(Redirected from Mass transit)
'Public transport', 'public transportation', 'public transit' or 'mass transit' comprise all
transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. While the above terms are generally taken to include
rail and
bus services, wider definitions might include scheduled
airline services,
ferries,
taxicab services etc. — any system that transports members of the general public. A further restriction that is sometimes applied is that transit should occur in continuously shared vehicles, which would exclude taxis that are not shared-ride taxis.
The term ''public transport'' is preferred in the
British Isles and most
Commonwealth countries, whereas ''public transportation'', ''public transit'' or ''mass transit'' are used most often in North America. The term ''transit'' is less likely to include long-distance forms of public transportation, such as long-distance or
commuter railroads, inter-city
buses, or
intercity railways.
Public transport is usually regulated as a
common carrier and is usually configured to provide scheduled service on fixed routes on a non-
reservation basis. The majority of ''transit'' passengers are traveling within a local area or region between their homes and places of employment, shopping, or schools.
In general
Public transport is the primary form of motor transport. Whilst in the
western world private cars dominate, in the
developing world, which represents the majority of the global population, private car ownership is prohibitively expensive (for example, in dense urban areas through the high cost of parking), and walking, (motor)cycling, and public transport are often the only practicable options, with only the latter being viable for longer distances. This often takes the form of
mini-buses (
jitneys) that may follow fixed routes but are usually flexible, including taxi-style door-to-door transportation.
Public conveyances that travel on roads alongside private traffic are often slower than private transport because ordinary vehicular speed of travel is further burdened, in the case of public transit, by service headways (wait times for passenger vehicles), connections, and frequent stops to board additional passengers. Use of some public transport systems may take up to two or even three times longer than an equivalent trip in a private vehicle, especially where transfers are required or headways are long. The challenge of headways, connections, and stops generally cannot be alleviated, so improvements to the speed of public transit often have focused on increases to vehicular speed beyond that of private traffic by means of the use of dedicated or semi-dedicated travel lanes (grade-separated, elevated, or depressed rights-of-way) and
traffic light preempts.
Public transport in general has a smaller footprint per rider than private motor transit, and thus has a significant advantage in areas with higher
population densities, because land space in such areas is at a premium. Cost is not the only relevant factor. In densely settled areas,
traffic congestion frequently slows private motor transit to a crawl.
The term
rapid transit, is often used to distinguish modes of transit possessing a dedicated right of way and having frequent, continuous service. Still, ''rapid'' transit often fails to live up to the name, as there are no firm guidelines as to how ''fast'' transit must be to be ''rapid''.
[1] Light rail is another form of public transit, comprising of a tram or trolley operating on a rail line.
History
Conveyances for public hire are as old as the first
ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport, for on land people walked or
rode an animal. This form of transport is part of
Greek mythology — corpses in ancient Greece were always buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman
Charon to take them to
Hades.
Some historical forms of public transport are the
stagecoach, traveling a fixed route from inn to inn, and the
horse-drawn boat carrying paying passengers, which was a feature of
canals from their 17th-century origins.
The
omnibus, the first organized public transit system within a city, appears to have originated in
Nantes, France, in 1826.
Funding
A Community Transit bus located in Lynnwood, WA
Several Metro articulated city buses located in Seattle, WA, USA.
Public transport systems generally rely on government subsidy to supplement fare collections, though a few systems are run as unsubsidized commercial enterprises or are entirely paid for by governments. The percentage of revenue from passenger charges is known as the
farebox recovery ratio. Transit systems earn incidental revenue from their unused real estate, in the form of parking fees, leasing space to shops and vendors,
advertising, and lately, leasing their tunnels and rights-of-way to carry
fiber optic communication lines.
Some systems are owned and operated by a government agency; other transportation services may be commercial, but receive greater benefits from the government compared to a normal company, e.g.,
★ direct payments to run unprofitable services.
★ government bailouts if the company is likely to collapse (often applied to airlines).
