Public transport

Public transport (Commonwealth English) comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. It is also called public transportation, public transit or mass transit (US English). While it is generally taken to include rail and bus services, wider definitions would include scheduled airline services, ferries, taxicab services etc. - any system that transports members of the general public. A further restriction that is sometimes applied is that it should take place in shared vehicles, which would exclude taxis insofar as they're not shared.

Transit Planning or Public Transport Planning

The professional discipline responsible for developing public transport systems. It is a hybrid discipline involving aspects of transportation engineering and traditional planning. Indeed many transit planners find themselves involved in discourse with urban landuse issues such as TOD (Transit Oriented Development) and the like.

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Areas of Responsibility

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Transit planners are typically responsible for developing routes and networks of routes for urban transit systems. These may follow one or more models depending on the character of the communities they serve. For example, in traditional urban areas a system may attract enough ridership to support high frequencies of service. At these high frequencies services can operate at demand service levels where the specific frequency of service in each corridor can be independent and where transfers can reasonably occur at random. In less-densely developed areas service may operate somewhat infrequently. To optimize the quality of trips for customers, some systems compensate by operating a timed transfer system. In this model routes are designed to bring buses (or trains or ferries) together at a central location at predetermined times. Customers then transfer between the vehicles which leave a few minutes later. In systems committed to this system, routes are designed taking into account the route travel time.

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Other topics Wiki contributors are invited to comment on include:

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• Demand Forecasting
• Fleet Forecasting
• Time Transfer Systems
• Nodes
• Transportation Modelling
• Pedestrian Oriented Development
• History of Transit Planing including influential planners from history (note Blaise Pascal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal] is often credited with planning the first bus route, in Paris)
• Bus Stations and Exchanges
• Intermodal Terminals
• Urban Form
• Bus Rapid Transit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit
• Service Levels
• Demand Service
• Policy Service Levels
• Training
• Relationship with Transit Scheduling
• Density
• Reliability
• Transit Priority