A Comprehensive and Systematic Review of Performance Evaluation of Public Transit

Abstract

Public transit plays a crucial role in urban transportation systems, providing an efficient and sustainable mode of public transportation. Performance evaluation of public transit is essential for achieving sustainable, efficient, and user-centric urban mobility systems. Despite numerous studies on transit performance, there remains a lack of comprehensive frameworks that consolidate diverse indicators, data sources, and evaluation techniques. This study conducts a systematic literature review using the PRISMA method to synthesize 162 peer-reviewed articles on public transit performance published between 2001 and 2023. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are categorized into five dimensions: safety and security, customer satisfaction, traffic, finance, and environment. The study highlights the increasing adoption of data-driven tools–such as Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), Automatic Passenger Counting (APC), GTFS, and AI-based analytics–and identifies methodological trends across different transit modes. A visual mapping of KPIs and data sources is presented to assist transit agencies, researchers, and policymakers. This review makes a unique contribution to a unified, multi-dimensional framework for performance evaluation that aligns with current urban mobility challenges such as digital transformation, resilience, and inclusivity.