★ tax advantages, e.g., aviation fuel is typically not taxed.
★ reduction of competition through licensing schemes (often applied to taxi and airline services.)
★ allowing use of state-owned infrastructure without payment or for less than cost-price (may apply for railways).
One reason many cities spend large sums on their public transport systems is that heavy automobile traffic congests city streets and causes
air pollution. It is believed that public transport systems alleviate this, but reducing car traffic is not always assured.
Some city councils fund public transport infrastructure to promote
business and economic growth, or to regenerate deprived ares of the city. Examples of public transport planned according to this philosophy are the
Docklands Light Rail and
Crossrail projects in
London.
Some government officials believe that use of taxpayer dollars to fund mass transit will ultimately save taxpayer money in other ways, and therefore, state-funded mass transit is a benefit to the taxpayer. Since lack of mass transit results in more traffic, pollution, and road construction to accommodate more vehicles, all costly to taxpayers, providing mass transit will therefore alleviate these costs.
Another reason for subsidies for public transit are the provision of mobility to those who reject its use on convenience, environmental or safety grounds and those who cannot afford or are physically incapable of using an automobile.
Hong Kong
In
Hong Kong,
MTR Corporation Limited and
KCR Corporation are given the rights to utilise lands near stations, depots or tracks for property development. Profits from land development cover the partial cost of construction, but not operation, of the urban rail systems. Similar arrangements are available to the ferry piers of franchised ferry service providers. Franchised bus operators are exempted from paying tax on diesel.
United States
Main articles: Transportation in the United States
In the
United States, operations of most public
transit services are financially subsidized by local and state governments, who provide
matching funds to receive up to 80% capital grant aid from the
Federal Transit Administration (FTA), an agency of the
U.S. Department of Transportation . This agency administers programs which provide funding and support services to state and local agencies which operate a wide range of public transportation services.
These include local urban and suburban
bus and
paratransit services,
light rail,
heritage streetcar systems,
cable car,
subway,
rapid transit, and
commuter rail services.
Special rural transportation programs of the FTA and some state governments provide assistance for bus and para-transit services in some areas.
New York City has the most extensive transit system in the country, operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
MTA. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in the New York City Metropolitan Area.
MTA FactsArlington, Texas (pop. 360,000) is the largest city in the United States without conventional fixed-route public transportation. (Arlington operates a demand responsive paratransit service(
Handitran.))
Environmental impact
Emissions from road vehicles account for over 50% of U.S.
air pollution. For every passenger mile traveled, public transportation uses less than one half of the fuel of private automobiles, producing 5% as much
carbon monoxide and less than 8% as much as the other pollutants that create
smog (such as volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides). Scientists estimate that public transportation already reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global
climate change, by over 7.4 million tons annually. If Americans were to use public transportation at equivalent rates as Europeans, scientists estimate that U.S. dependence on imported oil would decrease by more than 40% and that carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by more than 25%.
[2] [3] However, in almost all cases, public transit systems in the United States have had almost no impact on the number of drivers.
[4]
Economic impact
Transit oriented development attempts to maximize the economic and environmental benefits of public transit investments by encouraging greater development density within walking distance of stations. Few localities have the ability to
seize and reassign development rights to a private transit operator, as Hong Kong has done.
Detractors point out that public transit rarely covers its operating costs through fares (though this may be a misleading statement, since part of a freeway's "operating" cost, that of owning and maintaining vehicles, is tacitly covered by its private users). No transit agency in the U.S. has achieved this for several decades
[1]; as of 2003, U.S. transit operators obtained only 32.6% of their operating funding from fares, the rest coming primarily from government subsidies
[2]. At times, transit unions have staged strikes, which have the potential to bring a public-transit led city to a virtual standstill. However, automobile congestion continues to grow
[3] and since 1995, U.S. public transportation ridership has risen 21% – more than the same period's increase in roadway vehicle miles or airline passenger miles.
[4] Several U.S. states that were considered bastions of highway-only thinking, such as Colorado and Utah, had approved major public transportation investments by 2005.
