What's happening: Public transit ridership is down across the U.S. due in part to new mobility services like ride-hailing and scooters.

What's needed: Many municipal bus services rely on manual surveys of passengers to assess user preferences and modify routes — an expensive and unreliable practice.

• Instead, any and all available public transit ticket data could be analyzed to understand actual demand patterns and optimize routes.
• Fleet optimization software could match supply and demand in real time, dispatching additional vehicles on particularly busy routes, or adding flexible routes at peak hours.
• Contactless payment could also speed boarding times and keep buses on time.
• The design of buses could be demand-responsive, too. In Strasbourg, France, the transit agency replaced a traditional bus line with modular electric shuttles that can add or remove cabins as demand shifts throughout the day.

But, but, but: Cities across the U.S. and world-wide are struggling with adopting electric buses.

• In places that are moving ahead with electric buses — like Shenzhen, China, which boasts the world’s only all-electric bus network — the biggest obstacle was installing and paying for the massive charging infrastructure needed to run 16,000 e-buses.
• TransitCenter found that the seven U.S cities which grew transit ridership last year did so by either expanding bus service or completely overhauling their bus systems to improve service.

The bottom line: Integrating advanced technology and deploying next-generation vehicles with upgrades that make them demand-responsive and environmentally friendly could make bus networks more efficient, more reliable, and more popular.

Raphael Gindrat is co-founder and CEO of Bestmile, which has developed a fleet-management platform and whose clients include Strasbourg’s transit agency.

What's happening: EV driving ranges are getting longer, charging times are getting shorter, and demand for zero-emissions vehicles is growing stronger.

• Major automakers plan to launch as many as 100 new electric vehicle (EV) models by 2023 to meet growing customer demand.

What they're saying: A handful of potential solutions to the waning funding problem are under consideration.

• Raising the federal gas tax could act as a stop-gap solution, though it could inadvertently accelerate EV popularity. Meanwhile, improving fuel efficiency could chip away at this solution as well.
• Interstate tolling could incorporate existing toll technology and put gas- and electric-powered vehicles on equal funding footing.
• EV-specific fees, as in California, Minnesota and Tennessee, are currently not enough to offset lost fuel taxes. Raising them too high could dissuade some drivers from making the switch.

The most workable solution has been mileage-based. A car owner would pay a fee based on the number of miles their vehicle travels, and gas-powered vehicles could get a rebate to offset fuel taxes.

• How it works: Oregon has pioneered this promising concept, and several other states have launched their own pilots.

But, but, but: While a mileage-based solution has surpassed alternatives in popularity, even proponents have voiced concern about government tracking their every move to calculate the user fee.

• Additionally, the privacy and data security of car owners must be protected.

What to watch: The pending transportation funding authorization package in Congress includes provisions for pilots of mileage-based fee systems.

Jim Barbaresso is SVP of intelligent transportation systems at HNTB, an infrastructure advisory firm.