In 1985, the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro) began a major change in the way it planned and delivered transportation services. Some believe that the "new Metro" employs innovative techniques adapted from the private sector that will radically alter the ability of the organisation to improve transportation in the Seattle area. Others think that the market-driven approach is nothing more than rhetoric describing what Metro has always done. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Three issues emerge in the assessment of how close Metro is (or will be) to one of these polar descriptions: (1) Restructuring the organisation introduces problems that inhibit the effective accomplishment of organisational goals; (2) More extensive use of market research and other analytical tools requires acceptance and understanding by staff, management, and policy makers; and (3) Integration of fixed-route bus service with other ridesharing modes requires changes in attitudes of staff, methods to measure success, and a commitment by management and policy makers to promote other modes. Experience with the changes at Metro, from their inception to the present time, is chronicled and evaluated in this paper. The material presented here is based on the author's knowledge of the agency as a full-time employee through the fall of 1983, his continuing contacts with the agency as a contractor, interviews with 20 Metro staff members at all levels in the organisation (in addition to conversations with bus drivers while riding the bus), and discussions with several people outside the agency. The opinions presented here are based on those of people inside and outside the agency, but the author assumes full responsibility for the interpretation of those opinions.
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