Travel Training Options Help Take the Pressure Off Paratransit Services

With ever-rising costs and constantly growing needs, combined with shrinking revenues, paratransit service is becoming more and more challenging to administer. To take some of the pressure off paratransit programs, transit agencies are enhancing travel training programs with mobility centers and adding flexible bus routes and more accurate in-person assessments to provide service to some seniors and people with disabilities. So far, the changes have not only cut costs, but have helped to create an environment that fosters independence for riders.

In-person assessments

Portland, Ore.-based TriMet gives over nine million rides a year on fixed route to seniors and people with disabilities and one million rides a year on its LIFT paratransit system. Until one year ago, the agency used a self-certification process for paratransit eligibility. A person completed an application, and TriMet made a decision based primarily on the information provided on the application. However, staffers felt they weren't getting the information they needed to make the most accurate determination.

"This isn't a medical-based decision, it's a functional-based decision," Kathy Miller, manager, LIFT Eligibility and Community Relations TriMet Transit Mobility Center explains. "[Simply] having a disability does not make you eligible. You have to be prevented in some way from being able to use fixed route. You can't really tell that from a paper application." Plus, Miller adds, TriMet felt it was missing an opportunity to interact with applicants and let them know about other available services and training.

This led the agency to establish a new eligibility process - conducting in-person interviews with every applicant. TriMet contracted with Lake St. Louis, Mo.-based Medical Transportation Management to complete a functional assessment of each applicant's physical and cognitive abilities, and followed Easter Seals' Project Action's guidelines on conducting physical and cognitive assessments.

Potential participants complete an application. TriMet reviews it and schedules an in-person interview. If further assessment is needed, the applicant, accompanied by a mobility assessor, goes through an indoor simulated transit course with sloped ramps; a street crossing with a street light on a timer to test whether the applicant can cross soon enough to make it through the light; and a mockup of a low-floor bus to test the applicant's ability to board.

Then, they go on half-mile and quarter-mile walks in the neighborhood to see how they do in a real situation. The evaluation includes walking on different surfaces, crossing streets, and a fixed-route trip, using bus and light rail at the end of the assessment, if the assessor thinks the applicant has the ability.

The agency also incorporated the new assessment system into the travel training program it uses, RideWise, developed five years ago with Ride Connection, a volunteer organization located in Portland, which promotes independent travel among older adults and people with disabilities.

As a result of the program, TriMet is seeing a reduction in its paratransit ridership. Many riders are changing their eligibility status from fully eligible to conditionally eligible.

"Some people realize they just need temporary eligibility. Most significantly, one fourth of new applicants are opting out of the process before they come in for the assessment," Miller says, possibly because once they submit the application and learn more about the process, they decide they wouldn't be eligible.

The program also has increased TriMet's visibility within the community and provided a greater opportunity to educate the community about the service, according to Miller.

"About one-third of the people that come in, especially new people, bring a caregiver, family member or friend. That provides an opportunity for them to see how it works," she says.

One advantage that using the fixed-route system instead of paratransit provides, Miller points out, is the flexibility. Riders can choose whatever route and time works for them, take trips on a whim and don't need to contact anyone to cancel if they change their mind - paratransit riders have to schedule trips by 5:00 p.m. the previous day, according to TriMet's LIFT policy.

Miller adds that, overall, people value the service. "Once [applicants] went through the process, they felt it was fair, and not as burdensome as they [expected]...I believe that it improves peoples' lives to be able to use fixed route if that's the appropriate choice for them based on their functional abilities, and the vast majority of people are able to make it work for them," she says.

Mike Mullins, RideWise Supervisor, Ride Connection, agrees that many paratransit riders benefit from the ability to navigate the fixed-route world and gain, as he sees it, a "heightened level of independence, freedom and dignity that comes with being able to come and go as you please...choice comes back to you."

Mobility Centers

As part of its new in-person assessment program, TriMet created a transit mobility center and moved the facility into its transit mall in downtown Portland, a location with easy access to both its fixed-route and light rail systems.

"Fortunately, we had a facility in our transit mall that was already under lease to us," Miller explains. "The lease came up about the same time we were looking for a place, and we thought it was the perfect location."

The facility opened in January, 2010, with TriMet performing in-person assessments beginning that April.

To save costs on its assessment course, TriMet's shops built a mockup of a low-floor bus for use in the securement and boarding evaluation. The agency's bus stops program donated bus stop signs, benches and seats for the course to make it look more realistic. The city of Portland donated a street signal. TriMet hired receptionists and added three eligibility staff as well as another scheduler and dispatcher to schedule the trips to the mobility center.

Meanwhile, Phoenix-based Valley Metro has come up with new solutions to transition some riders from paratransit to other more affordable means to get to and from their destinations.

Based on a paratransit study the agency conducted in 2008, one of the primary findings was, like for TriMet, a recommendation to implement an in-person assessment process into its ADA certification program.

"We needed a more thorough system as a backbone [for making] eligibility determinations," Scott Wisner, customer service manager, explains. "The decision was to go to an in-person process before we made any wholesale changes to the paratransit system."

The assessments typically provide more accurate determinations, which can be an effective first step toward mitigating some of the demand, he adds.

The agency decided to take the recommendation a step further, integrating a mobility center into its in-person assessment process. The Mobility Center, unveiled in February, features a 40-foot bus and shelter set against a backdrop of photo murals depicting various transportation modes, multiple street ramps with different pitches and a streetscape.

