undeserved by transit, is the region's largest non-mall retail hub. Also a huge hospital. Several doctors offices, assisted living places, etc. A large office complex

When you think about it, few people from the relatively more affluent north FW suburbs like Keller are going to use a park and ride bus to go downtown. But there are a lot of people from poorer parts of Fort Worth with good existing bus service who work in service industry occupations and are employed out in that area.

What's funny is the proposed express bus actually does extend past downtown to a transit center on the east side, which is a traditionally black working class neighborhood that's seen better days. A lot of folks who live there ride the bus though. But what's pointless is running from the park and ride inbound does nothing because hardly anyone works in that area. Some of the people who live there would use the bus to get out to suburban jobs and doctor's appointments though. But they can't because there's no way to get across the freeway.

One solution would be some kind of rideshare system like the existing zip zone service. But it's inefficient to do a couple riders at a time like that.

My pitch: what about a service where the bus, after reaching the park and ride, circulates around to pick and drop people off closer to actual destinations?