Organizational Form and Transit Performance: A Research Review and Empirical Analysis. Executive Summary

摘要

This research reports the results of a study of the relationships between ownership-management structure and transit agency performance. The performance of five different organizational forms was compared: publicly-managed general governments; publicly-managed special districts; contract-managed general governments; contract-managed special districts; and privately owned and managed systems. Eight performance dimensions were used for the comparisons: revenue generation; output per dollar; service consumption; public assistance; labor efficiency; vehicle efficiency; safety; and maintenance efficiency. Privately-owned and managed systems were found to be significantly more efficient than the other four types. The relative efficiency of contract-managed systems was no better than publicly-managed systems. In contrast to the efficiency results, private systems were significantly less safe than most types of publicly-owned systems. The report addresses the policy implications of the findings.