"We created wall murals throughout the mobility course that simulate a real world environment," Wisner says. "We put in plants, murals of trains and buses, transit centers and a real bus stop. We tried to bring the outdoors indoors and make it look as real as possible, like part of the community. The scenes we took were from the actual community. A warm, open, bright facility really makes people at ease when they come inside."

 The agency hired Los Angeles-based C.A.R.E. Evaluators to handle the ADA assessment and administer the travel training program.

Additionally, the agency plans to implement a new pass program for people that qualify for ADA paratransit service, or are conditionally eligible, providing them with a free bus and rail pass to further offset the demand on paratransit by subsidizing the cost to ride bus and rail.

"It's a very affordable option for those who can utilize bus and rail," Wisner says.

Valley Metro's Ride Choice program, designed to pair people with alternative transportation, such as a travel training program, coupons for cabs or volunteer rider programs also will run out of the Mobility Center.

The travel training program will teach people who are conditionally eligible for paratransit to ride the bus and rail with one-on-one training. Staff members evaluate applicants based on where they live, whether they are eligible for paratransit service and, if not, what other transportation options are in their area. If they are eligible, they identify opportunities to help them learn how to ride the bus or train.

Valley Metro received substantial buy-in from its stakeholders as part of the implementation of the Mobility Center, in-person assessment and travel training.

"We got feedback from them about every phase - scheduling the appointment, the interview and the assessment," Wisner says. "We had an open house. It was well-attended by members from the community [as a whole], as well as the disabled community. [We] got a lot of positive feedback [on] the design of the mobility center to the way the process is going to be run."

Ideas from the public that Valley Metro plans to use include installing a bathroom in the mobility course and more accessibility from the transit center to offices, public restrooms and the building itself.

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Flexible bus options

In May 2010, the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) completed the launch of its nine-area, flex-route bus service program, which was expanded to help fill gaps caused by reducing its paratransit services.

The flex routes have been effective in taking pressure of funding and resources off UTA's paratransit service. The cost per rider on the flex service, in the $3 to $4 range, is close to the cost per rider on a regular bus route. The cost per passenger on paratransit is $35, Gerry Carpenter, senior media relations specialist says.

"We're definitely moving a lot more people for much lower cost through this approach than through traditional paratransit," he explains.

The agency is proposing adding two more flex routes, which would begin service in August. The proposed Business Depot Ogden route will service the business district in Ogden, a city north of Salt Lake City.

"We haven't previously had service there. There has been some interest from businesses in the area and public demand, but it's a difficult area to serve," Carpenter says. "There are a lot of little streets that go all over the place. If we just ran a regular fixed bus route through the middle of it, people would [have] long distances to walk, [and the] demand wouldn't merit a 40-foot bus."

UTA received $220,000 in a Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) grant and a $100,000 New Freedom grant, to introduce a pilot bus route to the area. The circulator route will run from UTA's Downtown Ogden transit center, an intermodal hub which meets the commuter rail, Greyhound and a number of different bus routes, to the Ogden business district.

Instead of just having to ride a fixed bus route and walk half a mile, riders can, for one extra dollar, have the bus deviate off its course by three-quarters of a mile and drop them off at the curb of their destination.

 "We think it's going to be effective. Not only is it a smaller bus that can get on these narrow streets and sharp turns, but with our three-quarters-of-a-mile on-demand flex-route deviation capability, it can essentially serve the entire business park," Carpenter says.

Anyone who would normally need a paratransit vehicle can have a flex bus pick them up. Non-paratransit customers may also use the service, but the routes are particularly beneficial for paratransit riders who can use the bus, because of the lower fare. The $1 fee for the deviation is cheaper than the paratransit fare, which is currently $2.75 per one-way trip. UTA's policy for paratransit-eligible riders is that they can ride any UTA fixed-route bus for free, including the flex routes. Fare for any local bus route is $2.25.

The other advantage for paratransit customers is that they only have to call two hours ahead of time, whereas paratransit trips must be scheduled 24 hours in advance, Carpenter says.

The challenge UTA is facing in enhancing this service, Carpenter says, is it's coming during the recession, with declining revenues and an operating budget that is substantially smaller than anticipated when they were initially planning the lines.

"We're introducing two new light rail lines, about $4 million of new service to Salt Lake County and $6 million in rail service but, in order to operate, we are going to reduce some of our bus service," he says. "Overall, we're [providing] better service, [but] we simply don't have the operating revenues to run the new rail service and maintain our existing bus service, so we'll cut about $2 million for the bus."

UTA is proposing to convert some of the regular 40-foot, all day fixed-bus route into flex routes. The agency will add one new route and convert four other routes over from the regular bus route to a flex route. The change will enable the agency to maintain service to those areas, but at a much lower cost. It will also help keep services available for many paratransit customers.

The first flex bus was introduced in September, 2009. The others were rolled out in May, 2010 in suburban neighborhoods and rural areas. "One was in a small city at the north end of our service area. It was successful, [but] we didn't get enough ridership to run the full all-day bus route. When we switched over to the flex route, it caught on and has continued to increase in ridership," Carpenter recalls.

Through these routes UTA has managed to provide service to people who were not paratransit eligible, but were home-bound because they were unable to drive, didn't have other transportation options and were not able to walk far enough to get to a bus stop.

"By offering this service we can deviate off course for anyone whether they're paratransit-eligibile or not. We can essentially give them their freedom again," Carpenter says.

Ridership numbers are evidence of the program's success, with 9,078 riders in February 2011, compared with about 6,000 in 2010.