The "schedule at the mercy" issue has more to do with really bad estimates of commute times. The bus rapid transit in Seattle has good estimates so even though

The "schedule at the mercy" issue has more to do with really bad estimates of commute times. The bus rapid transit in Seattle has good estimates so even though it might be slower it is at least predictable. My understanding is that MTA's ancient switching system can't be effectively computerized, hence the poor estimates. Citi Bike ridership indicates a lot of pent up demand for missing-middle transit, but the execution is pretty bad compared to on-demand bikes in Seattle (although I haven't been back there in a few years and I've heard it's gotten worse there too, so, grain of salt). The electric Citi Bikes are chronically unavailable, meaning you're stuck with huge clunkers that make you work up a sweat at the first hill. Also it can cost 2-3x as much as the bus or metro for a single trip. It makes way more sense to own your own bike, but that still doesn't fix the fact that half your trips invariably contain some section of "cross this four lane road without a marked bike lane".