It is the millions of customers involved in personal and commercial transportation that will ultimately judge the intelligence of the transportation system. Our customers will not judge us by the excellence of our diagrams nor by our deployment of technologies. When a customer flips a switch, lamps light. When a customer turns a faucet, water flows. When lamps do not light or water does not flow, heads roll.
Transportation is different.
Any five-mile trip by freeway in a major urban area is subject to uncertainty. The travel time may range from five minutes to fifty minutes. How many business meetings feature one or more participants excusing their tardiness by citing a traffic delay. It has not always been so. Dependability was the clear goal of urban railroads because of the apparent need of the masses to have a time standard by which to set their watches.