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Public transport
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Public transport (or public transportation, public transit or mass transit) comprises passenger transportation services which are available for use by the general public, as opposed to modes for private use such as automobiles or vehicles for hire. Some services are free though most charge some sort of fare.
Public transportation can consist of buses, subways, trolleys and light rail, commuter trains, van pool services, paratransit services for senior citizens and people with disabilities, ferries, water taxis, or monorails.
Public transport is provided by a company or authority that operate a fleet of vehicles.
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Encyclopedia
Public transport (or public transportation, public transit or mass transit) comprises passenger transportation services which are available for use by the general public, as opposed to modes for private use such as automobiles or vehicles for hire. Some services are free though most charge some sort of fare.
Public transportation can consist of buses, subways, trolleys and light rail, commuter trains, van pool services, paratransit services for senior citizens and people with disabilities, ferries, water taxis, or monorails.
Public transport is provided by a company or authority that operate a fleet of vehicles. They may or may not be regulated or subsidized by authorities. The infrastructure used may be exclusive, or shared with private vehicles. Higher public transport ridership is generally seen in urban areas, and less in North America and Australia. The environmental impact of public transport is lower than private due to less use of land area and energy, at the same time reducing sprawl. Public transportation systems are also significantly safer than private road systems.
Mode
Road
A bus is a road vehicle capable of carrying numerous passengers. Buses operate with low capacity, and can operate on conventional roads, with relatively inexpensive bus stops to serve passenger. Therefore buses are commonly used in smaller cities and towns, in rural areas as well for shuttle services supplementing in large cities.
Coaches are buses used for long distance services. They have higher standard, but a limited stopping pattern. Bus rapid transit is an ambiguous term used for buses operating on dedicated right-of-way, much like a light rail. Trolleybuses use an overhead wire to get electric power for traction.
Rail
Passenger rail transport is the conveyance of passengers by means of wheeled vehicles specially designed to run along railways. Trains allow high capacity or short or long distance, but require track infrastructure and stations to be built. Urban rail transit consists of trams, light rail, rapid transit, people movers, commuter rail and funiculars.
Tram
Trams are railborn vehicles that run in city streets or dedicated tracks. They have higher capacity than buses, but must follow dedicated infrastructure with rails and overhead wires, limiting their flexibility. Light rail is a modern development of the tram, with dedicated right-of-way not shared with other traffic, step-free access and increased speed.
Rapid transit
A rapid transit system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in tunnels or elevated above street level. Outside urban centres rapid transit lines sometimes run grade separated at ground level.
Service on rapid transit systems is provided on designated lines between stations using electric multiple units on rails, although some systems use magnetic levitation or monorails. Rapid transit is faster and has a higher capacity than trams or light rail, but is not as fast or as far-reaching as commuter rail. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large amounts of people quickly over short distances with little land use. Variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn.
The first rapid transit system was the London Underground, which opened in 1863. The technology quickly spread to other cities in Europe and then to the United States, where a number of elevated systems were built. Since then the largest growth has been in Asia and with driverless systems. More than 160 cities have rapid transit systems, totalling more than 8,000 km (4,900 miles) of track and 7,000 stations. Twenty-five cities have systems under construction.
Heavy rail
Commuter rail is part of an urban area's public transport; it provides faster services to outer suburbs and neighboring towns and villages. Trains stop at all stations, that are located to serve a smaller suburban or town center. The stations often being combined with shuttle bus or park and ride systems at each station. Frequency may be up to several times per hour, and commuter rail systems may either be part of the national railway, or operated by local transit agencies.
Intercity rail is long-haul passenger services that connect multiple urban areas. They have few stops, and aim at high average speeds, typically only making one of a few stops per city. These services may also be international.
High-speed
High-speed rail is passenger trains operating significantly faster than conventional rail—typically defined as at least . The most predominant systems have been built in Europe and Japan, and offer long-distance rail journeys as quick as air travel.
Water
A ferry is a boat or ship, used to carry (or ferry) passengers, and sometimes their vehicles, across a body of water. A foot-passenger ferry with many stops, is sometimes called a water bus. Ferries form a part of the public transport systems of many waterside cities and islands, allowing direct transit between points at a capital cost much lower than bridges or tunnels, though at a lower speed. Ship connections of much larger distances (such as over long distances in water bodies like the Mediterranean Sea) may also be called ferry services.
Air
An airline provides scheduled serves with aircraft between airports. Air travel has high speeds, but incurs large waiting times prior and after travel, and is therefore only feasible over longer distances or in areas where lack of ground infrastructure makes other modes of transport impossible.
