CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction 9 1.1 Research question 11 1.2 Aim 11 1.3 Objectives 11 1.4 Methodology 11 1.5 Scope and limitation 12 Chapter 2: Hierarchy and Continuum 13 2.1 Defining hierarchy and continuum 13 2.2 Hierarchy and its types 13 2.3 Interrelationship between the hierarchies 18 2.4 Demand and Supply Side 19 Chapter 3: Urban Public Transportation Systems 21 3.1 Defining modes 21 3.2 Modal characteristics 24 Chapter 4: Establishment of modal hierarchy 27 4.1 Performance parameter 28 4.2 Environment parameter 37 4.3 Social parameter 41 4.4 Economic parameter . 47 4.5 Overall category scoring 51 Chapter 5: Modal threshold 53 5.1 Economies of scale 54 5.2 Operating cost 56 5.3 Cities and their travel characteristics 59 5.4 Trip length frequency distribution 62 5.5 Scales of operating costs 64 5.6 Scales of revenue 65 5.7 Operational viability of modes 67 Chapter 6: Conclusions 72 Chapter 7: Recommendations 74 Bibliography 75