Welcome to Paratransit Matters

We have observed that paratransit professionals are eager for opportunities to learn from one another. As a technology leader and a deeply committed member of the paratransit community, Trapeze is interested in contributing to the state of the art.

This is not a site about how to use Trapeze products – we have other forums for that purpose. Although hosted by Trapeze Group, this blog seeks to develop a dialog among a far wider audience than our own customers. This blog welcomes all members of the paratransit community, including consumers.

In our current economic environment, it is it is particularly important to identify proven solutions to common problems. At the same time, it is even harder than usual to get to conferences where we can mingle, especially to attend those conferences where we can get a national or international perspective. For internet users, though, that is no problem. Talking with someone half way around the world requires no more effort than talking with your fellows across town.

We will continue to support this forum for as long as it remains useful and relevant. While I will serve as the site moderator, its usefulness will be determined by your comments and contributions. So let’s see how it goes !

Rural Lowfloor Bus

 During a trip to Florida last month, I had the opportunity to visit the enterprising folks at Ride Solution in Palatka.  Not many operators build their own buses, but out in their garage were the first two buses they have developed specifically for use in rural service.  The Brevi Bus, as they call it, is a 26 foot low floor bus with a 206 inch wheelbase.  It is built to be tough enough to operate successfully on dirt roads (of which there are a lot in central Florida), and the short overhang fore and aft ensures that the bus can navigate ruts and potholes without damage.  The engine can be swapped out in the middle of a service day simply by disconnecting some conveniently placed connections and sliding the engine out with a fork lift.  The whole bus reflected thoughtful design, and it looked very well executed.  You can see the bus in action at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=638i16p-CPA

Selling Advertising

A little while ago, I asked if anyone had any experience with selling advertising as a way of offsetting operating costs.  Recently Steve Yaffe in Arlington VA asked a similar question:  Do any paratransit properties allow advertising on the exterior of dedicated paratransit vehicles?  If so, is the market different from those purchasing ads on fixed route heavy duty buses?  Please post a comment with your experience or you can reach Steve directly at syaffe@arlingtonva.us

Loading Times

Recently, I visited a site that was re-evaluating the amount of time that it allows for loading various types of wheelchairs.   The discussion focused on manual vs. motorized equipment.  In the end, the site decided to allow less time for motorized equipment than for manual chairs, in the belief that the motorized units moved faster and required less driver assistance.  

 I’d be interested in what other sites have done with respect to load and unload time differentials.  How much time do you allow for different situations?  Can anyone share the results of time measurements performed in the field to help arrive at the right amount of time to allow?

Cross-training

I have long believed that the skill sets required of a good calltaker and a good dispatcher are very different.  One must be able to talk and to listen, must be people oriented and able to pick up on subtle cues that there may be special issues that their callers are coping with.   Calltakers must be able to communicate clearly and be reassuring. 

 Dispatchers, on the other hand, must have a map inside their heads to absorb the information on the screen in a glance as well as what’s coming in from the drivers.  Although dispatchers must also be able to communicate well, the qualities of good communication with drivers are somewhat different than talking to customers.  Communication should be brief and respectful but authoritative.

 I have encountered many paratransit professionals who advocate for cross-training call center staff.  Of course, there are limitations – who would risk putting a calltaker in charge of the radio for long?  But you could put them in the dispatch room, working side by side with dispatchers to answer “where’s my ride” calls. 

 The benefits reported by those who have done it are that moving staff around can help to avoid burnout, and can teach appreciation for the challenges of what others do.   Taking it a step further, on-road time is an excellent experience for anyone in a call center.  It provides first hand understanding of travel congestion, access/waiting room issues at major travel destinations, and practical considerations of loading and unloading vehicles.

 Perhaps you’ve seen some specific benefits of cross-training or you’ve found effective ways to overcome obstacles to cross-training.  Whatever it is, I’d love to hear about it.

Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual

I am forwarding the following information regarding the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) and its Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM), 3^rd Edition.

 The TCQSM provides a framework for measuring transit quality of service from the passenger point of view.  It focuses mainly on fixed route, but the Quality of Service and the Bus Transit Capacity sections do have material relevant to paratransit.

 Input from stakeholders is being solicited to ensure that the 3^rd Edition provides a manual that is useful and relevant to the industry.  An online survey is available at:  https://kittelson.wufoo.com/forms/transit-capacity-quality-of-service-manual/.

 This survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. It is not necessary to have previously used the TCQSM to participate in this survey. However, powerpoint presentations that provide background information about the manual can be viewed at www.tcqsm.org. The manual itself can be downloaded for free from the Transportation Research Board’s website. 

 Please note that once you begin the survey it is not possible to save your responses and come back to them later.  Responses are requested by Monday, February 7, 2011.  If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact Paul Ryus by e-mail (pryus@kittelson.com) or phone at (503) 535-7410.

