Vukan R. Vuchic ( sr, Vukan R. Vučić, sr-cyr, Вукан Р. Вучић; born 14 January 1935) is a

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

expert, a professor of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, and a former consultant to the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

on the planning, design and operation of transport systems. In 1994, he was elected a member of the

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...

Public Transport

Gregory Thompson credits Vuchic with defining the light rail mode of public transportation through his 1972 report that compared nascent subway-streetcar operation in the United States with the current state in Europe, although the concept of light rail had been discussed at least as early as 1962 by Dean Quinby. Vuchic has made a qualified point about the economic value of public transport for cities, assessing the comparative worth of

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es, light rail, or

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

. In the October 1972 report prepared for the

Urban Mass Transportation Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...

defining light rail, he notes that each has a particular urban-geographic setting in which is the better choice. Buses, for instance, are superior to light rail in areas of low density. He contrasts that with rapid transit, which is superior wherever high-capacity, high-speed service is warranted, due to greater population density. Light rail is the optimal solution for transit services of the intermediate kind, being competitive with the automobile where there are space restrictions, but where demand is moderate and high-cost investments are not feasible. Of particular interest is his 1973 study comparing heavy rail service in Lindenwold to

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

lanes on the

Shirley Highway The Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway, often shortened to Shirley Highway, consists of a portion of Interstates 95 and 395 in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. Shirley Highway was the first limited-access freeway in Virginia. Begun in 1941, th ...

; the Lindenwold High Speed Line (heavy rail) operated with higher ridership and passenger revenues compared to the Shirley Busway, despite the Busway's lower initial capital costs.

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vuchic, Vukan R. University of Pennsylvania faculty 1935 births Living people American people of Serbian descent Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Transport engineers