Strategy Guide to Enable and Promote the Use of Fixed-Route Transit by People with Disabilities (2014) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 91-104
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From page 91... ...
91 C h a p t e r 7 This chapter discusses fare incentive programs: another possible strategy for encouraging use of fixed-route transit services by persons with disabilities. As will be presented, fare incentives can lead to increased use of fixed-route transit.
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From page 92... ...
92 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities The elderly includes all individuals who are at least 65 years old, but a transit system may set a lower age. The definition for persons with a disability is broader than the definition used to establish eligibility for ADA complementary paratransit.
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Fare Incentive programs 93 use fixed-route transit service.
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94 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities (46%) of respondents said the programs were very effective ("5")
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Fare Incentive programs 95 Ann Arbor (MI) Transportation Authority The AATA provides bus service for the urbanized area of Washtenaw County, MI, which includes the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
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96 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities AATA has not tracked its direct costs for maintaining its free fare policy. An AATA manager did note a strong correlation in the increase in applications for A-Ride since the policy began.
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From page 97... ...
Fare Incentive programs 97 transit system. The process used to determine ADA paratransit eligibility includes in-person interviews and functional assessments.
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From page 98... ...
98 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities as ridership for individuals who are blind or have a visual impairment, who are also eligible to ride the fixed-route transit system for free. In FY 2012, the RIDE Charlie Card ridership was 11.9% of RIDE paratransit ridership.
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From page 99... ...
Fare Incentive programs 99 that this has required the SamTrans eligibility evaluator to be more vigilant about assessing an applicant's ability to use fixed-route transit service some or all of the time. He also noted that the potential use of fraudulent forms of paratransit ID (e.g., "using a photocopy of an ID card, an expired card, or some other form of ID that will pass operator scrutiny")
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From page 100... ...
100 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities The ratios of free fare to total fixed-route ridership and free fare to ADA paratransit ridership vary, with a number of factors affecting the values, such as: • Absolute ridership levels (MBTA and UTA, the two largest system examined, have the lowest proportion of free fixed-route to total fixed-route transit ratios)
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From page 101... ...
Fare Incentive programs 101 Even if this is true, the ratios of the actual free fare trips to the break-even values are so large (4.9:1 for Hernando County to over 100:1 for four of the other seven transit systems) that it requires only a small portion of the free fare trips to be trips that are diverted from paratransit to make the program cost effective.
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102 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities As shown, significant savings are realized by each of the systems even if conservative estimates of the percentage of trips diverted are assumed. If it is assumed that only 25% of free fare trips were trips previously made by ADA paratransit, savings range from $8,283 per year for the smallest system (Hernando County)
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From page 103... ...
Fare Incentive programs 103 He stated that these riders "were often quite explicit" that they were applying for A-Ride to receive free fixed-route transit service. AATA worked with human service agencies to assist their clients in understanding the requirements for receiving eligibility for A-Ride service.
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From page 104... ...
104 Strategy Guide to enable and promote the Use of Fixed-route transit by people with Disabilities It would also be valuable to track the following information, if a transit agency is not already collecting it: • Paratransit applications. • Count of ADA paratransit trips: total and by individual riders, and by key destinations.
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