A test of inter-modal performance measures for transit investment decisions

Choices among alternative transit capital investments are often complex and politically controversial. There is renewed interest in the use of perform ance indicators to assist in making rational and defensible choices for the investment of public funds. To improve the evaluation of rail and bus perf ormance and provide more useful information for transit investment decision -makers, it is important to use performance indicators that fairly and effi ciently compare different transit modes. This paper proposes a set of inter -modal performance indicators in which service input, service output, and s ervice consumption are measured by total cost, revenue capacity miles/hours , and unlinked passenger trips/miles respectively based on economic princip les and evaluation objectives. The proposed improvements involve the inclus ion of capital as well as operating costs in such comparisons, and the reco gnition of the widely varying capacities of transit vehicles for seated and standing passengers. Two California cases, the Los Angeles - Long Beach Co rridor and the Market/Judah Corridor in San Francisco, are used for testing their usefulness in the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of rail and bus services. The results show substantial differences between per formance indicators in current use and those proposed in this study. The en hanced inter-modal performance indicators are more appropriate for comparin g the efficiency and effectiveness of different modes or a combination of t ransit modes at the corridor and system levels where most major investment decisions are made.