| Description | The nature of the problem (demand for transport and trends); issues in transport and accessibility (urban/rural issues, social exclusion, who are the public transport users?); the economics and comparative performance of different modes; the regulatory and institutional framework (definitions, rationale, alternative market options (private versus public ownership, deregulated versus regulated markets, competitive versus performance based contracts, illustrated by world-wide examples); financial environment of public transport (review of business principles, what is subsidy? Illustrated by examples of different systems in practice); planning/operation (public transport as part of transport system, which mode of public transport suits what conditions?, strategic network planning and its relation to land use, public transport constraints, the case for public transport, global experience and lessons for public transport), planning pricing and marketing, innovations in rural transport, quality enhancement and the role of benchmarking. This unit is of particular value to students majoring in transport and urban planning. |
