Transit agencies of all sizes are facing increasing budget pressures as the need to "do more with less" increases. Transit agencies must continue to attract new riders and retain existing ones as well as ensure support from the community at large. Marketing plays a critical role in assisting transit agencies to meet these needs. To maximize its effectiveness, marketing must be viewed as a comprehensive process through which transit agencies develop and provide transit service and communicate its benefits to their employees, patrons, and the general public. Marketing techniques that are both low-cost and cost-effective are needed by small and large transit agencies and may be crucial to their continued viability.

Transit agencies currently use a variety of low-cost marketing techniques. There is a need to identify and assess these techniques and to share the most successful techniques so that they may be adopted throughout the transit industry.

This research (1) identifies, describes, and assesses low-cost and cost-effective marketing techniques appropriate for use in the transit industry and (2) creates a "how-to" document for selecting and implementing these techniques at transit agencies. The target audience is smaller transit agencies with limited resources, but the results are also beneficial to transit agencies of all sizes.

Status: The final report has been published as TCRP Report 50, "Low-Cost and Cost-Effective Marketing Techniques for Public Transit Agencies." The report includes a description of low-cost and cost-effective marketing techniques currently used at large, medium, and small urban and rural transit agencies for use throughout the transit industry.

TCRP Report 50, Part A

TCRP Report 50, Part B

TCRP Report 50, Part C