Integrated Quality Management for Urban Transport Systems

In our societies, in many areas of production and services quality management procedures are already well established. They became important elements of a successful business management. In traffic and transport such approaches to quality management came up only quite late with increasing privatization and market-orientation. Meanwhile, several instruments of quality management have been established. Nevertheless, a comprehensive and integrated quality management for urban transport systems has not been developed yet. This contribution describes the objectives of such a comprehensive quality management and the related basic methods. The different perspectives of road users, transport system operators, and the society on the quality are analysed. The application of quality management for products and processes in the urban transport system is drafted. Therefore, a modular approach is developed. It covers the planning, implementation, and operation of the transport infrastructure. Several development needs are identified, which addresses procedures and tools of quality management for different systems, criteria to describe the quality, demanded levels of quality, procedures to measure and monitor quality, a quality management handbook, a formal certification, and of course appropriate resources. The contribution aims to draw a comprehensive picture on how such quality management system for urban traffic should look like, and which problems must be expected on the way towards its implementation.