Urban collective transport
Introduction
Public transportation is the term applied to collective passenger transportation. Unlike private transport, public transport travelers have to adapt to the schedules and routes offered by the operator and depend to a greater or lesser extent on the regulatory intervention of the Government.
Travelers usually share the means of transportation and the different units are available to the general public. It includes various means such as buses, taxis, trolleybuses, trams, trains, suburban railways, ferries, cable cars, funiculars and bicycles.[1] Air transport and high-speed trains also coexist in interregional transport. Some, like shared taxis, organize their schedule according to demand. Other services do not start until the vehicle is completed. In some areas of low demand there are door-to-door public transport services, although the normal thing is that the user does not choose the speed or the route.
Urban public transport can be provided by one or more private companies or by public transport consortia. Services are maintained by direct charging to passengers. They are normally services regulated and subsidized by local or national authorities. There are completely subsidized services in some cities, the cost of which is free for the traveler.
For historical and economic reasons, there are differences between public transport in some countries and others. While cities in areas like Europe have numerous and frequent services serving older, dense cities, other areas like America have much less complex transportation networks.
Characteristics
Among the elements that a transportation system has, in public transportation systems, the demand is given by people (passengers) and the supply is given by vehicles, infrastructure, services and operators (drivers). Instead, in many private transportation systems, the person in a vehicle is part of the demand and the roads are the supply.
Public passenger transport is evaluated differently by users, business owners or workers; The route of a freight transportation line can be indifferent for city residents who are at the beginning and end of the trip and key for residents of rural areas or small towns who are affected by its passage. This means that understanding of transit will be richer and more relevant when it appeals to a variety of perspectives.
Accessible public transportation indicates the characteristics that buses must have to be accessible for people with disabilities, and some of its characteristics are: that they have doors to get on or off that allow the entry of a wheelchair, that they have seats reserved for people with disabilities, that allow people with disabilities to get on or off the bus through any of the doors and that they have spaces to locate the elements that the person with disabilities uses to move.[2].