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22 Guidebook for Rural Demand-Response Transportation: Measuring, Assessing, and Improving Performance
such information may be useful over time. If a DRT system repeatedly hears complaints from its
riders and the community that there is no weekend service, the transit system may want to con-
sider whether it could expand its service days.
Data Collection for Complaints
Transit system staff can collect complaint information in varying ways: by letter, by telephone
call, and via e-mail. Use of all these methods will facilitate passenger feedback. Where the DRT ser-
vice is contracted, complaints are typically directed to the public entity sponsor. Complaint data
should be summarized on a routine basis and assessed internally rather than compared with other
DRT systems, given the range in how complaints are defined and handled across DRT systems.
3.5 Rural DRT--Performance Data to Measure
Transit Impact
In addition to the more traditional performance data used to assess DRT service, less tradi-
tional data elements may also be used particularly if there is an interest in incorporating social
values in DRT performance assessment. Such data elements recognize that rural transit often
serves predominately those who depend on transit and that the more traditional data elements
such as passenger trips and vehicle-miles do not necessarily capture the role of rural transit in
improving the quality of life for rural residents. These data elements might include, for example,
the number of riders transported to congregate meal sites for a nutritious meal or the number
of rural residents able to access improved health care because of rural transit.
Such less traditional data relate to the impact of rural transit, and can be used for impact mea-
sures that weigh the results of rural transit. The impact or result of rural transit might be measured,
for example, by assessing the economic impact of ensuring access to employment for a specific
number of residents who previously had received welfare. The types of impact data that a rural
DRT system might want to collect depend upon what it wants to measure. If there is a local inter-
est in improving transportation for lower income seniors, then data collection should target how
the rural DRT system is improving seniors' access within the community and the results of that
access such as total number of trips to the senior center, total number of trips to the grocery store,
and so forth.
This Guidebook does not suggest any specific data elements for measuring transit impact since
such data and resulting measures are more properly determined at the local level, based on the
particular community issues with which the rural transit system is involved.
