Institute of Urban and Regional Development

"The principal function of regional rapid transit is to meet enough of the peak period demands so that the more costly alternative of relying solely on freeways...can be avoided..." This quotation from the BART Composite Report of 1962 (1) summarizes the primary focus of modern urban transportation planning. The mounting congestion of urban auotmobile facilities during peak periods of the day combined with the desire to reduce devotion of urban resources to the automobile and the seeming inability of existing public transportation systems to provide competitive alternative carriage is the content of the so-called Urban Transportation Problem.