Making Public Transport Work

People have always traveled, but over the last century there has been an unprecedented increase in mobility. Hundreds of millions commute daily between home and work, relying more and more on cars and less on urban and intercity public transport. Faced with environmental concerns and the negative cultural and social effects of urban sprawl, governments and other agencies have attempted to reverse the decline in public transport use. In Making Public Transportation Work P.M. Bunting examines why problems have arisen and how they might be corrected. Bunting shows that transportation providers have failed to identify target customers and have not organized these services efficiently. He demonstrates that public transport providers must address organizational issues and define customer needs and preferences, arguing that customer needs can best be served by private, rather than public, carriers offering door-to-door (rather than station-to-station) transportation. In contrast, public agencies can best support public transportation by addressing not direct delivery of services but such matters as equitable safety and environmental regulation and effective, fair management of roads.