Diverting Riders to Fixed/Flex Route Services

At the Transportation Research Board this week, the Paratransit Committee held a workshop on complete bus stops.  There were a number of interesting presentations, including one by Rich DeRock, General Manager at Link Transit in Wenatchee WA.  He undertook a campaign to improve the attractiveness and accessibility of fixed/flex route services.  There were several components to the program.  One of them involved improving the accessibility of six bus stops on one of his major routes.  Rich estimates that the shift of riders from paratransit to the flex route recovered the cost of the bus stop improvements in nine months.

 The agency also found from focus groups that a major deterrent to persons with disabilities using fixed/flex route service was the perceived attitudes of other fixed route riders, especially related to boarding and alighting times.  To address this, Link Transit undertook a campaign to change attitudes.  This included getting stories in the local TV and press at regular intervals, focusing on the benefits for riders of using conventional services and the benefit to the community of reducing the cost of paratransit.

 Link Transit also offers a bus travel training (BTT) program.  They spend $100k per year on BTT and get a 6:1 ROI (return on investment) resulting from diversion of riders to fixed/flex route.  An important program policy is that you will never lose your eligibility for paratransit as a result of participating in BTT.  This takes away a major fear that customers have about participation. 

 The overall benefit of this program has been a reduction in the cost of paratransit, as riders found it easier to use the fixed and flexible routes.  Paratransit dropped from 49% to 24% of the total transit budget.

Using Advertising To Pay for Paratransit

 The Canadian Urban Transit Association recently held an Accessible Transit Roundtable which included a discussion of the use of advertising to provide revenues to help offset the costs of providing service.   Several Canadian transit properties were identified as having a program either in place or in the planning stages.  I’m interested in hearing about any other sites in the U.S. or elsewhere that have attempted to use advertising and whether the efforts have been successful.  If you have explored this option, please share what your experience has been.

What Should My On Time Percent Be?

Systems often ask how their on-time percent compares with other operators.  On its face, one could make very broad generalizations and bracket four categories – under 85%, 85-90%, 90-95%, and above 95%.   The problem is, however, that these categorizations obscure an underlying issue, which is there is not a standard definition of what constitutes an on-time trip. 

For starters, it is not always true that a trip is either on time or late – some sites treat cases of the driver arriving too early as not being on time.  Then there are the riders who have said that they have an appointment time at work, school, or a doctor.  For these trips, on-time could be measured with respect to the promised pickup time, the latest acceptable time at the destination, or both.  Will-calls present yet another special situation – some sites determine that a will-call is on-time or not based on the number of minutes (again, not necessarily the same from one site to the next) that it takes to get a vehicle to the pickup from the time when the rider calls.

Another issue is what the rider was promised.  Some sites tell callers the time for which their pickup is initially scheduled, and late may be defined as some (site-specific) number of minutes later than that promised time.  Operators know that it is impractical to develop productive schedules without a reasonable amount of flexibility in when they can arrive to pick up the passenger, and therefore sites often find it preferable to quote a time window.  These sites make a more overt point to tell riders that the trip will be considered as on-time if the vehicle arrives any time within this window.  Although this practice is common, even so it turns out that the size of the window not only affects system productivity but it also has an impact on ontime performance.  

Sites with smaller windows generally have lower average ontime performance.  This does not necessarily mean that they are doing a worse job – it may just mean that they are setting a tougher standard for what constitutes on time.  Put another way, being on time 85% of the time within a 15 minute window may be just as high a quality of service as being on time 90% of the time within a 30 minute window.

I encourage you to comment on how you define on time, and what the pros and cons of that policy have been for you.

Comprehensive Policies for Customer Service Abuse

Commonly known as a “suspension policy”, many agencies have in place a policy to warn and/or suspend a rider for frequently being a no-show. Some sites offer an option to the offender allowing them to make a payment towards the cost of the service in lieu of a suspension. For riders who depend on paratransit for work or other vital trips, this can be a welcome option.

Other types of abuse of paratransit service, such as no-pays or hand-to-hand riders whose caregivers are not present at the time of a scheduled dropoff, are also problematic. It makes sense to develop a comprehensive suspension policy that considers all of these issues under a common umbrella. Is anyone doing it?

Free fares on fixed route

Decisions about fixed route pricing can affect your paratransit costs.  For example, some of your ADA paratransit riders may be conditionally able to use public transit.  You can try acting as a gatekeeper to steer such riders to fixed route whenever no condition would prevent them from doing so.   This can be difficult to administer well and sometimes can lead to an adversarial environment.  Another option is to offer free fixed route transit to individuals as an incentive to not use paratransit whenever possible.  Have you tried this, and if so, did you extend the free service to include PCA’s?     I’d love to hear about any success stories.

 King County Metro offers a free fare zone in downtown Seattle.  It was mentioned at the recent ADA Roundtable conference in Seattle that the FTA had suggested that if a site offers free fixed route service, then they should be offering free paratransit service as well.  However, this is not enforceable since to date there is no actual rule that can be cited to support it.