Insights

The bottleneck at the Los Angeles ports is only the first slowdown point on a complex supply chain for imported goods. Now, the bipartisan infrastructure bill could speed up the slow-moving supply chain from the ports to the store shelves.

Public transit is pushing growing volumes of data onto cloud networks, exposing providers to new risks that are only growing.

Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston are building and expanding Bus Rapid Transit service. Here’s why we think more will follow.

City governments, one after the other, are mandating their transit agencies phase out diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses in favor of zero-emission electric buses. The federal government may soon dramatically increase support to accelerate that transformation. But critical questions remain: Can city planners effectively manage the transformation? And can transit agencies build the infrastructure to support zero-emission buses?

Tucked inside the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure agreement is an additional $2.5 billion for local transit agencies to buy electric buses. That will need to be just a down payment if the United States is going to catch China in the race to power zero-emission public transit. According to a Bloomberg estimate, about 425,000 electronic buses (e-buses) are in operation worldwide today; 421,000 – more than 99 percent – are in China. 300 are in the United States. Why can’t the U.S. move as swiftly as China in building e-bus fleets?

The COVID-19 crisis forced transit agencies to quickly facilitate flexible operations through virtual platforms. Some agencies managed the disruption better than others. Here’s a roadmap for developing a comprehensive IT strategy to improve operations and better manage the next crisis.