MASS TRANSIT

also called Mass Transportation, or Public Transportation, transportation system, usually publicly but sometimes privately owned and operated, designed to move large numbers of people in various types of vehicles, along fixed and nonfixed routes in cities, suburbs, and larger metropolitan areas. Modern mass transit is an outgrowth of industrialization and urbanization and is an important feature of the separation of industrial from residential areas. Peak periods of mass transit use are the morning and evening rush hours when commuters journey to and from workplaces. The frequency of mass transit service declines and in some cases ends completely following peak periods of use. While historically many systems were privately owned and operated, increasing complexity and expense of operation have resulted in government takeover of services in many cases. Fixed-route mass transit is usually associated with rail and trolley travel of some type and can be divided into below-surface (subway), surface, or above-surface (elevated) modes. Nonfixed-route mass transit refers to passenger travel along streets and highways. Air travel may be included when it comprises frequently scheduled helicopter or plane service within a metropolitan area. Boat, hydroplane, or hovercraft commuting exists where waterways, suitable climate, and commuter traffic exist, as for instance in Venice, English Channel ports, Hong Kong, and New York City's Staten Island. Nonfixed-route travel is generally the most common mode of mass transit in the United States, and buses are the most widespread type of vehicle used. Buses drawn by horses traversed the cobblestone streets of New York City in the 1830s but were soon replaced by fixed-rail horse-drawn trolleys. Motorized buses appeared in Europe and North America in the late 19th century, but the modern bus, mounted on a specially designed chassis, did not appear until the 1920s. Since the '20s bus technology has continually undergone change as manufacturers have sought a smoother-riding bus and have increased carrying capacity by introducing articulated buses. Even though buses provide greater scheduling and routing flexibility, their tendency to be slower than fixed-rail mass transitbecause of frequent stopping and congested trafficoffsets that flexibility by time costs. The institution in the 1970s of express buses and highway and street lanes reserved for bus traffic were addressed to this deficiency. The use of minibuses and vans in dial-a-ride systems, which are not tied to designated street routes, offers more flexibility than does ordinary bus service and is especially suited for serving the disabled and elderly, who telephone the dispatcher for service. Taxis are a component of mass transit systems for many cities but generally serve only passengers who can afford the higher rates. In cities where the automobile is the primary mode of passenger travel (and mass transit is limited), share-a-ride systems (car pooling) have been advocated whereby personal automobiles or other vehicles are used by several persons with destinations in close proximity. Fares in both dial-a-ride and share-a-ride systems are usually lower than for individual-passenger private taxis because the expense of the ride is shared by the users, the service is not operating continuously, and government subsidies or reduced road, bridge, and tunnel tolls lower the operating costs. These for-hire, low-capacity services are known as paratransit, a mode of transit that provides greater scheduling and routing flexibility than do bus or rail systems. Paratransit generates higher labour costs than a comparable multitrip bus system because it requires more vehicle operators. The 19th century saw a fairly rapid transition in surface, medium-capacity systemsfrom horsecars to steam-powered cable during the 1880s and by the end of the century to the widespread use of electric traction. Electric power for the streetcar (or tram) was gathered by a small carriage, or troller (hence the term trolley car), running along electrical wire overhead. Many street rail systems in the United States and Great Britain were dismantled as the use of the automobile increased and trolley tracks were found to impede automobile traffic; but some cities replaced them with trolleybuses, themselves in turn replaced by motor buses in many cases. Although tramway systems remained popular in many cities throughout the world, by the mid-1980s many cities in North America were turning to light rail transit. Light rail vehicles (LRVs), the technological descendants of streetcars, are more segregated from street traffic than are tramways but may be interrupted by vehicle or pedestrian crossings. Heavy local rail service, also called rapid transit, is another fixed-route form of mass transit and includes subways, surface lines or elevated trains, and commuter railways. Early elevated steam-powered lines were erected in New York City in Manhattan (1867) and expanded subsequently to Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. In 1895 the electric-powered Chicago West Side Elevated Railway was opened, and in 1897 the city's South Side Elevated converted to electricity, as did Brooklyn's elevated in 1898. The first subway was constructed in London (1863), followed by subways in Glasgow (1886), and by 1900 Budapest, Boston, and Paris had followed suit. In 1904 the first section of the New York City subway opened, and it was progressively expanded into the 1940s as subways replaced elevated lines in Manhattan. Underground mass transit spread during the first half of the 20th century to Tokyo (1927), Buenos Aires (1928), and Moscow (1935). The largest existing rapid-transit systems are in New York City (263 miles ), London (260 miles ), Paris (157 miles ), Tokyo (122 miles ), and Moscow (102 miles ). The most used rapid-transit system is Moscow's, followed by those of Tokyo, Paris, New York City, and London. Five of the most recently constructed subway systems in the United States and Canada are found in San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Montreal, and Toronto, and others were being built in the 1980s, for instance, in Cairo and Calcutta. Many cities combine elevated trains with subways (Chicago, Boston, New York City, and London), but Chicago retains the largest elevated system. Commuter railroads are another type of heavy-rail service, developed mainly along existing railroad lines to serve growing suburban communities. Major cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Paris, London, Cairo, and Tokyo possess commuter railroads linked with their other forms of mass transit. Long-distance (250 miles or more) corridor rail service is a type of commuter railroad found since the 1970s in regions of the world with closely spaced metropolitan areas. This type of rail service started with the development of trains attaining speeds of 100200 miles per hour (160320 km/h), the speeds necessary to permit convenient daily commuting over such distances. The famous Bullet Train (Shinkansen) of Japan travels the Tokaido line between Tokyo and Osaka at 130 mile/h (210 km/h) and, in the early 1980s, linked Hokkaido and Kyushu islands as well. France's