Best Practices in ADA Paratransit PDF Download

Author: Aditi Meshram
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780438929852
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Paratransit is an essential service for people with disabilities who are unable to use fixed-route transit. Transit agencies are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide complementary paratransit service alongside its fixed-route transportation. It is expensive to operate this service. Currently it costs San Mateo County in California more than $18 million a year to provide ADA paratransit service for 8500 registered customers, representing 12% of the agency’s total operating budget. With such high expenditure, transit agencies are increasingly motivated to make changes to their paratransit model with the objective of reducing costs. At the same time, it is important that the level of service is improved to ensure truly equitable transportation for disadvantaged people. The objective of this study is to assess how transit agencies can reduce paratransit costs without hindering the mobility of people most reliant on these services. This research analyzes the paratransit operation of a mid-sized transit agency, SamTrans in San Mateo County, California, and examines how other transit agencies are modifying their operations. Some cities across the U.S. have been piloting ride-sharing partnerships as an alternative to traditional forms of paratransit, with the hope to shift demand. The analysis of SamTrans and the case studies have then been used to formulate various solutions to reduce paratransit costs and/or improve service in other ways such as on-time performance, communication, demand management and customer convenience. Finally, each solution is rated on a three-point scale to depict their attractiveness compared to business-as-usual.