Cities, states, and metro areas throughout the United States are going through a period of profound change and transition that is having enormous impacts on public transit.
Demographic and cultural changes now alter the very function and purpose of our transportation network and whom it is serving. At the same time, disruptive technology is being deployed throughout the built environment that enables greater efficiency, new actors, and more mobility options. And, of course, we are going through a period of profound political and institutional change challenging notions for the role of government in the transportation sector. These forces affect how we travel, how information is shared, how public agencies manage and invest in transit, and how private firms engage.
To better understand these effects, Transdev, an international private-sector transport operator, commissioned a survey by Ipsos, a market research consultant, to gauge the challenges transit agencies face as well as their expectations of private sector transport operators. The survey of transit officials began with an open-ended question about their primary concerns over the next three years, followed by specific questions regarding their attitudes towards the deployment of new technology, partnerships, and customer service, among others.
This summary was prepared independently by Eno. It does not report on every element of the survey but is organized around several key themes that emerged as a result of an analysis of the results.