Using Public Transportation to Reduce the Economic, Social and Human Costs of Personal Immobility (1998) / Chapter Skim
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Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Immediate Needs Transportation Program
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Immediate Needs Transportation Program
Pages 223-248
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From page 225... ...
ORIGIN OF THE IMMEDIATE NEEDS TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM Highlights A safety net for the "bottom rung " 600 social service agencies participate Taxis and transit work together Each $1 invested=$2.60 in benefits On April 29, 1992, a civil disturbance broke out throughout the City of Los Angeles after the jury's verdict about the police officers involved in the Rodney King arrest. Vandalism was widespread, stores were looted and whole blocks were burned.
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From page 226... ...
MTA staff notes that Immediate Needs "is filling a service niche which is not effectively addressed through other transportation programs." ~ ~ ~ Under the administrative brokerage of FAME and IDA, about 600 social service agencies participate in providing trips to food banks and grocery stores, medical appointments, job training and job interviews, and for emergencies. In the first half of 1997, over 403,000 trips were provided at an average cost of $5.50.
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From page 227... ...
In ~ 995 distribution of bus tokens was added in order to "increase the number of trips which could be provided without increasing the cost of the program." (4) Staff from the social service agencies go to FAME or ALA to pick up their allocation of He tokens and vouchers each month.
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From page 228... ...
Tokens After a demonstration phase in Spring, 1995, where 10 social service agencies distributed bus tokens to assess their usage, tokens now are used for over 48 370 of all trips in the Immediate Needs program. Clients may receive 10 tokens a month in addition to two or three taxi vouchers.
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From page 229... ...
A wage escalation factor of 2 was applied to these wages to reflect at least an annual lifetime wage earning capacity of twice these amounts over a period of 30 years. This escalation factor reflects a long-term earning capacity, not the entry level wages reported, based on the assumption that trained persons will have better job security and more assured advances in responsibility and pay.
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From page 230... ...
Calculating bus tokens at the full retail value of $~.35, the annual economic benefit of the direct transportation assistance to MTA's customers is $4,333,204. Medical Program Benefits Beyond the clear economic benefits discussed in the preceding two sections, there are more speculative but nonetheless real benefits from the medical programs participating in the Immediate Needs program.
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From page 231... ...
Therefore, MTA incurs about $400,000 in additional costs above the $5 million contribution of vouchers and tokens. Benefit/Cost Ratio For every $ ~ invested in the Immediate Needs Transportation Program, the economic benefit is $2.60 This is determined by adding the Job Program Benefits, Direct Value of the Vouchers and Tokens, and the Medical Program Benefits, totaling $13,95 1,000, and dividing by MTA's cost of $5,400,000.
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From page 232... ...
To help identify these benefits, the following social service agencies participated in focus groups or on-site interviews: King-Drew Medical Center Theresa Lindsey Senior Center Family & Youth Enhancement Long Beach Human Social Services 1736 Family Crisis Center AIDS Project Los Angeles Friends Outside Downtown Women's Center AltaMed Senior Health/Multipurpose Senior Services Program 8
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From page 233... ...
Immediate Needs saves us money when we can: avoid medical institutionalization of the indigent; prevent crime by providing job training for employment and food for the hungry; reduce the demand on more expensive and oversubscribed paratransit services; and provide an option to a costly ambulance ride for medical care. With Immediate Needs as a resource, other agencies funded by our tax dollars are saving money and increasing productivity.
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From page 234... ...
For safety reasons and the unmet needs of the frail elderly, the operators expressed concerns about the increasing emphasis on bus tokens in the Immediate Needs program. FUTURE PLANS Although the MTA Board of Directors has consistently allocated funds for the Immediate Needs Transportation Program, some directors have expressed reservations.
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From page 235... ...
And a lawsuit brought against MTA accused it of spending too much on rail extensions serving the suburbs at the cost of enhancing inner city bus service. On the other hand, the Immediate Needs Transportation Program presents a different face of this influential public institution.
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From page 236... ...
While some within MTA regard Immediate Needs as a social service program outside the scope of a transit agency's responsibility, program staff views it as a transportation "safety net" well within its mobility manager role. The definition of mobility management is '`an institutional state of mind that emphasizes moving people instead of the mode of transportation." (5)
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From page 237... ...
Comparing it to the commuter program which guarantees transit riders and carpoolers a taxi ride home in an emergency, program staff said that Immediate Needs "is like Guaranteed Ride Home for the transit dependent." Through Immediate Needs, MTA is not just a transit operator-it is a transportation agency. As a mobility manager, it has assumed the role of getting people where they need to go when they need to be there by the mass transportation mode most suitable for their needs.
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From page 238... ...
(5) Crain and Associates, "Strategies to Assist Local Transportation Agencies in Becoming Mobility Managers," Phase ~ Draft Final Report, Transportation Research Board, April, 1997.
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From page 239... ...
doctor or hospital visit drug or alcohol program to get food work job training or a job interview social worker church go to a shelter Other, please explain 1 ~1
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From page 240... ...
can stay in my home instead of going to a nursing home or hospital. can get well enough to look for a job.
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From page 241... ...
Agencies were selected for the survey that had a high proportion of job training and/or medical trips, since these were the two types of trip purposes most likely to experience measurable economic benefits from the Immediate Needs program. Survey responses numbered ~34, arid produced the results shown in Table A
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From page 242... ...
c. Travelers using bus tokens Travelers using taxi vouchers Travelers using variable vouchers Total 7.
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From page 243... ...
x 50% of job training survey respondents x 13,762 monthly passengers x estimated annual turnover of 2 to get annual benefits of $3~087~037.
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From page 244... ...
Average cost saving of $60 x 40.2% medical trips x 78% of survey respondents on medical trips checking one of the four items x ~ 3,762 monthly passengers x estimated annual turnover rate of 1.5 = $388~369. Cost Estimate In addition to the annual Immediate Needs program cost of $5 million, MTA in effect subsidizes the program by a)
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From page 245... ...
Subtotal, Medical Total Annual Benefits Total Annual Costs Ratio of benefits to costs $3,087 3,057 -1 078 $5,066 $4,333 $4,164 388 $4~552 $13,951 $5,400 2.6 A benefit/cost ratio of 2.6 is quite favorable, compared with the usual criterion of at least a ratio of 1.0 for econo~rucally viable projects. Derivation of Average Monthly Users This section documents the derivation of item 6 in Table A, which is an estimate of the average monthly number of users or travelers receiving Immediate Needs tickets and vouchers.
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From page 246... ...
~ % of users buying multiple fare media have been allocated to bus tokens, taxi vouchers, or variable vouchers in the same ratio as the 80.2 fare media were allocated in column b. Next, column e is divided by column c to produce the ratio of users to fare media byfare media type, called the reduction factor.
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From page 247... ...
Fare media redeemed are then divided by average monthly fare media per user, from Table A, items ~ a-c. The result, called apparent users for convenience, is multiplied by the rounded reduction factor from the preceding tabulation to find the number of "actual Users,' -- that is the number of users after taking into account multiple types of fare media distribution to the same individuals.
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