ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests new directions for policy and planning, particularly in public transit. Policy makers and planners can make good use of Cost-Benefit Analysis if the analysis framework is informed by a sound understanding of actual public choices in the context of democratically determined budgets over a long period of time. The book reports findings that strongly suggest that local measurement of transit's benefits to households, constituencies, and the general public could transform transit service agencies once again into powerful influences on the efficiency and therefore the quality of American neighborhoods and urban areas. It documents a remarkably efficient public transit sector, revealing as it does a high benefit return for transit budgets. Local leaders, who by necessity practice incrementalism, can increase the efficiency of their decisions by explicit measurement of transit performance in its familiar public policy functions.
