Application of Mass Communication Theory to the Operations of the Transit Industry

Abstract

This study is concerned with the role of transit management in encouraging balanced transportation concepts within the American urban environment. The concept of public transportation is reviewed from a historical viewpoint and from the standpoint of potential or ending the virtual monopoly of the automobile in the realm of personal transportation. Specifically, it is suggested that a vigorous transit strategy will permit a community to relieve congestion, pollution, and the entire host of evils attendant to the automobile. This philosophy places a great deal of pressure upon the transit manager to provide services that will attraet the public away from the private car. It is suggested herein that the theories of mass communications can provide a strategical framework within which the transit operator can rejuvenate an urban area's public transport systems.