MY TURN: Small cities, like ours, deserve reliable and safe public transit too

When we talk about public transit in America, the conversation usually centers on the usual suspects: New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, maybe Portland or Washington, D.C. And for good reason — millions of people in these metropolitan hubs rely on subways, buses and trains every day. 

But, in focusing so heavily on the transportation needs of our largest cities, we’re often ignoring smaller cities and towns, like Coeur d'Alene, where safe and reliable transit is just as essential as big cities like New York City, but is often nonexistent, underfunded or treated as an afterthought.

The issue has been brought to the forefront by a new national report (www.transitworksforamerica.org/resources/report-small-cities-big-moves) from Transit Works for America that explores the state of public transportation in small urban communities, places where the population ranges from 50,000 to 200,000. There are about 320 communities, including ours, in the United States in this group.

In 2023, more than 7 billion trips were taken on America’s public transit systems, in towns, cities and rural areas across the country. Demand for transit is growing, as the cost of car ownership increases and fewer young people express interest in driving. 

Moreover, as America’s population ages, an increasing number of people will lose the desire or ability to drive. Transit provides an affordable option that allows everyone — including older adults, people with disabilities, youth and people without cars — to continue participating in the economic and social life of their community.

To meet this demand, transit leaders are finding innovative ways to provide service. Too often, however, these agencies must make difficult trade-offs, shifting and even cutting services as resources are insufficient.

I have experienced this firsthand in our community.

Among the many community members who use transit, it is particularly important for participants in Project SEARCH, a program in which I am a teacher. It is one of the examples listed in the national report.

Project SEARCH provides education and training to young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A recent program graduate, Bryce, uses Citylink to get to his job at Les Schwab Tire Center in Hayden. Bryce says that the bus gives him his independence. He doesn’t have a car, and his only other way to get to work is to have his dad drive him.

Durant, a 2025 Project SEARCH graduate, and his family have had to get creative with their transportation plans since Citylink’s fixed-route service doesn’t serve the area where they live.

While in Project SEARCH, Durant’s mom drove him to the Kroc Center, a community center that opens at 5 a.m., on her way to work. Durant would take the 6 a.m. bus to Kootenai Health, Project SEARCH’s host business. At the end of his Project SEARCH day, he would take the bus back to the Kroc Center. 

This plan worked out well while in Project SEARCH, but the limited access to public transit was taken into consideration when Durant began applying for jobs in our community.

Durant worked as a summer intern at Shabby Fabrics, an online quilting shop. Shabby Fabrics recently relocated its headquarters from Coeur d’Alene to neighboring Post Falls to expand its warehouse space. The new warehouse is not currently served by Citylink, which has been a challenge for some employees and is a barrier to long-term employment for Durant. 

Although Durant was not able to gain employment at Shabby Fabrics, he did land an awesome job on the Citylink bus route! He continues to utilize the Kroc Center as a safe place to be before and after work.

And there are so many more stories just like Durant’s at Project SEARCH, and honestly, throughout our community.

For so many in our community, transit really is essential. It is how we get to work, do errands and get to medical appointments. And we all deserve safe and reliable service. And to accomplish that, we need our policymakers in both Boise and Washington, D.C., to do more to fund transit.

If we want a valuable and sustainable transit system, we need to stop treating transit as a luxury only for big cities. It's time to expand our vision. Every community deserves affordable, reliable mobility — whether it has 100,000 people or 10 million.

That starts by taking small cities seriously. The benefits — economic growth, social inclusion, environmental resilience — are too important to pass up. Let's invest in transit where it’s needed most: not just in the bright lights of the big cities, but in the everyday places where most Americans live.

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Theresa Moran is a resident of Coeur d'Alene and a teacher in the Project SEARCH program through the Coeur d’Alene School District.