Social issues
Critics of public transportation systems often claim they attract "undesirable elements" and tell of violent criminals preying on passengers and homeless people sleeping on trains and relieving themselves in public areas.
[5] On a few occasions, passengers have reacted by taking the law into their own hands (as in the notorious 1984 case of the "subway vigilante",
Bernhard Goetz).
Despite the occasional highly publicized incident, the vast majority of modern public transport systems are well-patrolled and generally have low crime rates. Most transit operators have developed methods to discourage people from using their facilities for overnight shelter. Well designed transit systems are used by many social classes and new systems have a major positive impact on real estate prices. The Hong Kong metro
MTR generates a profit by redeveloping land around its stations. Much public opposition to new transit construction protests the impact on neighbourhoods of the new economic development public transportation attracts.
By contrast,
car accidents cause an estimated 1 million fatalities per year world wide. In the United States alone there were 42,643 automobile accident fatalities in 2003, almost three times the total number of murders (14,408). Over 9 in 10 commuters in North America travel to work by car.
Food & drink
Some transport systems forbid (the consumption of) food or drink when riding on public transport. Sometimes only types of food are forbidden with more risk of making the vehicles dirty, e.g. ice creams and French fries.
Rules tend to be more strict in metros, trams, and buses than in non-metro trains (also in other regards, see
sitting). In fact, the latter sometimes sell food and drink on board, or even have a dedicated
buffet car and/or
dining car. Also consuming brought-along food and drinks is allowed, except in these special carriages.
Smoking is prohibited in all or some parts of most public transportation systems due to safety and health issues. Generally smoking isn't allowed on the actual buses and trains, while rules concerning stations and waiting platforms differ from system to system.
Sound and noise
In addition to talking to each other, many passengers use their
cell phone in public transport. Although usually not allowed, sometimes music is played aloud. Some rail operators provide "quiet cars" where also talking is not allowed.
Sleeping
Bus shelter with seats designed to deter sleeping.
In the era when long distance trips took several days, sleeping accommodations were an essential part of transportation. Today, most airlines and long-distance trains offer reclining seats and many provide pillows and blankets for overnight travelers. Better sleeping arrangements are commonly offered for a premium fare (e.g.
first class,
business class, etc.) and include
sleeping cars on overnight trains, larger private cabins on ships and airplane seats that convert into beds. Budget-conscious tourists sometimes plan their trips using overnight train or bus trips in lieu of paying for an hotel.
The ability to get additional sleep on the way to work is attractive to many commuters using public transportation.
Occasionally, a local transit route with a long overnight segment and which accepts inexpensive multi-use passes will acquire a reputation as a "moving hotel" for people with limited funds. Most transportation agencies actively discourage this. For this and other reasons passengers are often required to exit the vehicle at the end of the line; they can board again in the same or another vehicle, after some waiting. Also, even a low fare often deters the poorest individuals, including
homeless people.
One example of the moving homeless shelter phenomenon is the
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus line 22
[5] between
Palo Alto, California and
San Jose, California in the
United States. It is often called "Hotel 22" or "Motel 22" by the homeless of
Silicon Valley.
[6][7]A pass for a night costs US$5.25 and $61.25 for a month, much less than a hotel, house or apartment.
Another example is the interurban rail services operated by
CityRail out of Sydney, Australia. Fairly comfortable trains operate between
Sydney and
Lithgow or
Newcastle during the night, trips of approximately 2½ hours. Age, Disability and Sole Parent pensioner excursion fares are
AU$2.50 for an all-day ticket.
The
New York City Subway, which operates 24 hours per day, also sees its share of homeless people who sleep in the subway system, both in stations and on trains.
Modern public transport
Public transportation comes in many forms:
Road
Bush taxi
A motorway interchange at Faizabad (Islamabad, Pakistan)
★
Share taxi including
minibus and
maxi-taxi
★
Auto rickshaw
★
Bus normally serving a regular fixed route but could include a variable route, divert-on-demand service.
