Here's an idea:

Supposedly, the city has one of the best public service wi-fi systems in the country. Why don't we use it to implement GPS technology with our public transportation? Each vehicle could be outfitted with a GPS locator and that information could be relayed to the stop to either give estimated arrival times or, if we really want to be serious, displayed on some sort of locator map. Or, at least we could just have a website that tracked our buses and trolleys and then people could access it through their phones, pda's, laptops, etc. Maybe you could even enter you phone number and the stop you want to monitor on the site and it will send a message to your phone when the trolley is X minutes away or X number of stops away.

Basic GPS technology would be really cheap to implement, given that we already have the network. I know that some cab companies in larger markets have similar services. We could then maximize the use and accessibility of the piecemealed and fragmented system we have without even investing in new vehicles. While it would be better if we could just actually deliver the frequency promised, people would still be able to use what we have because they could plan around it and not waste time waiting and not knowing if the thing is even going to show up, i.e. they could spend more time at more attractions by minimizing the time spent at public transit stops.

As an added bonus it would greatly increase the ease of auditing the system, knowing where the hold ups are and allow us to upgrade services more efficiently and appropriately.