Transforming Urban Public Transportation: A Lean Enterprise Approach

Abstract

Much urban mass transportation is perceived as providing second-rate service, existing for the disenfranchised, and possibly not being safe. Once, mass transit recognized and filled a need in major urban areas for efficient intra-city transportation, but people’s needs have changed. The goal of this paper is to characterize the current state of urban mass transportation and develop a practical multi-disciplinary business-oriented approach to reenergize transit and to form the type of mass appeal that cars and passenger airlines have. Based on a Lean Enterprise Architecture for transforming the public sector, and using global examples, the authors propose a plan of action to improve and change the image of urban mass transportation.