★
Bush taxi of
West and
Central Africa
★
Trolleybus and
electric bus
★
Jitney or
Songthaew
★
Limousine
★
Matatu, of
East Africa
★
Motor coach
★
Paratransit
★
Rickshaw
★
Taxicab
★
Transit bus
★
Vanpool
★
Vehicle for hire
★
Velotaxi
★
Combi of
Peru
★
Community bicycle programs
Rail
Metro entrance in Amsterdam.
★
Automated guideway transit (AGT), also called ''Peoplemover''
★
Cable car on rails, used in cities, a
streetcar (
tram) pulled by a cable
★ Cable car on rails, used in mountains.
★
Rack railway (or rack and pinion railway)
★ Elevated railroad, such as the
Chicago 'L'
★
Light rail a tram-like system with no significant sections of the route shared with cars or pedestrians, such as the
San Diego Trolley or the
St. Louis Metrolink
★
Magnetic levitation train (Maglev)
★
Metro (also known as 'subway' or 'underground')
★
★
Rubber-tired metro
★
★
Advanced Rapid Transit
★
Monorail
★
Train, including
commuter train and
high-speed rail
★
Tram (tramway or streetcar)
Water
★
Ferry, including
hydrofoil,
catamaran and
hovercraft
★
Water taxi
Air
★
Airliner
★
Helicopter
Sloped or vertical
★
Aerial tramway or the similar
Gondola lift and the more basic
Aerial lift are vehicles suspended from aerial cables
★
Chairlift
★
Conveyor transport (term includes escalators and horizontal or slightly inclined moving sidewalk - "Travolator")
★
Escalator
★
Elevator or lift
★
Funicular, used in mountains, tram-like vehicle on rails pulled by a cable up and down a very steep slope.
★
Gondola lift
Some of these types are often not for use by the general public, e.g. elevators in offices and apartment buildings, buses for personnel or school children, etc.
Emerging technologies
★
Group rapid transit
★
Dual mode transit
★
Personal rapid transit
★
Automated highway systems
★
Bus rapid transit
★
Maglev rapid transit
Intermodal transport
In recent years, an increasing emphasis has been placed on intermodal transport facilities. These are intended to help passengers move from one mode (or form) of transportation to another. An intermodal station may service air, rail, and highway transportation for example.
Main articles: Intermodal passenger transport
Nodes and stops
Stations are an important aspect of any public transportation system. Specific types include:
★
Airport,
Heliport
★
Airport terminal
★
Bus stop (including bus station, bus depot)
★
Metro station
★
Park and ride
★
Ship terminal,
ferry slip,
pier or
wharf
★
Taxi stand
★
Terminal station
★
Railway station
★
Tram stop
In addition one can alight from and usually board a taxi at any road where stopping is allowed. Some fixed-route buses allow getting on and off at suitable unmarked locations along that route, typically called a hail-and-ride section.
Ticket systems
Commuter tickets of
Japanese railways.
Different arrangements for fare collection are in use. Depending on the type, fares:
★ must be bought in advance, one cannot physically enter the
railway platform, vehicle, etc. without passing a
turnstile, fare gate or ticket inspector (usually found in a metro).
★ must be bought in advance as a voucher for a user-determined amount of money, which is encoded on a ticket or
smartcard by electronic, magnetic, or optical means. A fare is deducted automatically each time the ticket is used — either just upon system entry, or at both entry and exit where the fare is variable by distance. The latter is often found in newer systems.
★ must be bought in advance, checked by a
conductor or
Revenue Protection Inspector etc., upon entry (usually found on buses in North America and Western Europe, and on commuter rail systems).
★ must be bought in advance, checked randomly by a
ticket controller (
proof-of-payment system, usually found in Europe and occasionally the United States).
★ can be bought both in advance or during the ride, with the fare sometimes being higher in the latter case, see also
Conductor; in this case purchase in advance is often possible at major stations, but usually not at a typical tram or
bus stop.
