Human resources represent the largest ongoing expenditure for public transit agencies, yet transit asset management plans routinely ignore this critical issue. The Mineta Transportation Institute’s latest Transit Perspective, a regular series from thought leaders in the transportation community, looks at the importance of human resources to National Transit Asset Management Program development and transit safety performance. Perspective-author, MTI Research Associate Dr. Beverly Scott, argues that the common practice of a singular focus on physical assets to the exclusion of human and other factors is, at best, a partial approach. Scott, a distinguished leader in transportation workforce development, penned the MTI perspective: Unfinished Business: The Importance of Human Resources to National Transit Asset Management Program Development and Transit Safety Performance.
MAP-21 established the requirement for a National Transit Asset Management Plan, including a transit asset management system focused on physical capital assets. According to Scott, while these physical assets are “critical to the safety and performance of a public transportation system, we must recognize, elevate, and integrate human capital management and strategic workforce planning into both transit asset management plans and comprehensive safety plans.”
Scott, who was recognized by President Obama as a “Transportation Innovator of Change” identifies a number of workforce development challenges facing the transit industry, particularly related to labor shortages in skilled and specialized technical areas. To address these challenges, there is a need to include a human resources component into Transit Asset Management plans, which will help ensure that public transportation agencies have the right mix of knowledge, skills, and experience to safely and effectively operate daily service and implement capital program responsibilities.
MTI thought leader perspectives and research reports can be downloaded free of charge: http://transweb.sjsu.edu/MTIportal/research/Publications.html
