It shouldn't have taken the worst budget crisis in memory to prompt a full review of Annapolis' inefficient and money-losing transit system. But sometimes a crisis is the only thing that can overcome officials' fondness for the status quo.

Now City Administrative Officer Doug Smith has presented the City Council Transportation Committee and the recently reinstated Transportation Board with plans to save another $1.5 million annually - plans that involve not just the buses but the garages and parking meters whose revenue sustains the transit system.

Smith is considering cutting the bus system's hours of operation and raising its fares 50 percent, to $1.50. He proposes to reduce the shuttle service for the state employees who park at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium parking lot, at least until state compensation for the service matches the cost. He recommends accepting new bids to run the city garages, installing credit-card readers to facilitate payment there, and replacing street parking meters with the more modern - and more profitable - "pay and display" machines.

His plan also includes ending, when the contract expires next month, the leasing to state employees of as many as 146 spaces in the city's Gotts Court and Hillman garages for a nominal $20 per month. The Transportation Committee has decided to use the 16 spaces opened up at Gotts Court to expand general hourly parking; it could do the same for the 130 spaces at Hillman or, alternately, lease them to the city residents who are on a waiting list and ready to pay $200 a month.

Smith is on the right path. The city will benefit doubly if it can both make more revenue from its parking resources and make them easier to use, both for Annapolitans and for the out-of-town visitors desperately needed by the city's economy.

Meanwhile, the city has been overdue to take a more rational approach to its bus system, which, as currently organized, tries to do too much and doesn't do it particularly well. If the system can offer better service on fewer routes, it may justify the higher fares - and reduce its annual losses, although it's not realistic to expect that it will ever pay for itself.

In any case, Smith has given the Transportation Committee and the Transportation Board a lot to chew on, and we hope some action follows soon.