Narrative-first, evidence-driven

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Purpose: reduce the monthly squeeze by reducing the time and stress tax of getting to work, school, and care.

The mechanism (plain language)

Time is money. Unreliable transit and unsafe streets create hidden costs: missed work, late pickups, more car expenses, higher stress.

What good looks like

• reliable service (on-time)
• safer crossings and routes
• fewer bottlenecks
• small fixes that compound

Quick wins (pick 1–3)

Reliability (biggest leverage)

1. Publish on-time and headway reliability monthly (route-level).
2. Bus priority at choke points (signal priority, queue jumps).
3. Stop consolidation where stops are too frequent and slow the line.
4. Dedicated maintenance response for chronic breakdown hotspots.

Safety (low cost, high impact)

5. Fix top 10 crash intersections with quick-build designs.
6. Safe routes to school improvements (crosswalks, flashing beacons, timing).
7. Lighting and visibility upgrades at stops and crossings.

Access (practicality)

8. Real-time information improvements (signage, app reliability).
9. Last-mile connections (bike parking, sidewalk gaps near stops).
10. Winter reliability plan (snow clearance priorities for stops/sidewalks).

Scoreboard metrics (choose 3–5)

• On-time performance (route-level)
• Headway reliability (for frequent routes)
• Average trip time on key corridors
• Crash/injury counts at top hotspots
• Sidewalk gap closures (count)
• Winter clearance response times

Common failure modes

• Big capital plans with no near-term reliability wins.
• Metrics exist but aren’t published plainly.
• Safety treated as “education” instead of design + enforcement consistency.
• Winter operations not planned as a first-class system.

Bridge language

• “Time is money. Reliability is affordability.”
• “We can’t ‘hope’ our way into safer streets.”
• “Let’s fix the top 10 bottlenecks and measure the change.”
• “Quick-build first, then permanent.”

One Ask examples

• “Publish headway reliability monthly and improve Route X by 15% within 6 months.”
• “Fund quick-build fixes for the top 10 crash intersections and report outcomes quarterly.”
• “Adopt a winter reliability plan for stops/sidewalks with clear clearance priorities and metrics.”

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