GUIDED TOUR THROUGH THE SECTION 15 MAZE.

Section 15 of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1974 as amended requires transit operators receiving federal operating assistance to annually file auditable reports on their system's operations and finances, create an internal system of accounts and records that can provide accurate and detailed information, and improve overall budgeting and operating management. It was believed that this wealth of new, detailed, consistent, and accurate information would help answer conclusively questions about transit productivity and performance and about whether subsidies contribute to better performance or are simply wasted in inefficiencies. In addition, the data base was eagerly awaited as a tool that would assist in making 'peer' comparisons among transit systems, determine the reasons for performance variations, and possibly help in shaping future federal and state subsidy allocation formulas. Although the quality of data has been improving, for all practical purposes, a uniform reporting system that includes all transit properties receiving federal assistance does not yet exist because of numerous problems that may be classified broadly into four categories: (a) access and structural problems, (b) erroneous and missing data, (c) inconsistencies and definitional ambiguities, and (d) exclusion of important data elements.