Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Transit

TO:	Dave Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Cliff Galante, Public Transit Administrator
CC:	Debbie Van Saun, Assistant City Manager
Date:	February 13, 2007
RE:	Increasing Demand for T-Lift Paratransit Service and Proposed Methods to Better Manage Demand and Costs

Since the transit services began in December 2000, the City has experienced a steady increase of ridership on T-Lift paratransit service that provides demand-response, door to door service for persons with disabilities.

Currently there are a total of 1,431 persons with disabilities registered for T-Lift service.  Specifically, since 2004 T-Lift ridership has increased 21.2%.  Last year alone, ridership increased 7.5% providing 55,176 trips as compared with the national average 3.3%.  For the first half of last year, MV Transportation certified 11 new applications for T-Lift service per month.  For the second half of last year, MV certified 15 new T-Lift applications per month.  In January of this year MV certified 25 new T-Lift applications for service.

Keep in mind that serving 25 passengers per day on T-Lift conservatively equates to providing 10 hours of service based on a productivity rate of 2.5 passengers per revenue hour.  In 2006, T-Lift provided an average of 2.43 trips per passenger hour.  By comparison in terms of productivity most large urban transit systems typically provide 1.1 to 1.6 trips per revenue hour for curb to curb service.  Small urban transit systems typically provide 2.0 to 2.3 trips per revenue hour for curb to curb service.  The fact that T-Lift is averaging close to 2.5 trips per revenue hour for door to door service as compared with curb to curb service is outstanding and is clearly reflective to efficient service MV Transportation has been able to provide.

In 2006, the cost per passenger trip averaged $17.15.  The cost per revenue hour was $41.62 based on total T-Lift expenses of $946,383.12 and 22,736 total revenue hours.   The cost per trip and per revenue hour is pretty typical industry wide.

Since 2004 total revenues hours of service has increased 3,465.43 hours or 14.1% despite ridership growing 21.2% during this same period.

What all the information provided above means is that demand for ADA paratransit service has far outpaced available service hours. 

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (CFR 37.131) public transportation systems that provide complementary ADA paratransit services are prohibited from having any operational pattern or practice that significantly limits the availability of service to ADA paratransit eligible persons, including but not limited to significantly untimely pickups, trip denials, missed trips, and trips with excessive trip lengths.

In an effort to avoid untimely pickups, trip denials, missed trips and trips with excess trip links the scheduling and operation of T-Lift service is routinely evaluated and adjusted.  When patterns begin to develop caused from increasing demand for service, the Transit Department has historically increased service hours to eliminate any patterns and avoid any possible ADA violations.

On average since 2000 when transit services were launched, the City has had to increase hours of service for T-Lift by 921 hours annually to keep relative pace with demand for service.  Last year, 978 hours or 4.5% of service was added at a rate of $29.44 per hour increasing the cost the City paid to provide ADA paratransit service by $28,792.32.

So far in 2007 demand for service has continued to increase.  Specifically, ridership for the month of January is up 16% as compared with the same period a year ago.  This increase has caused the Transit Department to increase service hours again to avoid a pattern of denials that was beginning to form on Wednesday mornings when there have been a high number of trip requests.  Beginning in February, 4.5 hours of service has been added on Wednesday mornings.  A total of 187 hours of service has been added for the year at a cost of $5,687 based on the 2007 service rate of $30.41 per hour.

Due to limited funding it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the Transit Department to make service adjustments to increase revenue hours of service to comply with ADA regulations when patterns begin to form.

Increasing service hours has been the most conservative approach used to date to address short-term increases of demand for services.  However, in the long-term due to limited resources, this approach alone will not be sufficient in maintaining compliance with ADA regulations.

Societal trends of aging populations where age related illnesses causes disabilities that require specialized services will be a growing issue in our nation and community for many years to come as many people in the Baby Boomer Generation, the largest segment of our population, continue to age and begin to require specialized services.  The Transit Department in response to this need will have to be prepared to handle the growing demand for ADA paratransit services that will continue to place enormous strain on service capacity and available resources.

As such, the Transit Department would like to begin to work with the Public Transit Advisory Committee and the City Commission on reviewing and possibly revising current conditional eligibility, certification, fare, and advanced reservation policies to help better manage the growing demand for service in the long-term.  Revising only one of these policies will not be sufficient.  It will require revising and implementing all these policies to have a measurable impact. 

Specifically, in terms of eligibility, the Transit Department would like to review conditional eligibility requirements to see where they can further be refined according to the laws of the ADA where trip eligibility based on conditional use would be determined on a trip by trip basis.

In addition, the Transit Department would like to review and revise the ADA paratransit service certification process where physicians would certify their patient’s disability for eligibility of paratransit services on the individual’s behalf.  Self-certification by individuals would no longer be permitted.

Furthermore, the current fare policy would be reviewed and possibly changed where fares would increase above the $1.00 per trip currently charged and the $34.00 for a monthly bus pass for unlimited rides.  Also, discuss the possibility of having certified T-Lift passengers ride free on ADA accessible “T” fixed-route service to encourage the use of fixed-route service.  Note any fare change would also have to coincide with fare changes for “T” fixed-route service.  Federal regulations prohibit ADA paratransit service being more than double the fare rate of fixed-route service.

Finally, in terms of improving efficiency of current services, the Transit Department would like to review, discuss and possibly change the current two-week advanced reservations policy.  Recent analyses by MV Transportation found that approximately 1/3 of all scheduled trips are cancelled requiring same day driver schedule adjustments with service add-ons to fill the gaps. 

Part of the problem of high trip cancellation is permitting people to schedule trips two-weeks in advance.  The Transit Department would like to shorten the reservation window to a maximum of seven days advanced notice when people have a much better idea of their travel schedules for the week.  This change should immediately help in making the service operate more efficiently and reduce the high number of trip cancellations and same day service add-ons.  Revising this policy will also help in terms of better managing demand since advanced reservations fill up available service time slots restricting the availability of service by others.  By reducing the advanced reservation window, there should be less time slots “falsely” reserved opening those time slots for others to utilize.

At the next regularly scheduled PTAC meeting in February, I plan to include this issue as an agenda item.  My plan is to create a sub-committee to assist with reviewing the current policies and to work with my staff and I in making any revisions or changes.  In the coming months, proposed revised policies will be presented to public for comment and to the City Commission for review and approval.