Beyond Headways: 5 Problems Hobbling Public Transit Systems

Paul Comfort, VP of Business Development for the Trapeze Group, pens an opinion piece for the Eno Center for Transportation in which he lists five hidden flaws of public transit systems. The list could also be called five underreported problems in need of reform if we want to save public transit in this country.

Here is the list, with more detail included in the article.

1. There is not enough individual accountability for performance. Comfort cites a fairly surprising specific example, but also says that many positions throughout public transit systems lack individual accountability.
2. Administrative departments gain too much influence over operations. "Too often – out of undue fear of risk – leaders and new ideas for success and achievement are neutered by bureaucratic responses," Comfort writes.
3. Focus is on the wrong key performance indicators. Here Comfort take umbrage with the continued focus on ridership as the key indicator of public transit success. "If ridership is the only measurement of success for public transportation, then we are all failing." Comfort says transit systems should focus on performance indicators they can directly control, like safety and reliability, for instance.
4. There is expensive outsourcing of staff positions due to established position caps. Politicians think position caps shrink the size of government, and reduce spending as a result.Comfort argues that position caps "often lead agency managers to hire for the positions they need through contracts with staffing agencies or architectural and engineering (A&E) firms."
5. Paratransit focuses on rules, not people. This point is specifically about how paratransit serves people with disabilities, but the points about obsessing over the Americans With Disabilities Act, even when the law doesn't require it, might apply more broadly