High-Frequency Service Map from Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Cap Remap (2018).

Cap Remap, the most significant change in Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s history, naturally came with some significant controversies. However, so far, the change seems more than successful. Currently four months in implementation, after two years of planning and four years of consistently declining ridership, it aims to emphasize and increase frequent service on key routes and major corridors. According to Randy Clarke, the current President and CEO of Cap Metro, the idea is to allow people to “plan their life around predictable frequent service” in Austin.

Desiring a “simpler, more direct bus network with more frequent routes,” Capital Metro has largely accomplished their goals. High frequency routes more than doubled, growing from six routes to fourteen routes that operate at fifteen minute intervals. In addition, Cap Remap has largely reversed the persistent ridership decline in Austin, as Metro Rapid ridership, for example, has increased by 33.3% on weekdays, 75.3% on Saturdays, and 56% on Sundays from last August. Largely, this can be attributed to the agency adding new stops along Metro Rapid routes to “help fill in gaps near new developments.” The extent to which Cap Remap is successful may, however, be clouded by the fact that ridership was slightly increasing before Cap Remap due to lowered fares, extended weekend service, and free rides for K-12 students.

Fortunately, it appears that Cap Remap’s success did not come at a significant social cost, but actually improved sustainability goals within transportation. Cap Remap was initially highly controversial in East Austin, an infamously segregated and gentrifying area of the city, as it was thought that the area was losing transit access. This even spurred a warning from concerned citizens that Cap Remap didn’t comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming that low ridership routes in East Austin were cut or diminished. However, this appears to stem from a misunderstanding, as routes that were cut or diminished were replaced with coverage on other routes. The Federal Transit Administration analyzed the Title VI violation and found that people of color and people of low economic status actually benefited from Cap Remap, as they have increased access to frequent transit under Cap Remap than the prior transit system. In addition, low economic status households became closer to frequent transit stations, as the amount of households living in poverty within walking distance of frequent transit almost doubled. According to an independent analysis by Farm & City, Cap Remap provided approximately equal increases in accessibility, defined by Farm & City as transit boarding opportunities per capita, between people of color and non-hispanic white people.

Most of the controversy with Cap Remap was tied to the elimination of Route 653 and Route 240. Route 653 was a UT Shuttle used predominately by students that ran along Red River Street to campus. Although Route 653 was replaced with Route 10, a high frequency route, the change has caused extensive crowding on the bus. With overcrowding, users may be late to class or work if the bus is unable to accommodate them, which poses a significant sustainability and equity concern between private transportation users and public transportation users. As a result, UT Shuttle ridership has decreased by 7.9% on weekdays, 26.8% on Saturdays and 28.5% on Sundays since last August. Route 240 provided access to Saint David’s Medical Center, but stop by stop data shows only fifteen combined boardings a day. In fact, the stop with the most boardings along Route 240 was at Metric Boulevard, which Route 325 now reaches within fifteen minute intervals. Therefore, an upgrade was actually enabled by cutting Route 240.

There’s remaining equity concerns within the users who have to walk further to reach their bus stop, as well as people who will be faced with learning new routes. This is particularly concerning among people who are disabled or elderly, who may be unable to reach further bus stops, especially in Texas heat and Austin’s unconnected sidewalks. In addition, those communities may face challenges in regards to learning new routes, especially if they do not have access to mobile applications. Acknowledging this concern, Cap Metro dispatched ambassadors to bus stops in order to inform users, answer questions and help people navigate the new system.

It’s hard to argue that Cap Remap doesn’t fit sustainability goals within the environment and the economy. Especially as Capital Metro has already began to implement electric buses, with a promise to purchase forty new electric buses within five years, Cap Metro has shown a commitment to environmental sustainability and reducing GHG emissions. With an eye on increasing heat, Cap Metro, with the advent of Cap Remap, added and improved shelter and shade structures to many of its stops, which encourages walkability and transit use. Changes within the built environment, such as these improvements to bus stops, can help meet VMT (vehicle miles traveled) reduction goals and simultaneously maintain or increase accessibility.

Without an attempt such as Cap Remap to move citizens in Austin towards public transportation, there would continue to be a significant rise in air pollution, carbon dioxide and increasingly difficult demands on infrastructure. With this attempt, Cap Metro is gambling and relying on people to be willing to walk further for more reliable consistent service. Unsure if citizens will take the bite, this tradeoff may prove problematic in a largely still un-walkable and sprawled city such as Austin, which still struggles with sidewalk access, connectivity, and safety for pedestrians and non-motorized users. Furthermore, the effectivity of Cap Remap is to be built upon by Project Connect, a further significant change in the public transportation system in Austin, but that’s still years away from implementation. For now, only four months in, ridership rates look hopeful, but as Cap Remap and the data is still fresh, only time will tell.