The purpose of this synthesis was to document the past and current experiences of public transit agencies that have planned, implemented, and operated fare-free transit systems. The report concentrates on public transit agencies that are either direct recipients or sub-recipients of federal transit grants and provide fare-free service to everyone in their service area on every mode they provide. The report will be of interest to transit managers and staffs, small urban and rural areas, university, and resort communities, as well as stakeholders and policy makers at all levels who would be interested in knowing the social benefits and macro impacts of providing affordable mobility through fare-free public transit. A review of the relevant literature was conducted for this effort. Reports provide statistics on changes in levels of ridership associated with fare-free service. White papers or agency reports identified by the topic panel or discovered through interviews with fare-free transit managers were also reviewed. Through topic panel input, Internet searches, listserv communications, and APTA and TRB sources, the first comprehensive listing of public transit agencies that provide fare-free service in the United States was identified. A selected survey of these identified public transit agencies yielded an 82% response rate (32/39). The report offers a look at policy and administrative issues through survey responses. Five case studies, achieved through interviews, represent the three types of communities that were found to be most likely to adopt a fare-free policy: rural and small urban, university dominated, and resort communities.

Public demand and federal funding for transit have grown in recent years, yet most of this funding is not tied to performance. As Congress prepares for reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs, this report examined: (1) the extent to which federal transit programs use performance information in making decisions about funding distribution and in evaluating the programs' effectiveness; (2) mechanisms for making these programs more performance based, and strategies for supporting their successful implementation; and (3) how selected U.S. and foreign transit agencies have used performance measurement in their planning and decisions, and their views on the federal role in transit. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

This manual provides direction for the preparation of noise and vibration sections of environmental documents for mass transportation projects. The manual has been developed in the interest of promoting quality and uniformity in assessments. It is expected to be used by people associated with or affected by the urban transit industry, including Federal Transit Administration (FTA) staff, grant applicants, consultants and the general public. Each of these groups has an interest in noise/vibration assessment, but not all have the need for all the details of the process. Consequently, this manual has been prepared to serve readers with varying levels of technical background and interests. It sets forth the basic concepts, methods and procedures for documenting the extent and severity of noise impacts from transit projects.

The U.S. Dept. of Transport. (DoT) Strategic Plan for FY 1997-2002 identifies 5 performance goals: safety, mobility, econ. growth & trade, human & natural environ., & nat. security. DoT conducts the NPTS to obtain info. on personal travel of U.S. households with respect to why, how, when, where from, where to, how frequently, how long, & with whom. The NPTS also provides info. by subgroups of the pop., e.g., by age, gender, race, zero-vehicle households, which allows important policy analyses of how transport. serves these groups. This report provides the results of the 1995 NPTS of travel by the civilian, non-institutionalized pop. age 5 & older.