Policies and Practices for Effectively and Efficiently Meeting ADA Paratransit Demand (2008)

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3BACKGROUND This synthesis of transit practice covers a wide range of poli- cies and practices that transit agencies use to provide service more effectively and efficiently to persons with disabilities. Efficiencies are needed to address the ever-increasing cost of meeting the civil rights requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for paratransit service. An under- lying purpose of the ADA is to provide equal opportunity, full participation, and independence to persons with disabil- ities. Transit plays a key role for two reasons. First, it is the means for people to get to jobs, schools, shopping, or other destinations. Second, because transit is so visible, persons with disabilities often look to transit to take a leading role in carrying out the letter and the spirit of the ADA. A goal of ADA and U.S. DOT regulations that implement the ADA is to provide equal access to public transit to per- sons with disabilities. For many riders and for many trips, the first option is accessible fixed-route service. However, the ADA requires public transit operators to provide complemen- tary paratransit when persons with disabilities cannot use the fixed route. The resulting paratransit services developed in response to the ADA have played a large role in providing access, participation, and independence to persons with disabilities. In fiscal year 2004, U.S. transit agencies provided more than 114 million paratransit trips (Public Transportation Fact Book 2006). Most of these trips were ADA-complementary paratransit trips. This represents a 58.3% increase since 1992, the first year of ADA-complementary paratransit service. The growth in paratransit ridership has slowed since the early 1990s: over a 5-year period (1999 to 2004), paratransit ridership rose by 14%. Nevertheless, this rate of increase far exceeds the growth rate for public transit as a whole for the same period (4.4%) and exceeds the growth of all other modes except light rail. Although paratransit ridership is still a small portion of the whole, slightly more than 1%, in 2004, para- transit comprised 9% of transit operating costs (Public Trans- portation Fact Book 2006). The operating cost per trip for paratransit service was $22.14; for all other modes, the oper- ating cost per trip was $2.75 (per trip costs calculated from APTA data). As demand for paratransit continues to increase in many communities, transit agencies are looking for innovative ways to continue to serve the individuals who must use paratransit, while also operating more efficiently to contain costs and/or provide more service for the available resources. Some of the efficiency practices include changes in daily paratransit operations, office procedures such as changes in call taking and scheduling, and broader policy changes such as eligibility determination. Practices may also cover the wide range of ways to make the fixed-route service more useable and more attractive to persons with disabilities. Policies and practices either successfully in place or being tested by transit agencies include: • More precise eligibility determinations, • Use of taxi contractors for flexible capacity, • Coordination with social service agencies and other potential paratransit providers, • Integrated paratransit services for use by the general public, • Improvements to fixed-route service, and • Incentives to use fixed-route services. Each of these is discussed in detail as part of this synthesis. OBJECTIVES Paratransit managers face pressure in using their resources more efficiently while continuing to provide the service required by the ADA—and often beyond that—as determined by their locality. This synthesis highlights policies and prac- tices that transit agencies could apply to their own services, often without the need to devote significant funds, personnel, or other resources. This synthesis also identifies cases where transit agencies have quantified either increased efficiencies or cost savings through implementation of a policy or practice. For example, many transit agencies have developed a travel training pro- gram to encourage persons with disabilities to use the fixed route rather than paratransit for some of their trips. Although transit professionals, riders, and advocates would all agree that travel training is good, few agencies have documented— beyond simply the number of individuals trained—the benefits gained through a travel training program. This synthesis pre- sents such data. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Third, this synthesis identifies certain practices and tech- nologies that are still under development or have not under- gone extensive testing. They merit discussion in this report because they have great potential to become common within the areas of paratransit or fixed-route accessibility. One exam- ple of a technology that is in the pilot stage at several agencies is on-line booking of paratransit trips. STUDY APPROACH This synthesis presents the state of the art in this area of study. Information on the topics cited in the scope of work was gathered in the following ways: • Review of the literature; • Survey of transit agencies; • Collection of written documents, brochures, and view- ing of websites; and • Telephone interviews with transit agency staff. The literature review provided baseline information. Even though some of the cited documents are more than 10 years old, they remain valuable because they represent the definitive studies in their respective areas and/or they brought together much information in a single source. Survey of Transit Agencies The survey of transit agencies was the primary data collec- tion technique for gaining information from many transit sys- tems on all the topics covered in this study. Although recent innovations in ADA paratransit and fixed-route accessibility have been identified at a number of well-known transit agen- cies, the survey was able to identify additional state-of-the-art policies and practices from some less known transit agencies, particularly small and medium operations. A survey questionnaire consisting of 7 sections, with a total of 42 questions, was developed and administered by means of the Internet. Some of these questions had multiple parts: 1. Contact information (12 questions). 2. Characteristics of paratransit service (11). 3. Organization and management of paratransit service (1). 4. Paratransit policies and practices (12). 5. Inquiry concerning whether respondent will also answer questions about fixed-route services (1). 6. Contact information for fixed route (1). 7. Fixed-route policies and practices (4). Appendix A presents the survey questionnaire. The ques- tionnaire has been reformatted from how it appeared on-line; 4 however, the wording and sequence of the questionnaire are identical. APTA and CTAA provided e-mail addresses of their respective memberships. From these two lists, on December 1, 2006, more than 900 transit agencies received an intro- ductory e-mail requesting participation and providing a link that directed them to the website that contained the question- naire. A reminder e-mail was sent on December 14, 2006, to agencies that had not completed the survey. Appendix B presents a list of the 124 transit agencies that responded to the survey. A summary and analysis of the data collected from the survey appear in chapter three. Telephone Interviews and Collection of Sample Documents The survey requested that the transit agencies provide addi- tional information on their policies and practices. Some respon- dents submitted written material, which generally fell into one of the following categories: • Sample fliers, brochures, or manuals for riders; • Policy memos; • Agreements with other agencies; • Statistical reports; and • Research reports or other internal documents that address the success of a practice. In addition, 17 transit agencies participated in telephone interviews. During these interviews, which ranged in length from 15 min to 95 min, the agencies provided further details on certain policies and practices that they believed to be innovative and/or potentially useful for other transit agen- cies. They also sent additional material related to some of these polices and practices. Appendix C presents a list of the transit agencies that were interviewed. The telephone inter- views provided the most detailed and current information on selected policies and practices and also allowed for the intro- duction of additional information not included in the survey. The telephone interviews are the key source of the informa- tion presented in chapter four. REPORT ORGANIZATION There are four additional chapters in this report. Chapter two reviews relevant literature in the research topics. There are summaries and analyses of the responses to the survey con- ducted for this study in chapter three. Highlighted in chapter four is a discussion of specific policies and practices used by transit agencies to meet ADA paratransit demand. Chapter five presents conclusions and suggestions for future research.