All solicit your participation. But all differ in access, cost, and convenience. Competition is about price. Competition drives providers of services toward efficiencies to achieve lower prices that attract and hold customers. While economic and physical factors limit what may be achievable in terms of price and an acceptable return on investment, competition does drive toward setting benchmarks against which comparable services may be measured.
Competition is about quality.
Transit service providers compete in terms of quality of service to customers. Customers trade off the costs of transportation alternatives with the performance measures most important to them in terms of quality. These may be convenience, comfort, time spent, amenities, lifestyle preferences, and many other considerations. ATSC believes that the public benefits from competition in a mix of public and private provision of transit services. Competition helps use fare box, local, state, and federal funds efficiently.