Train Grande Vitesse (TGV) reaches a speed of about 168 mile/h (270 km/h) between Paris and Lyon. The only rail corridor in the United States generally capable of providing this service is the BostonWashington route, but in the early 1980s another privately sponsored system between Los Angeles and San Diego was being developed with Japanese expertise. A more recent form of fixed-route mass transit is the people mover, which consists of unmanned automated vehicles moving along fixed guideways and rights-of-way. During the early 1980s monorails in Germany, having automated cars varying in size, provided a good example of a people mover. People movers also exist in the United States but are found mainly in airports, zoos, and amusement parks and comprise moving walkways, rubber belts on rollers, as well as monorails. The effect of the automobile on mass transit has been more severe in the United States than elsewhere. Following World War II, mass-transit ridership declined steadily as private automobile ownership rose, and public-transit systems had to raise fares owing to escalating operations and equipment costs; the 1970 total ridership fell to less than that of 1910. In the 1970s, U.S. ridership began to increase as gasoline prices sharply rose, but increasing transit fares tended to counter this trend. Many pre-World War II commuter lines and rapid-transit systems are in need of rehabilitation, requiring large capital outlays. Many rapid-transit systems have been coordinated into regional authorities, linking rapid transit, light-rail transit, and bus lines and making the systems eligible for state, provincial, or regional aid. In many nations the public-transport systems are government-subsidized, keeping fares low, whereas in the United States the involvement of state legislatures in the funding process has often led to ruralurban political conflict over the level of support to be extended, causing fluctuations in fare structure and declining public confidence in the systems. The need for mass transit in developing countries could increase if population growth, industrialization, and urbanization continue. See also streetcar; subway. also called mass transportation, or public transportation the movement of people within urban areas using group travel technologies such as buses and trains. The essential feature of mass transportation is that many people are carried in the same vehicle (e.g., buses) or collection of attached vehicles (trains). This makes it possible to move people in the same travel corridor with greater efficiency, which can lead to lower costs to carry each person orbecause the costs are shared by many peoplethe opportunity to spend more money to provide better service, or both. Mass transit systems may be owned by private, profit-making companies or by governments or quasi-government agencies that may not operate for profit. Whether public or private, many mass transportation services are subsidized because they cannot cover all their costs from fares charged to their riders. Such subsidies assure the availability of mass transit, which contributes to making cities efficient and desirable places in which to live. The importance of mass transportation in supporting urban life differs among cities, depending largely on the role played by its chief competitor, the private automobile. People travel to meet their needs for subsistence (to go to work, to acquire food and essential services), for personal development (to go to school and cultural facilities), and for entertainment (to participate in or watch sporting events, to visit friends). The need for travel is a derived need, because people rarely travel for the sake of travel itself; they travel to meet the primary needs of daily life. Mobility is an essential feature of urban life, for it defines the ability to participate in modern society. Travelers make rational choices of the modes they use, each choosing the one that serves him or her best, although best may be viewed differently by each traveler. Transportation services in a city define the alternatives from which travelers must choose, the activities available to them, and the places to which they can go. The transportation available to an individual is the collective result of government policies, the overall demand for travel in the region, competition among different modes, and the resources available to each individual to buy services. Urban transportation services directly affect the character and quality of urban life, which can differ among individuals who have access to different kinds and amounts of transportation services. Additional reading George E. Gray and Lester A. Hoel (eds.), Public Transportation, 2nd ed. (1992), is a collection of historical, economic, and technical readings about public transportation, its planning, management, operation, and finance. An analysis of the forces that shaped the urban transit system and the policies that direct it in the United States is presented in David W. Jones, Jr., Urban Transit Policy: An Economic and Political History (1985). Trends toward reprivatization of urban mass transportation services, with a history of developments that led to public ownership of the industry, are explored in Charles A. Lave (ed.), Urban Transit: The Private Challenge to Public Transportation (1985). J.R. Meyer, J.F. Kain, and M. Wohl, The Urban Transportation Problem (1965), by now a classic, provides an economic cost comparison of urban transportation modes, including the automobile and various forms of mass transit, to derive conditions under which these different modes are most economical. Michael D. Meyer and Eric J. Miller, Urban Transportation Planning: A Decision-Oriented Approach (1984), studies the political and technical processes through which urban transportation systems are planned in the United States. Harold M. Mayer and Richard C. Wade, Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis (1969), is a pictorial history of this large city, with a heavy emphasis on the role of transportation in shaping its pattern and character. A study of transportation in 32 cities around the world, exploring the relationships between the automobile and mass transportation, is presented in Peter W.G. Newman and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy, Cities and Automobile Dependence: A Sourcebook (1989). Boris S. Pushkarev, Jeffrey M. Zupan, and Robert S. Cumella, Urban Rail in America: An Exploration of Criteria for Fixed-Guideway Transit (1982), describes factors contributing to the success of urban rail systems, with examples of land use and travel demand characteristics that make rail economically feasible. Vukan R. Vuchic, Urban Public Transportation: Systems and Technology (1981), is a short history of mass transportation technologies, with a comprehensive technical analysis and comparison of the performance and costs of alternative technologies. For a wealth of statistical and technical data on the scale, activities, performance, finance, and operations of mass transportation systems, see Transit Fact Book (annual); Jane's Urban Transport Systems (annual); and National Urban Mass Transportation Statistics (annual). Joseph L. Schofer