Car ownership and usage in European cities is increasing, especially in medium size cities.

One of the explanations to why this is occurring especially in these cities compared to larger cities, is that large cities tend to be served by rapid and frequent modes of public transport; e.g. subways. On the contrary, medium sized cities, where public transport tends to be based on regular bus services, often struggle to make people choose to travel by public transport instead of private cars.  Hence there is a need to develop and implement more attractive modes of public transport in medium sized cities.

A challenge, especially valid to these cities is that the potential patronage and revenue is relatively small. Therefore, there is a strong focus on and a need for cost optimised solutions when it comes to alternative concepts for public transport. Over the past 20 years, new and more cost-effective technologies for high quality public transport have been developed and introduced in various cities around the world e.g. high tech light rails, guided bus ways and high quality bus systems.

Through numerous examples the HiTrans best practice guides illustrate how high quality public transport also can be acheived in medium sized cities.