Interchanges
Interchanges are locations where passengers can switch mode. Most interchanges are predominantly for passenger to change from being pedestrians to passengers (such as a bus stop), while each system will have a few hubs that allow passengers to change between vehicles. This may be between vehicles of the same mode (like a bus interchange), or it can be between local and intercity transport (such as at a central station).
History
Conveyances for public hire are as old as the first ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport: on land people walked or rode an animal. This form of transport is part of Greek mythology — corpses in ancient Greece were 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 and was introduced to London in July 1829.
Service
Urban
Urban transport is dominated by people making many short trips multiple times per day; this creates focus on headway and ease of use.
Inter-city
Intercity transport between cities is dominated by rail, coaches and airlines. Long journeys give air travel a large time advantage over all other modes of transport. On distances up to high-speed rail can compete time wise with airlines, while conventional rail and coaches only can offer time-competitive services on shorter distances. Comfort is a much more important part of long-haul than short-haul transport.
Class
A travel class is a quality of accommodation on public transport. Higher travel classes are more comfortable and more expensive. Not all modes and operators offer class differentiation.
Sleeping
In the era when long distance trips took several days, sleeping accommodations were an essential part of transportation. Today, most airlines, inter-city trains and coaches offer reclining seats and many provide pillows and blankets for overnight travelers. Better sleeping arrangements are commonly offered for a premium fare 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 a hotel. The ability to get additional sleep on the way to work is attractive to many commuters using public transport.
Because night trains or coaches can be cheaper than motels, homeless use these for a shelter during night. 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.
Operation
Schedules
All public transport must either operate after a predefined schedule, or operate at a sufficient frequency that travelers do not need to use a schedule to correspond with the services. Operators will publish timetables, often supplemented with maps and fare schemes to help travelers coordinate their travel. Public transport route planner online, sometimes combined with pre-sold tickets, help make planning task more user-friendly. To further aid travelers, operators often run at fixed times of the hour, so passengers only need to memorize the minutes past the hour the service leaves, and can apply that to any hour of the day.
Coordination between services at intersections is important to reduce the total travel time for passengers. This can be done by coordinating shuttle services with main routes, or by creating a fixed time (for instance twice per hour) when all bus and rail routes meet at a station and exchange passengers.
Infrastructure
All public transport runs on infrastructure, either on roads, rail, airways or seaways; all consists of interchanges and way. The infrastructure can be shared with other modes of transport, freight and private transport, or it can be dedicated to public transport. The latter is especially true in cases where there are capacity problems for private transport. Investments in infrastructure are high, and make up a substantial part of the total costs in systems that are expanding. Whence built, the infrastructure will further require operating and maintenance costs, adding to the total costs of public transport. Sometimes governments subsidize infrastructure by providing it free of charge, just like is common with roads for automobiles.
Financing
The main sources of financing are ticket revenue, government subsidies and advertisement. The percentage of revenue from passenger charges is known as the farebox recovery ratio. A limited amount of income may come from land development and rental income from stores and vendors, parking fees, and leasing tunnels and rights-of-way to carry fiber optic communication lines.
Fare and ticketing
Most—but not all—public transport required the purchase of a ticket to generate revenue for the operators. Tickets may either be bought in advance, at the time of the ride, or the carrier may allow both methods. Passengers may be issued with a paper ticket, metal or plastic token, or an electronic card. Tickets may be valid for a single (or return) trip, or valid within a certain area for a period of time. The fare is based on the travel class, either as a function of the traveled distance, or based on a zone pricing.
The tickets may have to be shown or checked automatically at the station platform or when boarding, or during the ride by a conductor. Operators may choose to control all riders, allowing sale of the ticket at the time of ride. Alternatively, a proof-of-payment system allows riders to enter the vehicles without showing the ticket, but riders may or may not be controlled by a ticket controller; if the rider fails to show proof of payment, the operator may fine the rider at the magnitude of the fare.
Multi-use tickets allow travel more than once. In addition to return tickets, this includes period cards allowing travel within a certain area (for instance month cards), or during a given number of days that can be chosen within a longer period of time (for instance eight days within a month). Passes aimed at tourists, allowing free or discounted entry at many tourist attractions, typically include free public transport within the city. Period tickets may be for a particular route (in both directions), or for a whole network. A free travel pass allowing free and unlimited travel within a system is sometimes granted to groups including students, elderly, children, employees (job ticket) and the physical or mentally disabled.
Free or zero-fare public transport services are funded in full by means other than collecting a fare from passengers, normally through heavy subsidies or commercial sponsorship by businesses. 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.
Subsidies
Both local and national government may opt to subsidize public transport, of social, environmental or economical reasons. Key motivations are the need to provide transport to people those who cannot afford or are physically or legally incapable of using an automobile, and to reduce congestion, land use and emissions of local air pollution and greenhouse gases. Other motives may be related to promote business and economic growth, or urban renewal in formerly deprived areas of the city. 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.
