Overall transportation efficiency of any transportation system will be the ratio of benefits to the costs. It increases with the present market principles and with effective cost pricing. The following are the features which contribute for making the transportation system efficient.
- A well designed and well planned systems which may include large and efficient networks like airports, sea ports; even it includes a network of railways and roadways. The road way transportation even may include walking, cycling, and usage of automobiles. For efficient transport the transportation system should be sized efficiently according to the traffic. Huge capital investments for constructing airports and sea ports are not essential for the remote places where the passengers are less. Excess capacity leads to reduction in the efficiency as the demand may get reduced.
- A multi-modal transport system for the roads may be used efficiently as the transportation may be different for different types of passengers like it is different for cycling, walking, automobiles etc. Each has a separate path for their travel. This makes their transport faster and efficient. So, multi modal transportation is one of the feature to make the system efficient.
- Price is one of the important feature which plays an important role. Efficient pricing for traveling, parking and fuel consumption makes the transportation system become more efficient.
- Pricing and Policies favour only high transportation trips compared to low transportation trips which results in an efficient transportation system.
If the improvements are made in the transportation then obviously it improves efficiency, by reducing the traffic congestion. However it some times creates undesirable effects and creates limits for the walking and even cycling. So, to maintain the transportation system efficiently, adequate transport support for all the travelers is to be made, and the transportation costs should be less for the travelers.