COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF MAJOR U.S. BUS TRANSIT SYSTEMS. VOLUME 1: SUMMARY REPORT

Comparative statistics for 102 of the nation's largest urban bus transit operators are developed from nationally reported data for 1988-91. Five measures of resources (vehicles, population base, fare revenues, non-fare revenue, and coverage area) are normalized and compared with 7 measures of results (operating expenses per mile and hour, operating costs per passenger and passenger mile, vehicle miles and hours of service provided and ridership rates). Systems are then ranked according to overall performance, against US averages, weighting each statistic equally. Systems are also ranked within six peer groups based on population served and modes of service. Findings show that nationally, the performance of large bus transit systems is declining in spite of increasing resources.