Niagra Frontier Transportation Authority reports that ridership on Buffalo, New York's Metro Bus and Metro Rail was up 290,966 during the first three months of the year.  The five percent jump is the largest increase anyone can recall, according to NFTA's spokesman. 

The increase is coming primarily by those choosing transit to commute to and from work.  A conversation on "Smart City" this morning with Steve Guttman of Flexcar suggests that if public transit authorities could combine the predictability of the commute via transit with the flexibility of a service -- provided publicly or privately -- like Flexcar that makes it easy to take the unpredictable trip during the day or the trip not easily made by transit, transit ridership could be increased. 

Why aren't public transit agencies teaming up with companies like Flexcar to serve a wider variety of transportation needs?  Could it be that transit agencies suffer the same affliction as the railroad barons who thought they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business?

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