Passengers may be issued with a
paper ticket, metal or plastic
token, or an electronic card.
Multi-use tickets
Special tickets (other than for a single ride at the regular price) include:
★ passes for unlimited travel within a period of time.
★ passes for unlimited travel during a given number of days that can be chosen within a longer period of time (e.g. 8 days within a month).
★ multi-ride tickets.
★ discount tickets valid for someone with a discount pass, etc.
★ season tickets.
★ Citycards and Sightseeing Passes. Free public transport tickets are included.
Passes may be for a particular route (in both directions), or for a whole network.
Electronic fare card
Electronic fare cards are designed to be read by a
computer input device and include:
★
Magnetic stripe card — privileges and fare remaining are magnetically encoded on the card after each use.
★
★ Paper tickets with magnetic stripes (adopted by a few
rapid transit systems like
BART before plastic magnetic stripe cards went into widespread use).
★
★
Common Stored Value Tickets — formerly used in
Hong Kong.
★
★
MetroCard — used in
New York City.
★
★
Metropass — used in
Toronto.
★
★ ATICard — used in
Puerto Rico.
★
Smartcard — typically credit card sized with an embedded
microprocessor. Contactless cards are preferred for transit fare collection because they speed riders through fare gates. Examples include:
★
★
Andante —
Porto (2002) - first fully contactless system, even for occasional riders
★
★
Breeze —
Atlanta, Georgia (2006)
★
★
CharlieCard —
Boston (2006)
★
★
Chicago Card —
Chicago (2002)
★
★
EasyCard —
Taipei (2002)
★
★
EZ-Link card —
Singapore
★
★
Go-To Card —
Minneapolis-St. Paul
★
★
Presto card —
Greater Toronto Area (to be introduced in 2007, completed in 2010)
★
★
M-Card —
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (2006)
★
★
MetroCard —
Christchurch, New Zealand
★
★
myki —
Melbourne (2007)
★
★
Navigo card —
Paris (2001)
★
★
Octopus card —
Hong Kong
★
★
OV-Chipkaart —
Rotterdam (2006), rest of the
Netherlands (2008)
★
★
Oyster card —
London
★
★
Rejsekort —
Zealand (2008), rest of
Denmark (2009)
★
★
SmarTrip —
Washington, D.C.
★
★
SmartRider —
Perth
★
★
Suica &
ICOCA —
Japan
★
★
Tarjeta Bip! —
Santiago, Chile (2007)
★
★
Tcard —
Sydney
★
★
Ticket 2000 —
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (2001)
★
★
T-money (2004),
Upass (1996),
Mybi (2000) —
South Korea
★
★
Touch n Go —
Klang Valley (1997), rest of
Malaysia (1998)
★
SMS tickets that use a passenger's
cell phone as a payment device. It has been implemented as a supplementary fare charging system in
Zagreb and
Helsinki in Europe, but is still considered to be in its early development.
Korail uses SMS ticket since 2005.
Free systems
'Free' or 'Zero-fare' public transport services are funded in full by means other than collecting a
fare from passengers.
Main articles: Zero-fare public transport
Zero-fare services may be funded by national, regional or local
government through
taxation or by commercial
sponsorship by businesses.They usually use relatively small vehicles such as
buses and
trams.
Several mid-size European cities and many smaller towns around the world have converted their 'entire bus networks' to zero-fare.
Local zero-fare 'shuttles' or 'inner-city loops' are far more common than city-wide systems.
Free travel pass
A 'Free travel pass' is the right of a certain class of
passengers to use a
public transport service without paying a
fare or presenting a
ticket. They may need to present an
identification card.
Main articles: Free travel pass
The following types of passenger often receive free travel on transport services:
★
students
★ elderly persons
★ children
★
employees
Transit-for-all
'Transit-for-all' is the name given to a popular movement arguing for the importance of investment in public transportation.
