Mass Transportation - Advantages Of Mass Transportation, Disadvantages Of Mass Transportation, Patterns In Mass Transportation Use, Alternative Forms Of Mass Transportation
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Mass transportation is any kind of transportation system in which large numbers of people are carried within a single vehicle or combination of vehicles. Airplanes, railways, buses, trolleys, light rail systems, and subways are examples of mass transportation systems. The term mass transit is commonly used as a synonym for mass transportation.
In many parts of the world, mass transit systems are an important component of a nation's transportation system. Where people are too poor to buy automobiles, they depend on bicycles or animals or mass transit systems such as bus lines to travel within a city and from city to city. During the twentieth century, however, the role of mass transit systems in developed nations such as the United States has declined dramatically. The primary means of transportation has become the private automobile, which typically carries only one or two passengers at a time.
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Mass transit systems have a number of obvious advantages over private means of conveyance, such as the automobile. In the first place, they are a far more efficient way of moving people than is the private automobile. For example, a subway system operating on two tracks 36 ft (11 m) wide can transport 80,000 passengers per hour. In comparison, an 8-lane freeway 125 ft (38 m) wide can carry only 20…
The desirable features of mass transit systems are balanced by a number of serious drawbacks. In the first place, such systems are economically feasible only in areas that have relatively large populations. As the number of inhabitants per square mile decreases, the efficiency of a mass transportation system also decreases. Mass transit systems are also very expensive to build and to operate. This…
The popularity of mass transportation systems varies inversely with the availability of the private automobile. Over the past century, as cars have become less expensive, consumers have opted for private transportation over subways, buses, trolleys, light rail systems, and other forms of mass transit. Between 1915 and 1980, automobile ownership increased 20 times faster than did population growth …
Some critics have suggested that new forms of mass transportation be developed that will preserve the special advantages of this form of transit while avoiding some of its disadvantages. For example, many cities and companies have set up van pools for their employees. People who live close to each other are picked up in small vans and brought to and from work as a group. Other cities have experime…
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