This article provides a comprehensive review of developments in transportation research. It is devoted to the interpretation of the role of public transport as a phenomenon in the context of sociocultural relations in the space of the modern city. The relevance of the study is due to the need for optimization of the social interactions in the field of public transport, which is a sociocultural phenomenon of our time. The characteristics of roads, routes, vehicles, and socially significant services determine the vectors and the intensity of mobility, conceptualized not only in terms of cultural, informational, socioeconomic exchange, but also in terms of the multiple risks associated with public transport as a sphere of professional employment and consumption. Public transport creates a field for the realization of the interests of various social groups, integrated through the regulation of consumption or competing for the chances and ways of using socially significant services. Participating in the organization of urban life, public transport is perceived as a benefit provided by the state, but at the same time it is a service subject of evaluation. Nevertheless, in foreign and Ukrainian sociological literature, there are many unresolved issues regarding the social role, structure, functions and norms of public transport in the city, its interaction with other social institutions is not disclosed, a unified system of social criteria for its effective work is not developed, and sociospatial ones are practically not affected.