The Sustainability Response to COVID-19: Public Transportation Recovery
MIT OpenCourseWare offers the full materials for this graduate seminar on public transit recovery after COVID-19, built around Metro Boston as a case study. The course examines whether the pandemic can push transportation toward more sustainable patterns and what specific policies or interventions might bring pre-pandemic riders back while attracting new ones. Materials include readings, discussion topics, and assignments drawn from transportation planning research and real ridership data. The course is framed around two central questions: how the pandemic reshapes the role of public transit in urban recovery, and what concrete interventions could rebuild ridership. It suits students of urban planning, transportation policy, or sustainability who want a structured look at a live policy problem rather than a general survey. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all course content is free, with no certificate offered.