Building a bus system that works – with Jerome Horne

In this episode, we speak with Jerome Horne, ridership experience specialist for IndyGo, about Indianapolis's ongoing transit transformation and some of the key elements in building a reliable and effective bus system. Indianapolis makes a great case study for car-dependent cities looking to overhaul under-performing transit systems or even start from scratch.

Some of the topics we cover in this episode include:

• Reasons to prioritize the bus over the train
• The ridership vs. coverage dilemma
• Why frequency means freedom
• Getting the details right: bus stop spacing, amenities, and schedules
• Why grids are better than hub-and-spoke systems
• How to do public engagement that actually reaches the people who use (or would use) transit (and how Indianapolis did it)
• Why it matters who you send to public meetings in different neighborhoods
• How this transit makeover got funded (and why it succeeded where other cities' transit measures failed)
• The Red Line, Indy's first BRT (bus rapid transit) line that launched in September 2019: what has gone well and what hasn't
• Challenges so far, relating to: running the US's first-ever all-electric BRT fleet, introducing a new fare system, and finding enough drivers to staff the expanded system
• Should transit be free to use?
• IndyGo's new CEO, transit agency culture, and why it's important for transit decision-makers to use they system they run
• Transit-related book recommendations!

Find Jerome on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Check out the incredible International Micro Museum of Transit, curated entirely by Jerome. And if you're up to it, take a peek inside New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (you don't have to be a teen to join).

*Note: We had some issues with the audio files on this episode. You might notice the occasional brief skipping. :( We think it's still very listenable, but we apologize for the less-than-ideal sound on this one!

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(Music in this episode is from No Money & Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.)

https://www.verdunity.com/podcast/episode-51