Here in Chicago, they are really pushing Transit Oriented Development as they expand the city’s rapid transit lines and bus routes. Developments tend to cluster around transit stops. Without a stop, it’s hard to attract people and businesses to certain areas of the city. At the same time, it’s hard to convince the city to put stops in areas with little to do. They are trying to address this with the new Red Line Extension and bus projects by soliciting proposals from developers for areas around announced transit stops.
Ridership and funding faces a similar problem. Budget dollars from the state and city are often allocated to agencies based on their ridership. It’s generally slow and not well maintained, so people don’t ride it…so that agency gets less funding…etc.