National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Appendix B: Suburban Transit Services
Page 68
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 68
Page 69
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 69
Page 70
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 70
Page 71
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 71
Page 72
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 72
Page 73
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 73
Page 74
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 74
Page 75
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 75
Page 76
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 76
Page 77
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 77
Page 78
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 78
Page 79
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 79
Page 80
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 80
Page 81
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 81
Page 82
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 82
Page 83
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 83
Page 84
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 84
Page 85
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 85
Page 86
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 86
Page 87
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 87
Page 88
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 88
Page 89
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 89
Page 90
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 90
Page 91
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 91
Page 92
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 92
Page 93
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 93
Page 94
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 94
Page 95
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 95
Page 96
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 96
Page 97
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 97
Page 98
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 98
Page 99
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 99
Page 100
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 100
Page 101
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 101
Page 102
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 102
Page 103
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 103
Page 104
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 104
Page 105
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 105
Page 106
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 106
Page 107
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 107
Page 108
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 108
Page 109
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 109
Page 110
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 110
Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 111
Page 112
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 112
Page 113
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 113
Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 114
Page 115
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 115
Page 116
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 116
Page 117
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 117
Page 118
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 118
Page 119
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 119
Page 120
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 120
Page 121
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 121
Page 122
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 122
Page 123
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 123
Page 124
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 124
Page 125
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 125
Page 126
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 126
Page 127
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 127
Page 128
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 128
Page 129
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 129
Page 130
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 130
Page 131
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 131
Page 132
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 132
Page 133
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 133
Page 134
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 134
Page 135
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 135
Page 136
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 136
Page 137
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 137
Page 138
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 138
Page 139
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 139
Page 140
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 140
Page 141
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 141
Page 142
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 142
Page 143
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 143
Page 144
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 144
Page 145
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 145
Page 146
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Initial Case Studies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2006. Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23251.
×
Page 146

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

C-1 APPENDIX C: INITIAL CASE STUDIES The research team used a number of techniques to select sites for the initial case studies, which included: • Identifying appropriate sites from the comprehensive literature search. • Reviewing transit agency websites using APTA and similar information sources. • Transmitting an information request via a listserv, maintained by CUTR. • Applying personal knowledge of transit properties. • Balancing the size and geographical coverage of agencies, while ensuring that unique programs were also included. At the inception of this task, we recognized that many transit agencies are regularly asked to respond to a wide range of information requests and we were intent on not overburdening potential responders. On the other hand, we needed enough information to provide an overview of issues, trends and an assessment of practices, in order to recommend specific sites for in depth case studies. These sites would also need to have sufficient land-use data to reintroduce the correlation between transit services and the land-use typology that was discussed in the first deliverable. To minimize the time commitment from public agencies, while still gathering the information we needed, we developed a qualitative case study data collection form (see Attachment 1). The form was distributed to approximately thirty agencies that had been identified using the process described above. As discussed in our monthly and quarterly reports, the time it took to distribute these forms, and receive them back, exceeded our initial estimates - largely due to competing demands placed on the transit agency staff. However, as you will see in the following pages, we were successful in accumulating a wealth of information. In general, we were pleased with the level of interest from representatives of these agencies in the research and also some of their, in essence, lobbying efforts to ensure that their agency was recommended for more in depth analysis. These types of responses reflect the high level of interest and importance that agencies are placing on suburban services. As will be discussed in Section 2, there are many common issues and trends, but there are also diverging conclusions being made about them. The following pages present information gathered on the twenty-eight transit agencies that were part of the initial case studies. The agency profiles are organized first by geographic region (West, Midwest, South, and East) and then by agency size (starting with the smallest agencies). Each agency is listed below: West • Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) • South Metro Area Rapid Transit (SMART) • Eastern Contra Costa County Transit Authority (Tri Delta Transit) • Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) • Pierce Transit • Valley Metro

C-2 • Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) • King County Metro (Metro) • Denver Regional Transit District (Denver RTD) • Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District (TriMet) Midwest • Champaign – Urbana Mass Transit District (C-UMTD) • Des Moines Metropolitan Transit Authority (DMMTA) • Madison Metro • Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) • Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) • Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) • Metropolitan Council • Pace, Suburban Bus Division of the Regional Transportation Authority (Pace) South • Broward County, Florida and municipalities within the County • Fort Worth Transportation Authority • Charlotte • Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) East • Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) • Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA) • Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) • Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads (HRT) • Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority (RIPTA) • New Jersey Transit (NJ TRANSIT)

