Houston: Leave the Driving to Us, Please

Houston's public bus service used to be so unreliable that a local newspaper featured front-page box scores listing the number of buses on the road, the number in the shop and the percentage of late arrivals (as high as 50%). Virtually every day some routes got no buses at all. To untangle the mess, Houston voters in 1978 approved a special 1% tax on retail sales to help pay for a modern transit system. Since then the city has spent $790 million to upgrade service, adding 789 new buses, 20 park-and-ride lots, 750 sheltered bus stops and five new maintenance shops....

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