| This research examines how the various stakeholders of public transportation define transit performance. It argues that "multiple definitions" exist and are composed of a variety of constructs, such as efficiency and effectiveness, which are weighted differently by different stakeholder groups and thereby provide unique definitions for each stakeholder group. These differences are important to note as they can substantially affect the assessment of a given transit system's performance by its government-related stakeholders.;The literature review identified the three constructs of transit performance: (1) efficiency, (2) effectiveness, and (3) impact. The literature suggested that each of these macro-constructs could be conceptualized as being composed of a number of micro-constructs.;Hypotheses were drawn from the literature and used to test whether definitional differences exist between stakeholders. Data to test the hypotheses was collected through the use of a survey mailed to the four stakeholder groups examined in the study: transit systems, metropolitan planning organization, state governments, and the federal government.;The statistical analysis of the data suggests that there are indeed differences in both the absolute importance and relative importance placed on the three macro-constructs by transit stakeholder groups. It appears that transit systems tend to place greater importance on all of the constructs---efficiency, effectiveness, and impact---compared to the other stakeholders. Specifically, the efficiency component of transit importance is most important to transit systems, followed by MPOs and state governments. In addition, significant relationships were found between the level of government entity (i.e. transit systems, MPOs, and state governments) and the effectiveness construct. Finally, significant results were found between the level of government entity (i.e. transit systems, MPOs, and state governments) and the impact construct of transit performance with impact being more important to transit systems than to MPOs.;Overall, these results, combined with the results garnered from the analysis performed on stakeholder peer groups would suggest that stakeholder groups do indeed view the three macro-constructs of performance differently and as a result stakeholder-specific definitions of transit performance appear to exist. Therefore, the examination of public transit performance from multiple stakeholder points-of-view appears warranted. |