C-3 LIVERMORE AMADOR VALLEY TRANSIT AUTHORITY (LAVTA) Location: Livermore, CA Contact Person: Cory Lavigne, Manager of Transit Development Size of Agency: Small Transit Modes: Bus, shuttle, ADA paratransit Agency Description The Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) provides public transportation services in the Tri-Valley area, which includes Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton and unincorporated areas of eastern Alameda County. In recent years, LAVTA’s ridership has averaged 2 million annual unlinked passenger trips. LAVTA service can be divided into two separate service areas: Dublin/Pleasanton and Livermore. These two sub-service areas are separated by approximately three square miles of lightly developed industrial and agricultural land and are connected by several LAVTA routes. Description of Suburban Transit Services DART is an on-demand service with two fixed time points (Dublin/Pleasanton BART station and Livermore Transit Center) and serves various zones within Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore. DART service was initiated in May 1997 and replaced midday service on several of LAVTA’s fixed routes. DART has since expanded to provide service to Livermore, as well as evening and weekend service. DART provides WHEELS passengers with a custom service that is responsive to their constantly changing mobility needs. Unless transferring to a scheduled DART pickup at the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station or Livermore Transit Center, passengers must call to make reservations at least two hours in advance of their desired pickup time. DART utilizes the same fare structure as fixed-route WHEELS service. LAVTA provides two subscription bus routes to the Silicon Valley during the week. Information is listed below for each of these “Prime Time” routes: • PrimeTime Intel Express – LAVTA provides service to Intel by training Intel employees to drive their buses. One bus departs from the Portola park-and-ride lot in Livermore at 5:30 AM and makes one stop at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds at 5:45 AM en route to the Intel facility on Mission College Blvd at 7:00 AM. The bus is parked at the Intel facility during the day and is driven back to the Tri-Valley area leaving Intel at 4:10 PM and arriving at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds at 5:12 PM and the Portola Park & Ride at 5:36 PM. • PrimeTime Lockheed Martin – Similar to the Intel service, Lockheed Martin employees are trained to operate the LAVTA buses and are considered to be employees of LAVTA’s contract operator, MV Transportation, while behind the wheel. There are two (2) separate buses which provide service to the Lockheed Martin facility, one of which leaves the Portola park-and-ride lot at 4:43 AM and the other which leaves at 5:23 AM. Both of these buses make stops at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds (4:59 AM and 5:39 AM) before

C-4 running express to the Lockheed facility (5:39 AM and 6:39 AM). On the return, the first bus leaves Lockheed at 3:45 PM stopping at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds at 4:45 PM and getting into the Portola Park and Ride at 5:10 PM. The second bus departs Lockheed at 4:45 PM stopping at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds at 5:55 PM arriving at the Portola Park & Ride at 6:15 PM. LAVTA has also recently added PrimeTime service to Sun Microsystems in Newark, CA, however this service has not performed particularly well, carrying less than 3 passengers per day during June, 2003. Passengers can purchase monthly passes for these commuter services ($95 for Livermore passengers and $85 for Pleasanton passengers) or can pay on a daily basis at a rate of $7.00 per roundtrip. Description of Operational Issues Similar to its fixed-route service, LAVTA contracts the DART service out to a private operator, which is currently MV Transportation. As mentioned above, PrimeTime service is operated by trained employees of Intel and Lockheed Martin and the vehicles are parked on-site during the work day. While operating the bus, these drivers are considered employees of MV Transportation for insurance purposes. Furthermore, these individuals must be in compliance with all the requirements established for MV drivers, such as obtaining and maintaining their commercial driver’s license. DART service also periodically runs into operational issues due to the rather intensive man-power requirements associated with the service. In fact, there is a full-time person assigned to coordinating the DART service, which includes scheduling trips and dispatching responsibilities. Currently, Dublin/Pleasanton DART operates four vehicles on non-weekdays. The productivity on two of the vehicles is consistent with DART expectations. However, the two other vehicles operate below established DART standards. Description of Funding Arrangements LAVTA relies upon its regular funding sources to pay for DART and PrimeTime service. Passenger fares are much higher for the PrimeTime service as compared to regular fixed-route transit service, which contributes to a much higher farebox recovery rate for this service. Description of Marketing Program LAVTA has an extensive marketing program for promoting their transit services, which includes special events, promotional materials, advertising spots, and effective use of their website.