Subsidies may take the form of direct payments to unprofitable services, but also indirect subsidies are used. This may include allowing use of state-owned infrastructure without payment or for less than cost-price (may apply for railways and roads), to stimulate public transport's economic competitiveness over private transport, that normally also has free infrastructure. Other subsidies include tax advantages (for instance aviation fuel is typically not taxed), bailouts if companies that are likely to collapse (often applied to airlines) and reduction of competition through licensing schemes (often applied to taxis and airlines). Private transport is normally subsidized indirectly through free roads and infrastructure.
Land development schemes may be initialized, where operators are given the rights to use lands near stations, depots, or tracks for property development. For instance, in Hong Kong, MTR Corporation Limited and KCR Corporation generate profits from land development to cover the partial cost of construction, but not operation, of the urban rail systems.
Some government officials believe that use of taxpayer capital 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.
Safety and security
Despite the occasional highly publicized incident, the vast majority of modern public transport systems are well designed and patrolled and generally have low crime rates. Good lighting, CCTV, mirrors to see round blind corners and ensuring that there are always a good number of other people around can be used to increase safety and create a feeling of safety. Most transit operators have developed methods to discourage people from using their facilities for overnight shelter.
When compared to the private car, public transport is a very safe form of transport. Annually, public transit prevents 200,000 deaths, injuries, and accidents had equivalent trips been made by car. The National Safety Council estimates riding the bus as over 170 times safer than private car.
Regulations
Food and drink
Longer distance public transport sometimes sell food and drink on board, and/or have a dedicated buffet car and/or dining car. However, some urban transport systems forbid the consumption of food, drink, or even chewing gum 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.
Smoking
In the United States, Canada, most of the European Union, Australia and New Zealand, smoking is prohibited in all or some parts of most public transportation systems due to safety and health issues. Generally smoking is not allowed on buses and trains, while rules concerning stations and waiting platforms differ from system to system. The situation in other countries varies widely.
Impact
Area
Public transport infrastructure is considerably more dense than that of private transport, allowing cities to be built more compactly than if they were dependent on automobile transport. If public transport planning is at the core of urban planning, it will also force cities to be built more compactly to create efficient feeds into the stations and stops of transport. This will at the same time allow the creation of centers around the hubs, serving passengers' need for their daily commercial needs and public services. This approach significantly reduces sprawl.
Social
An important social role played by public transport is to ensure that all members of society are able to travel, not just those with a driving license and access to an automobile—which include groups such as the young, the old, the poor, many medical conditions or people banned from driving. Automobile dependency is a name given by policy makers to places where the those without access to a private vehicle do not have access to independent mobility.
Economic
Public transport allows transport at an economy of scale not available through private transport. Through stimulating public transport it is possible to reduce the total transport cost for the public. Time costs can also be reduced as cars removed from the road through public transit options translate to less congestion and faster speeds for remaining motorists. Transit-oriented development can both improve the usefulness and efficiency of the public transit system as well as result in increased business for commercial developments.
Investment in public transport also stimulates the economy locally, with between $4 and $9 of economic activity resulting from every dollar spent.
Well-designed transit systems can have a positive effect 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 can be based on the concern about the impact on neighborhoods of this new economic development. Few localities have the ability to seize and reassign development rights to a private transit operator, as Hong Kong has done. Increased land desirability has resulted around stations in places such as Washington, D.C..
Conversely, the existence of a transit system can lower land values, either through perceived influence on a region's demographics and crime rate or simply through ambient noise the system creates.
Environmental
Public transport (excluding air travel) allows lower emissions of air pollution, contribution to better air quality, noise reduction and reduction in emission of greenhouse gases. A 2002 study by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute found that public transportation in the U.S uses approximately half the fuel required by cars, SUV's and light trucks. In addition, the study noted that "private vehicles emit about 95 percent more carbon monoxide, 92 percent more volatile organic compounds and about twice as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide than public vehicles for every passenger mile traveled".
This is because public transport is more energy efficient, both due to economies of scale, but also because it can use low-friction infrastructure such as rail and water, combined with electric traction.
Studies have shown that there is a strong inverse correlation between urban population density and energy consumption per capita, and that public transport could play a key role in increasing urban population densities, and thus reduce travel distances and fossil fuel consumption.
See also
Bibliography
- Hess, D. 2007. What is a clean bus? Object conflicts in the greening of urban transit. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 3(1):45-58.
- Valderrama, A. & Beltran, I. 2007.Diesel versus compressed natural gas in Transmilenio-Bogotá: innovation, precaution, and distribution of risk. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 3(1):59-67.
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