Transit Usability

There is an article, "Responding to New Trends Through a Usability Approach" in the current issue of Community Transportation, applying the design methodology to transit. This is something I have been writing about, but not in as well codified a fashion.

The paper discusses functional value--moving people from point a to point b--vs. use value--ease, effectiveness, comfort, and aesthetics--of transit. The article states that transit systems are created out of functional value, but ultimately succeed due to a combination of price, promotion, and usability.

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The report produced a few years ago for the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Agency on Transit Waiting Environments is another example of the usability approach, developed independently of the authors of the above cited article.