C-5 Description of Performance Measurement Program LAVTA has recently added specific performance measures to their overall performance measurement system designed to evaluate DART and PrimeTime service. LAVTA set the farebox recovery ratio at 75% for PrimeTime subscription service and also established a performance standard of 20 passengers/hour. For DART service, LAVTA has a performance standard of 6 passengers/hour. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services In recent years, LAVTA’s more innovative suburban transit services have not fared well. The Lockheed Martin PrimeTime route is the only subscription route that continues to perform strongly. The Sun Microsystems route was eliminated due to low ridership. The Intel route continues to operate, but farebox recovery rates have been dropping below the 75% standard and the route is at risk of being eliminated. DART service has also struggled, costing LAVTA $24.28 per passenger in May 2003. Through an on-board survey effort, it was learned that the general lack of weekend service is considered to be a system deficiency for existing as well as potential riders. As a result of this information and the poor performance of DART service, Saturday DART service has been replaced with fixed-route service and Sunday DART service will also be eliminated by the end of 2004. It is expected that mid-day and evening DART service will remain, however. The economic recession has hit LAVTA particularly hard and the system has responded to decreasing ridership by eliminating service. Up until 2001, LAVTA had experienced constant ridership growth and continued to provide additional services to its customers, such as DART and PrimeTime service. These services flourished during the strong economy but have not done so well of late. Transferability to Other Systems DART and PrimeTime service are both highly transferable to other transit systems. DART type service needs to be highly integrated with the fixed-route network in order to do well. Subscription service, such as LAVTA’s PrimeTime service, works well in suburban communities in which there is a concentration of residents that work at a common, but distant location.

C-6 SOUTH METRO AREA RAPID TRANSIT (SMART) Location: Wilsonville, OR Contact Person: Steven Allen, Operations Manager Size of Agency: Small Transit Modes: Fixed-route bus, commuter bus, general public dial-a-ride Agency Description Under Oregon laws governing transit districts, cities with fewer than 10,000-15,000 residents, as well as unincorporated areas at least one square mile in size containing at least 200 voters, have the opportunity every five years to withdraw from a transit district if certain conditions are met. In 1988, Wilsonville (2000 population: 13,991), located approximately 18 miles south of downtown Portland and 25 miles north of Salem, was the first city in Oregon to use this law. Wilsonville successfully petitioned to withdraw from TriMet, the Portland-area service provider, and start its own transit service. Wilsonville’s central location between Portland and Salem makes it both a growing suburban residential community whose residents commute to jobs in the two regions, and a business center that attracts commuters from the same regions. Wilsonville’s six largest private employers have between 400 and 1,350 employees on the payroll, and the city has fifteen private employers with more than 135 employees. Wilsonville is considered within the Portland urban growth boundary; however, there is currently a two-to-five mile wide buffer of land between Wilsonville and the rest of the Portland region that lies outside the regional urban growth boundary, making Wilsonville a 6.8-square-mile urbanized island on the fringe of the Portland area. Ridership on the City of Wilsonville system, South Metro Area Rapid Transit, or SMART, has grown steadily from 7,100 in the first year of operation to over 243,000 in FY 2003. Service is funded primarily by a 0.3% tax assessed on business payrolls, which is one-half the tax rate that Wilsonville businesses had been paying to TriMet. No fares are charged. All routes use a combination of cutaways and 30, 35, and 40-foot buses. Description of Suburban Transit Services SMART currently operates two fixed-routes that operate exclusively in town: Route 204, which primarily serves residential areas and Route 203, which primarily serves employers on the west side of town. Route 201, the oldest of the fixed routes, is both a local route that serves employers on the east side of town and an express route that connects Wilsonville to TriMet service in Portland. SMART also operates fixed-routes that primarily provide connections to other communities. SMART and Salem Area Transit jointly operate an express route (1X) on Interstate 5 between Wilsonville and Salem, the state capital, serving commuters in both directions. In 2003, SMART began operating Route 205, connecting Wilsonville to another outer Portland suburb, Canby (2000 population: 12,790) eight miles to the southeast. Connections can be made

