Evaluating Potential Demand and Operational Effects of Coordinated Americans with Disabilities Act Paratransit and Taxi Service

This paper presents an evaluation of the potential implications of using taxis along with conventional paratransit to serve customers eligible for demand responsive service through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Subsidizing a taxi service to carry some paratransit demand could potentially reduce the total cost of the service if diverted trips are inexpensive to serve by taxi and the remaining paratransit operations remain efficient. This study makes use of ADA paratransit operations and demand data from the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) in the greater Springfield, Massachusetts, region to develop an algorithm for optimally allocating paratransit demand to conventional paratransit services and taxis. First, a model is presented to optimize the spatial extent of the ADA paratransit service area, assuming that all trips outside the service region can be incentivized to use taxis. A more detailed investigation makes use of survey data from PVTA to estimate which trips could potentially be diverted to taxis or transportation network companies (TNCs) based on the type of disability that a customer has. The result is a model that shows which trips could be incentivized to switch to taxi and the magnitude of total operating cost savings that may be achieved from such a program.