The Economics Department presents Ehad Ebeid, project manager and senior transportation planner at Foursquare ITP. Sponsored by Remsen Bird.
Transit agencies face a fundamental conundrum: do you design service to maximize ridership, concentrating resources along busy corridors where demand already exists, or do you prioritize coverage, extending lifeline service to dispersed communities that may need it most? The tradeoffs are especially heightened in sparse urban areas and in regions experiencing the increased suburbanization of poverty. Planners navigate these tradeoffs every day through network design, demographic data, service standards, and community engagement. Drawing on his experience as a practicing transit service planner, Ehab Ebeid will discuss how these decisions actually get made, from the density thresholds and modeling tools that shape route planning to the equity frameworks used to evaluate who benefits and who gets left behind. It will also explore how the rise of demand-responsive and microtransit services is expanding the toolkit, offering new ways to serve lower-density areas while raising new questions about cost, scalability, and whether technology alone can address deeper-seated land use issues and close longstanding gaps in access.