Accessible Public Transit Alternatives
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 109, Issue 1
Abstract
Recent changes in Federal requirements for providing public transportation to the handicapped are identified. Accessible fixed‐route service and demand responsive service are evaluated as the two primary alternatives for meeting the Urban Mass Transit Administration's (UMTA) current “special efforts” requirement. The potential for accessible fixed‐route service is evaluated based on early experiences in St. Louis and Milwaukee and more recent data for Seattle. A hypothetical accessible fixed‐route system for Madison, Wisconsin, is developed using Seattle demand data and compared with the existing demand responsive system. A range of demand responsive service alternatives including the user side subsidy option are also evaluated for Madison. The analysis shows that, under ideal conditions and ignoring lift‐related delay costs, fixed‐route service can be nearly as cost‐effective as demand responsive service. Demand responsive service, however, provides for a much higher proportion of the travel needs of the handicapped in terms of both the total number of trips and the number of handicapped users. The handicapped in Madison can best be served at this point by maintaining the current demand responsive service and providing service expansions with the lower cost private taxi service.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
American Public Transit Association vs. Lewis, Federal Reporter, Vol. 655, 2nd Series, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, May 26, 1981, p. 1272.
2.
Casey, R. F., “The Accessible Fixed‐Route Bus Service Experience,” Urban Mass Transportation Administration Service and Methods Demonstration Program Staff Study, U.S. Department of Transportation, Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, Mass., Apr., 1981.
3.
“Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Handicap,” Federal Register, U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary, Vol. 46, No. 138, July 20, 1981, pp. 37488–37494.
4.
Smith, R. L., Jr. and Vernmark, B., “Evaluation of Specialized Transportation Systems for the Elderly and Handicapped in Dane County,” Dane County Regional Planning Commission, Madison, Wisc., June, 1981.
5.
Teixeira, D., Varker, F., and Bowling, R., “Accessible Bus Service in St. Louis,” Applied Resource Integration, Ltd., for the U.S. Department of Transportation, Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, Mass., Feb., 1980.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 ASCE.
History
Published online: Jan 1, 1983
Published in print: Jan 1983
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.