| This dissertation is a comparative analysis of light rail transit systems that began operating in the United States from 1981 to 1996, and it argues that when light rail transit operations are compared, the results cannot be generalized. There is great variability among ten light rail operations in ridership, operational structure, and cost and service efficiency; attempts to explain for the variation by using census data revealed even further variability. This result is a departure from the literature, which frequently forms definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of light rail transit. The impact of these results makes policy decisions difficult to undertake since the directives may not be applicable for every situation.; The dissertation is divided into the following chapters: Chapter 1 is a brief introduction to the topic. Chapter 2 is an introduction to light rail transit in the United States and it relies on various forms of previous works, so it also introduces some of the light rail transit literature. Chapter 3 is a specific literature review focusing on the feasibility, capacity, cost versus ridership, and development of light rail new starts in the United States. Chapter 4 introduces the methodology of the study and discusses the transportation resources used in Chapter 5.; Chapter 5 is the analysis of the National Transit Database, the body of statistics used to analyze the ten cases. This chapter includes approximately 36 tables to accompany the analysis of each system's ridership and operation size as well as each operation's service effectiveness, service efficiency, and cost efficiency. Chapter 6 focuses on travel behavior and attempts to explain the results of Chapter 5 by using U.S. Census Bureau data as well as standardized data from other transportation and traffic studies. Chapter 7 concludes the study with overall findings and offers policy recommendations. |
