A study of nine european public transit databases is presented and insights into the debate over what to report under the umta section 15 program are provided. The content and usefulness of the databases are compared to identify cases either where section 15 could be improved or where it provides a valuable standard. These comparisonsare used to evaluate the merits of proposals to modify section 15. This report provides a critical guide to data sources for analysis of international transit performance. Access to these resources has been limited because of language barriers, lack of information on availability, and different definitions of key concepts. The analysis also provides insights into the difficulties of compiling and using comparative transit data. Section 15 includes financial and operatingstatistics from 438 u.s. Urban public transit operators. In its seventh year, section 15 provides standardized data for policy and management analysis, and for the umta section 9 apportionment formula. In response to recommendations from the umta and americal public transit association advisory committees, umta has begun to overhaul section 15. In the current debate, collection costs are balanced againstthe value of data to analysts. Although some recommendations add information, most require deletions. Relative to section 15, the european databases (a) use similar output and ridership measures, including capacity and passenger miles (both proposed for elimination); (b)use similar expense and revenue structures but with fewer details; (c) distinguish public from private sector involvement less successfully; (d) do not clearly estimate capital costs; and (e) fail to estimate service area population accurately. This paper appeared in transportation research record no. 1144, transit management, marketing, and performance. For covering abstract see irrd no 818469.
Abstract