[8] Advocates of transit-for-all initiatives argue that the approximately 70 billion dollars currently assigned to subsidizing cheap oil should be reinvested in public transportation. Supporters of transit-for-all initiatives claim there are three main benefits to such a strategic realignment of resources: first, it will benefit the environment and, therefore, the nation’s health; second, it will increase the
economic mobility of citizens currently marginalized because of their geographic isolation and revitalize neighborhoods by reconnecting them to their surroundings; third, it will decrease American dependence on
foreign oil, thereby improving U.S.
national security.
[9] [10]
Cultural importance
Tourist attraction
Some means of rail-based public transport are also tourist attractions and/or well known landmarks in their own right. These include
San Francisco's famous
cable cars, the
Molli steam powered train in
Bad Doberan, the
kusttram along the whole Flemish coast, the
Schwebebahn Wuppertal, the
Seattle Monorail, The
Enoshima Electric Railway in Kamakura, Japan, and the
Christchurch Tram
See also
★
List of U.S. cities with high transit ridership
★
★
Carsharing — seen as highly complementary to public transport
★
New Mobility Agenda — new thinking about transport in cities
★
Hackney carriages
★
Colectivo
★
ISO 21214
★
ISO 24014
★
Paratransit
★
Public transport route planner
★
Quality Assurance in Public Transport
★
Shared transport
★
Timetable
★
Toilets in public transport
★
Transit-oriented development
★
Transit planner
★
Transit fares
★
Travel class
★
Utility cycling
★
Urban economics
Advocacy organizations
★
American Public Transportation Association
★
Association for Public Transportation (Boston, Mass.)
[6]
★
Community Transportation Association of America [7]
★
International Association of Public Transport [8]
★
Light Rail Transit Association (UK)
★ National Corridors Initiative
[9]
★
Public Transport Users Association — lobby group for
Victoria (Australia)
★
Southern California Transit Advocates — volunteer group in greater Los Angeles
[10]
★
Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association (TPLA)
[11]
★
Transport 2000 (UK)
★
T Rider's Union (Boston, Mass.)
[12]
Sleeping on transit
★
Night bus
★
Night train
★
Freighthopping
External links
★
UITP | International Association of Public Transport
★
NAUTF | North American Urban Transit Forum
★
APTA: American Public Transportation Association
★
Public Transportation: Wherever Life Takes You
★
IMB International Maglev Board
★
Metro systems' graphics indexed by city
★
The biggest database and photogallery of public transport
★
National Transit Institute
★
Transport Briefing
★
Public transport in Russia
★
Public transport guide (Europe)
★
ELTIS, European Local Transport Information Service, about urban transport and mobility.
★
public transport net - pics and infos about public transport
★
HAMEKASHER Nostalgic website dedicated to the bus company operated in Jerusalem 1931-1967
References
1. Discussion of speeds of ''bus rapid transit'' tunnel in Boston
2. www.fypower.org/pdf/RES171664_shapiro.pdf
3. http://www.apta.com/media/releases/earth_day.cfm
4. http://www.heritage.org/Research/UrbanIssues/bg1721.cfm
5. Achs, Nicole. "Roadblocks to public transit: for reasons ranging from prejudice to pragmatism, many suburbanites are fighting tooth and nail to keep mass transit out of their neighborhoods." ''American City & County'' 106, no. 1 (January 1991): 28-32.
6. Jane Lii, "Refuge On The Road: Homeless Find Nighttime Haven — The No. 22 Bus From Menlo Park To San Jose", ''San Jose Mercury News'', 9 January 2000, 1A.
7. Cathy Newman, "Silicon Valley: Inside the Dream Incubator", ''National Geographic'' 200, no. 6 (December 2001): 52-76.
8. http://modeshift.org/?p=79
9. http://publictransportation.org/facts/
10. http://www.apta.com/media/releases/070312_ten_billion.cfm http://www.enewsbuilder.net/capmet/e_article000117869.cfm
More references
★
Australia: Trinity College, Western Australia
★
USA Transport Research Board TRIS Database
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