C-7 in Canby to Canby’s local circulators, TriMet and Canby service north to Oregon City, and east to another outer suburb, Molalla. Former SMART Route 202 operated to Meridian Park Hospital 6 miles north of Wilsonville, and continued to Oregon City, 13 miles northeast of Wilsonville, but was cancelled in December 2001 due to low ridership. Dial-a-ride service is available to the general public within the city, although ADA customers have priority for service and passengers who are able to access the fixed-route system are requested to use the fixed routes. Dial-a-ride service has been provided since the system started in 1989 and currently averages 5 boardings per revenue hour, with rapidly growing ridership. Service is available between 5:30 a.m. and 7:15 p.m. weekdays throughout the city, and limited Saturday service is also provided. Rides can be scheduled up to two weeks in advance and a minimum 24-hour notice is recommended. Description of Operational Issues The ability to travel fare-free between Salem and the southern portion of Portland attracts some transients, who are willing to accept the long transfer connection. The first northbound bus from Salem to Wilsonville leaves at 5:05 a.m., which is before the morning start of service for Salem Keizer Transit. As a result, passengers on that first trip are unable to use transit for their entire trip, unless they happen to live near downtown Salem. Description of Funding Arrangements All services are funded solely by SMART. The majority of SMART’s revenue (77% in 2003) comes from a 0.3 percent payroll tax levied on employers within the city. Virtually all of the remaining revenue comes from federal or state grants. The three Salem trips operated by Salem Keizer Transit, extra Route 201 service to Portland, and Route 205 service to Canby are funded by JARC grants. Description of Marketing Program SMART services are marketed through newspaper and cable television ads, employer transportation fairs, and the county fair. SMART has a web site (Hhttp://www.ridesmart.com) that provides schedule and route information. SMART also provides bus service to Portland Trail Blazer basketball games from Wilsonville, which makes transit service more visible to those who normally do not use it. A fare is charged for this special service, which is marketed in conjunction with two local restaurants where passengers are picked up at. Description of Performance Measurement Program The main performance measures relate to cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness, measured by statistics such as cost per passenger, cost per hour, and cost per mile. Overall ridership is also tracked. Routes are evaluated annually by SMART’s Operations Manager. All routes are evaluated the same way. Data used for the measure from ridership counts and financial data, and are collected by bus operators, the dispatcher, and the Operations Manager. On-time performance is also reported annually as part of the City’s budgeting process.

C-8 Customer satisfaction is measured through comments provided by the public, who may call, write a letter, or fill out a feedback card. SMART also conducts on-board checks of customer satisfaction. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Service Strong ridership growth began in 1993, coinciding with the startup of the first fixed route, Route 201, which serves three of Wilsonville’s four largest employers, and provides connections to Portland. Figure C-1: Wilsonville Annual Ridership 1989-2003 0 25,000 50,000 75,000 100,000 125,000 150,000 175,000 200,000 225,000 250,000 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 F iscal Year The agency’s reliance on a payroll tax requires a balance between the amount of residential and employment development occurring within the city. If population grows at a faster rate than jobs, demand for service could outstrip available resources. Similarly, if employers were to lay off employees, the amount of resources available for transit service would drop. At the same time, having a lower payroll tax than most of the rest of the region is a selling point in getting businesses to locate in the city. Transferability to Other Systems Wilsonville enjoys a location between two significant commute destinations—Portland, the largest city in Oregon, and Salem, the state capital—as well as a sizable employment base of its own. This provides a market for both commute and reverse-commute services. Many suburbs elsewhere in the country may not have the balanced mix of employment and residential land uses that Wilsonville has, nor the same geographic advantages. Because not all of the revenue generated in Wilsonville was returned in the form of service when the city was within the TriMet district, the City was able to reduce the payroll tax rate by one-half (popular with business) and still increase the amount of service provided within Wilsonville (popular with residents). In addition, the withdrawal of Wilsonville did not harm

C-9 TriMet financially, as the same state law permitting withdrawals also permits TriMet to increase its payroll tax rate to make up the lost revenue. As a result, TriMet ended up with the same revenue, but saved most of service hours it had been providing Wilsonville. Three other outer Portland suburbs have since followed Wilsonville’s lead. However, it is unlikely that same combination of state laws and transit financing systems exists elsewhere. Nevertheless, Wilsonville does provide a good example of the evolution of transit service in a growing suburb—starting with solely demand-response service, adding fixed-route service as demand and funding permitted, and progressing to the current mix of in-town fixed-route, commuter, inter-suburb, and demand-responsive service. Wilsonville also provides a good example of how a smaller transit agency in a region with several transit operators can integrate its services with others’.

