Mass Transit

Mass transit systems comprise public transportation services that are available to the general public, including buses, commuter rail, subways, light rail, trains, ferries, and car and van pools on roadways. Concerns regarding mass transit play a large role in disaster relief planning, both because mass transit systems are frequent targets for human-made incidents, and because natural disasters often disrupt transportation in impacted areas at the time it is most needed. Government agencies help to plan, finance, build, and maintain mass transit systems. These agencies are also charged with mitigating potential threats to mass transit, preparing for possible disasters, responding to a calamity when it occurs, and guiding a transportation system back to normalcy in the post-catastrophe period. In the United States, mass-transit disaster relief planning ...