Leslie Richards spoke with Paul Comfort on Transit Unplugged about a wide range of topics from her career to being a part of state government, to the future of transit. You can listen to the entire episode on TransitUnplugged.com or at the end of this post. This was a very interesting episode covering Leslie's storied career, but what struck me most is how Leslie sees the relationship people have with transit changing.
Leslie and her family are outliners during the pandemic, they bucked the trend of people moving out of cities to the suburbs (and beyond) by moving into the city of Philadelphia from the suburbs. This gives her a unique perspective in her role as head of SEPTA, she is her own customer. When there is a service change or disruption, she experiences it first-hand. She said:
"I moved into Philadelphia during the pandemic. I didn't live that far away. I lived about 25 minutes away, but I moved from Montgomery County to Philadelphia. Obviously I'm a SEPTA rider on a regular basis, but now I rethink what is it that I need to carry with me? What do I need to bring with me?"
Like most agencies, SEPTA was in the ironic position of asking riders not to use them for a while. Now as we're adapting and things are settling down, Leslie is thinking about new ways to serve her customers:
"Another main theme that came out of our strategic planning, which is called SEPTA Forward is, is moving toward a lifestyle network service.
And so that is moving away from the peak times. I don't think we're going to see the commuter peak times. Like we saw before and it's going to be very flexible and we want people to use our service throughout the day. And that's what we saw during the pandemic as well. The pandemic was very eye opening for how people who need us and use us.
You know, they need to pick up prescriptions and need to take care of elderly relatives. They need to take care of their children. They need to run to the supermarket. They need to do errands, to get to their medical appointments. And these are throughout the day. These are not just from 7:30 in the morning to 9:30 in the morning and again from 4:30 to 6:30. The accessibility issue while a very important for those with disabilities, but also important for those traveling with strollers who have groceries with packages. You know, I've pretty much stopped using my car, um, on a regular basis and it has made me rethink how I get around."
This theme of looking at how people are using transit with fresh eyes was a big part of Virtual ThinkTransit this year. Agencies are using data analytics and visualization tools to understand the where, why, and who of riders. Combining route data with data via our partnership with Esri agencies can see patterns like:
More than ever transit agencies see themselves as woven into the fabric of society. As Leslie is learning through SEPTA Forward, we have to set aside old assumptions of the morning and evening commutes. We need to think about how people get to the store. We need to look at, once people can go to concerts and events, how can we make that experience better and greener. How can we build services so its more convenient and faster to leave their car at home and use transit for quick trips and events?
Leslie's conversation with Paul is just the tip of the iceberg, the beginning of the conversations we'll be having this year and for years to come. Enjoy this latest episode of Transit Unplugged and look for new episodes every Wednesday.
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