ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the reader with a basic description of contemporary public mass transit, and a discussion of its strengths and weaknesses. Cars provide door-to-door, no-transfer, comfortable, demand responsive, flexible route transportation at any hour of the day or night, and their cost is often compatible with fares charged by public transit. When planning transit systems, one should identify the issues that need to be considered and resolved. Conventional transit and van pools take about the same travel time, and both of them might well be competitive with the "drive-own-car" option, especially if economic cost is a major consideration. When consideration is given to the total number of trips made in the country in 1994, only 1.4 percent of the passenger miles travelled were made by public transit. The speed of a transit vehicle when it is accelerating or decelerating is limited by the tolerance of the passengers.
