Abstract
Transit has a extraordinary role to play in urban life, and to achieve its potential it must do more than move people more quickly and more cheaply to more places. It must close its charity gap and become legible. By doing so, it can also, without the arbitrary application of "aesthetics", become a far more pleasant environment than is now. In the long run when service and environmental quality get together transit may be able to offer affluent America an alternative to the private car and thereby help enormously to make our cities livable.