A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF URBAN BUS TRANSIT EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY. PART I. DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF URBAN TRANSIT PERFORMANCE

The document presents a review of the concepts and definitions of efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity in the public transportation sector. The development of appropriate performance indicators is discussed. The trend of bus transit performance indicators is examined separately for various classes of transit systems. In addition, a scheme of stratification is also presented on the premise that there exist many environmental and policy factors outside the control of the transit operator which impose constraints on the peformance of transit systems. The transit systems considered herein include the entire set of bus systems reporting to the American Public Transit Association (APTA) in 1975. Finally, the report presents several potential uses of productivity concepts. Although these concepts are presently being used to allocate funds in some states, there are other uses such as for public policy evaluation, assessment of TSM strategies, as well as the establishment of clearly defined and measureable goals and objectives for urban transit.