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CHAPTER THREE
SURVEY OF PARATRANSIT PROVIDERS
The primary focus of this synthesis was to document effective Question 15--Total Paratransit Trips on an
and efficient practices and policies currently used by transit Average Weekday (include ADA and all other).
agencies in meeting ADA paratransit demand. A survey of
Table 2 shows that the majority of agencies responding to
ADA paratransit providers in the United States provided an
the survey provide fewer than 250 ADA or paratransit trips on
overview of U.S. industry practices. The results of the ques-
an average weekday. The breakdown of trip levels in this
tionnaire (presented in Appendix A) used in this survey are
table was used as a way to categorize survey respondents in a
described in this chapter.
number of subsequent tables:
If a respondent considered a practice or policy particu- · Under 250 average weekday trips "Small"
larly effective for meeting paratransit demand at their · 250 to 499 average weekday trips "Medium"
agency, several questions gave the option of being con- · 500 to 999 average weekday trips "Large"
tacted for a follow-up telephone interview or sending mate- · 1,000+ average weekday trips "Very Large."
rial for review. The interviews given and materials
provided by the transit agencies are discussed further in Question 16--Total Individuals Registered
chapter four. for ADA Paratransit Service.
Correspondingly, the majority of agencies responding to the
CHARACTERISTICS OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS survey have fewer than 500 individuals registered for ADA
paratransit service, as shown in Table 3.
Introduction
Question 17--Total "Active" ADA Riders
From APTA and CTAA mailing lists, 900 contact names were (at least one trip in past year).
compiled. In all, 135 completed surveys were returned. How-
ever, 11 were duplicate responses (multiple responses from a Table 4 presents the distribution of active ADA riders.
single agency), resulting in 124 unique survey responses; a
Question 18--Subscription Trips
return rate of 14%. (% of all ADA trips).
Table 1 lists the number of responses by state. Because Table 5 shows the breakdown of subscription trips as a per-
California ranks first in population according to 2004 U.S. cent of all ADA trips.
Census Bureau statistics, it is not surprising that nearly
15% of the responses (18 of 124) came from California Question 19--ADA Service Area.
transit agencies. Altogether, surveys came from 34 differ-
ent states. Question 20--ADA Service Hours.
Table 6 shows that most agencies responding to the survey
In the tables that follow, the percentages shown represent provide service in a somewhat larger ADA area than required
the percentage of respondents answering a question. Ques- by the regulations. The majority of the survey respondents
tions that were left blank were excluded when results were provide ADA service during days and hours to match the
analyzed for each question. fixed-route service they provide.
Question 21--Check the Type of Vehicles
Paratransit Agency Service Analysis
That Are in Your Dedicated Paratransit Fleet.
Questions 1 through 13 asked for contact information. The Question 23--Other (non-dedicated) Vehicles
transit agency name, city, state, and zip code appear in the list Available for Paratransit Service.
of responding agencies provided in Appendix B.
Respondents generally use vans and small buses in their
Question 14--ADA Trips on an Average Weekday. dedicated paratransit fleet, but there is no predominant type
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TABLE 1 of non-dedicated vehicle available for paratransit service,
SURVEY RESPONSES BY STATE as shown in Table 7. About half of the respondents (46%)
State No. of Responses reported multiple types of vehicles in their dedicated para-
CA 18 transit fleets, and about a quarter (28%) reported multiple
MI, WI 9 types of non-dedicated vehicles available for paratransit
TX 8 service.
OH 7
WA 6 Question 22--Peak Fleet.
NC, OR 5
AZ, GA, OK, PA, TN 4 Nearly all respondents (93%) reported having 99 or fewer
CO, IA, ME, MN 3 vehicles in their peak paratransit fleets, with the majority
AL, FL. KY, MA, NM, NV, NY, SD 2 having fewer than 25 vehicles, as shown in Table 8.
AR, CT, DE, ID, IL, IN, MT, UT, WY 1
TABLE 2
WEEKDAY TRIP LEVELS AMONG RESPONDENTS
Trips <250 250 to 499 500 to 999 1,000+
ADA Trips on an Average Weekday 66% 15% 7% 12%
Total Paratransit Trips on an Average 52% 19% 14% 15%
Weekday (including ADA and other)
TABLE 3
LEVEL OF ADA REGISTRANTS AMONG RESPONDENTS
Total Individuals Registered for ADA
Paratransit Service <500 500 to 1,999 2,000 to 4,999 5,000+
% of Respondents 47% 17% 19% 17%
TABLE 4
LEVEL OF ADA RIDERS AMONG RESPONDENTS
Total Active ADA Riders (at least one
trip in past year) <200 200 to 499 500 to 999 1,000+
% of Respondents 39% 17% 12% 32%
TABLE 5
RANGE OF SUBSCRIPTION TRIPS AMONG RESPONDENTS
Subscription Trips as Percent of All
ADA Trips 0 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 64 65 to 100
% of Respondents 38% 29% 26% 7%
TABLE 6
ADA SERVICE AREA AND HOURS AMONG RESPONDENTS
Somewhat More Than Significantly More
Minimum Required Minimum Than Minimum
ADA Service Area: % of Respondents 34% 43% 23%
ADA Hours of Service: % of Respondents 61% 31% 8%
TABLE 7
VEHICLE TYPES AMONG RESPONDENTS
Vehicle Sedans/Taxis Vans Small Buses Other Multiple Answers
Type of Vehicles in Dedicated 17% 60% 70% 9% 46%
Paratransit Fleet: % of Respondents
Type of Other (non-dedicated) Vehicles 39% 42% 34% 22% 28%
Available for Paratransit Service: % of
Respondents
