Protocol for Comprehensive Efficiency Analysis of Multi-Service Metropolitan Transit Agency Operators

This chapter presents a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) protocol for analyzing the efficiency of metropolitan transit agencies that oversee multiple types of transportation services. The protocol is illustrated by applying it to United States transit agencies that can serve their cities with four types of subunits: self-operated motorbus, outsourced motorbus, self-operated demand-responsive, and outsourced demand-responsive. Using DEA models adapted for non-substitutable inputs and outputs, scores estimated for a focus agency include: (1) technical efficiency of the focus agency as a whole, (2) technical efficiency of each of the focus agency’s subunit types when each subunit is compared only to others of the same type, (3) allocation efficiency of the focus agency in apportioning resources among its subunits, and (4) the effect of each subunit’s technical efficiency on its parent agency’s technical efficiency. Finally, a mathematical programming algorithm is illustrated that allocates the focus agency’s resources to its subunits with the objective of decreasing the cost of transit in an urban area while holding total ridership constant. The protocol thereby is a comprehensive analysis and synthesis of a focus transit agency’s efficiency in providing services to its metropolitan area.