The organic path to an effective transit system

Private competing bus systems

it's better to have multiple bus systems that are competing, so that cost is kept as low as possible, and there is no burden to the tax payer. publicly funded transit is often subject to huge wastage, and bad upkeep. The organization become a little too comfortable, and begin to not go out of their way to attract more riders

universal boarding card/ticketing

The competing bus companies should however be made to accept a single unified card so that people don't walk around with tokens and cards and cash etc to use the system. That level of complexity can easily scare people away.

dedicated bus lanes

bus's are the first step in a developing a mass transit system. They should not be given equal preference on the road alongside private cars. Once a particular stretch within an urban environment reaches a certain saturation level of buses, dedicated bus lanes in which cars cannot enter should be created.

preferential street signalling for buses. In order to make buses travel with the least amount of stops, intersection lights should signal green when they see a bus coming.

evolution
eventually, some bus lines will reach a high capacity, and may want to evovle into a light rail system, or underground rapid system. They will be willing to fund their own projects.

no free parking

all parking should be paid for by the user of the space, not by the business. these spots should be privately managed, with a high tax.

no multilevel parking
parking structures are quite expensive, and when they get built, they become permanent. Multi-level parking is space efficient if you build them high enough, with enough levels, but we really shouldn't be encouraging this mode of transit. Vacant lots can be used for parking for the time being.

The more difficult we make it to find parking, the more we encourage alternative means of transit.

pedestrian zones
many neighborhoods within the city should not be open to motorized traffic. This encourages density, green spaces, and a diversity of use, where neighborhoods become almost self sufficient.