A tale of three cities: budget-neutral strategies for ridership growth

The key takeaways:

Tyler, Texas: When the boldest move is starting over.

Tyler was staring down a familiar set of problems: fixed-route buses running below capacity, operating costs climbing, and aging fare technology due for a costly upgrade. Rather than pour more resources into a system that wasn't working, Transit Director Leroy Sparrow made a clean break: replace all fixed routes with on-demand microtransit, and brought in overflow support to handle peak demand. The results came fast. Within a month, the investment had paid for itself. Today, Tyler runs ~13,000 microtransit rides per month at a 4.9/5 rider satisfaction rating — and avoided a $518K capital investment in the process.

The lesson: If your buses are running empty, the answer isn't more buses. It's a better model. 

Metro (Kalamazoo County, MI): Filling the gaps fixed routes can't reach.

For years, large parts of Kalamazoo County sat beyond the reach of fixed-route transit, leaving many residents effectively cut off from the system. When Metro Link, an on-demand service, launched in April 2024, its goal was clear: connect those communities to public transportation in a meaningful way. It worked. Monthly completed rides grew from 314 to nearly 10,000. Cost per ride fell by 60%. And 82% of riders now connect to fixed-route service, showing that Metro Link is not just serving isolated trips, but strengthening the broader network. What began as a way to fill service gaps has become one of the system’s strongest drivers of ridership growth.

The lesson: The riders hardest to reach are often the ones most hungry for transit. Build for them, and the whole system grows.

Metro (WMATA): Measuring what actually matters.

Metro has had the strongest post-pandemic ridership recovery in the nation, and it didn't happen by accident. Over the past years, WMATA made sustained investments in frequency, speed, and network coverage: more bus lanes, faster rail service through automation, a full bus network redesign. Manager of Data & Research, Scott Traum, underscored a critical point: how you communicate those investments matters just as much as the investments themselves. His team stopped leading with operational metrics and started translating service changes into human impact, like the fact that residents can now reach 15% more jobs by transit than they could in 2020. That shift in framing helped build the public and political trust to keep investing in the system.

The lesson: Data builds trust when it answers the question riders and elected officials actually care about — what does this mean for me?

What ties it all together

3 cities. 3 unique approaches. 1 common through-line: when innovative solutions meet service design, powered by the right data and technology, and centered on customer value — stronger transit systems emerge.

The speakers: