BENEFITS OF THE TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM TO PUBLIC TRANSIT MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) was established as a result of the passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). The research program is a cooperative effort between and among the federal government, the national transportation research establishment and the public transit industry. This paper serves to briefly describe TCRP and to specifically mention projects that may be of interest to the public transit professional with marketing responsibilities. The paper also describes a particular TCRP project, Project B-13, Low-Cost and Cost-Effective Marketing Techniques for Public Transit Agencies that is in progress. In Project B-13, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), working in coordination with the Center for Transportation Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the South West Transit Association, is under contract to produce a How-To document for selecting and implementing low-cost and cost-effective marketing techniques for small urban and rural public transit system use.