Lora Byala, CEO of Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning, explained a redesign as “looking at every single route in the system and restructuring things in a way that works better.” A 2021 Transit Cooperative Research Program report called bus network redesigns “one of the ‘hottest trends’ in mass transit.”

Austin, Texas, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles are among the cities that have implemented bus network makeovers. Boston, Indianapolis, Miami and Washington, D.C. are currently reworking their systems. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which serves the Philadelphia region, is in the process of a three-year review and revision of its bus network…

Equity considerations have gained greater importance in the redesign of bus systems during the last couple of years, said Byala. System overhauls include improving access for communities that rely on the transit network.