Management Vs. Political Perspectives on Transit Policymaking

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Over a thirty year period the American transit industry has been transformed from private to public ownership, and financial support for transit has come to be domi nated by a political perspective rather than a management perspective Examples of the politicization of transit policy are drawn from four areas: (1) fare policies designed to encourage ridership use in low density suburbs while penalizing inner-city residents taking short trips, (2) service increased for peak hour com muters and decreased in the off-peak despite adverse economic consequences, (3) emphasis on accessible "mainstream" service for the handicapped rather than more cost-effective separate services, and (4) technical forecasts of transit patronage and cost guided by political uses of the forecasts rather than their accuracy. While researchers have carefully enumerated the economic consequences of transit policy, political concerns are more likely to deter mine those policies

This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit: