Public transit service planning can heavily influence regional economic growth, even in tough economic times. But how can cities assess transit performance, determine efficiencies, and develop policies to boost that efficiency?

A recent report from the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium (MNTRC), Assessing the Comparative ­Efficiency of Urban Mass Transit Systems in Ohio: Longitudinal Analysis, offers some recommendations, using Ohio as a role model.

“One way to do this is to improve the mobility of Ohio residents by increasing their access to public transportation,” said report author Hokey Min, a professor in the College of Business Administration at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH. Among other findings, the report also states the following:

The overall size of a city has no bearing on its transit efficiency;
Local climate and economic conditions are not necessarily tied to public transit efficiency; and
Using particular transportation modes could influence public transit efficiency, based on the analysis of 515 public transit agencies across the country.

MNTRC, organized in January 2012, is composed of nine university transportation centers led by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. The free, peer-reviewed, 37-page report is available here.