Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Course Description

This course discusses the evolution and role of urban public transportation modes, systems and services, focusing on bus and rail. Technological characteristics are described, along with their impacts on capacity, service quality, and cost. Current practice and new methods for data collection and analysis, performance monitoring, route and network design, frequency determination, and vehicle and crew scheduling are covered. The course also discusses effects of pricing policy and service quality on ridership, methods for estimating costs associated with proposed service changes, organizational models for delivering public transportation service including finance and operations, and select transit management topics including labor relations, fare policy and technology, marketing and operations management.

Prerequisites

1.201J Transportation Systems Analysis: Demand and Economics, or permission of instructor.

Grading