AUSTIN, Texas — One of the biggest challenges to Austin’s growth is mobility and how people get around town.
Capital Metro's been working on making public transportation better, but there are still issues.
It has been one year since CapMetro overhauled its system across the city and beyond.
“We had to get to a point where we had to realign our transit network with where people work, live and play,” said CapMetro CEO Randy Clarke.
Year to year ridership is up 4.5% and since the service change in June 2018, ridership is up 3.4%. Even so, Clarke said the agency will continue to improve the service.
“There's no question more people are using the transit network, because we're providing a better service,” said Clarke. “Our goal now is to continually grow on top of that.”
Austinite Isak Kurbasik moved from Boston, where he regularly took the bus. He does not own a car and rides the bus to work in Downtown Austin.
“It makes me not have to worry about making additional payments for my car,” he said. “Any maintenance-related things as well, it's a whole level of stress that's kind of taken away.”
But that is not the case for many in Austin, where cars remain king.
Looking to the future, CapMetro is looking to add more park-and-rides, start a pick-up service in East Austin and add electric buses.
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