The new generation of public transportation is here in Cleveland — at least that’s what India Birdsong hopes. After taking over as the CEO and general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority in September 2019, Birdsong rolled out the RTA’s NEXTGEN redesign this June. As the first big undertaking happening under Birdsong’s watch, this redesign is built around her mission of expanding the RTA’s reach. The RTA partnered with a research firm to wade through community feedback and discovered riders requested more trips at an increased frequency. The RTA also unveiled a new interactive map that features bus routes so riders can see where buses are in real time. With the RTA’s NEXTGEN system in its infancy, we sat down with Birdsong to get her thoughts on the redesign.
Q. What’s going to be different through the redesign?
A. We’ve restructured the bus routes to have lengthier drives along with fewer transfers so that way patrons are in the same seat for their entire journey. We also have more service on the weekend — since we realized that not everybody’s doing a typical nine-to-five — along with shorter wait times on those buses. We also looked at the connectivity to certain traffic generators throughout the city, with work, school and health care being our top three along with education sites.
Q. How does something like this fit into the RTA’s overall mission?
A. We’re actually redoing our mission statement to fit into this redesign. Before we had a very nuts and bolts sort of mission. We want to be able to provide clean and courteous service that’s on time, and we’re going to continue doing those things. That said, we always want to be able to connect with the community, which is the main part of our new statement. We’re still going to give you great service, but now we want to take a little bit of a deeper dive into how we’re doing that.
Q. Is there a part of the NEXTGEN plan that you’re most proud of?
A. I’d say our ability to provide more job access. The number of jobs within a half mile of our service will increase by about 25%, while the numbers of residents within half a mile of our service will increase by 100%. We’re not a city like New York City or Chicago where we’re on a grid system; we’re a little bit different. We’re trying to streamline Cleveland’s commute process and make it more accessible to people.