C-10 EASTERN CONTRA COSTA COUNTY TRANSIT AUTHORITY (TRI DELTA TRANSIT) Location: Eastern Contra Costa County, CA Contact Person: Steve Ponte, Director of Service Planning Size of Agency: Small Transit Modes: Bus, express bus, ADA paratransit Agency Description The Eastern Contra Costa County Transit Authority, also known as Tri Delta Transit, operates fixed-route, commuter express, and paratransit service for Eastern Contra Costa County. Eastern Contra Costa County is one of the fastest growing suburban areas within the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes older industrial communities in the cities of Pittsburg, Antioch, and transitioning agricultural areas in the unincorporated county areas of Oakley, Byron and Brentwood. Description of Suburban Transit Services From these locations, the Delta Express provides express bus service to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Sandia Labs, both of which are nationally recognized research labs employing approximately 25,000 persons, and to Hacienda Business Park, a sub-regional employment hub, employing over 12,000 persons and the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), which provides regional employment access. The LLNL/Sandia Lab service began operating July 2001 and the Dublin BART/Hacienda Business service started August 2002. The LLNL/Sandia service operates four trips daily to the labs from the mushrooming communities of Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Byron via Mountain House Road. The express bus shaves an average of 20 to 30 minutes from the average commute time from these areas. The Delta Express to Hacienda Business Park connects to the Dublin BART system and Hacienda Business Park operates four trips daily along the same route as the LLNL bus, but adds one stop in Discovery Bay, another fast growing suburban community. Description of Operational Issues ECCTA contracts the Driver/Supervisor portion of the Delta Express service (currently operated by Laidlaw). Maintenance and Administration are provided by ECCTA staff. Except for the initial capital costs of purchasing the buses, the cost of this service has been minimal. ECCTA purchased 6 MCI “E” series coaches at a cost of approximately $394,000 each which was considered a “steal” because ECCTA was one of the first transit agencies to purchase this style of buses. (The current cost is approximately $600,000.) The coaches seat 52 passengers and are equipped with reclining seats, headphone jacks at all seats, TV, VCR, multi-player CD’s, spill-proof commuter mugs, spiral staircases, and rear door wheel chair lift.

C-11 Delta Express service operates daily during peak commute times. Passenger drop-off and pick up locations are at designated park and ride lots, or central locations within each community. There are no major operational issues or constraints to provide this service. Description of Funding Arrangements The service is fully funded by fares and ECCTA through TDA funds. The current fares are $110 for a monthly pass, and $65 for a 20-ride punch pass. Description of Marketing Program Tri-Delta has done extensive marketing for the Delta Express Service. Marketing promotions cover all media, and includes the following: • Local newspaper advertising • Local magazine advertising • Press releases sent to local newspapers • Delta Express brochures distributed at community events • Posters placed at Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station • Article placed in Hacienda Network Newsletter that is distributed to all employees in the Hacienda Business Park • Delta Express information placed on Hacienda Business Park website • Participated in transportation fair at Hacienda Business Park • Direct mailed postcard to all residents in Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, Byron, and Discovery Bay with information on the Delta Express and a free ticket offer to try the service • Partnered with Contra Costa Commute Alternative (CCCAN) to offer “Buy 1 Get 1 Free Monthly Pass” on the Delta Express • Direct mailed information to all commute coordinators within the Hacienda Business Park • Article placed in Bishop Ranch employee newsletter • Partnered with Bishop Ranch and the Hacienda Business Park to promote Delta Express • Bus Back posters advertising the Delta Express are on the buses • Delta Express listed in LLNL employee newsletter • Participated in transportation fair at LLNL • Delta Express information distributed to new residents in Eastern Contra Costa County • Distributed flyers at the Martinez Court House and Regional Medical Center • Article placed in employee newsletter at the Regional Medical Center • Delta Express information in Tri Delta Transit bus schedule • Delta Express information on Tri Delta Transit website

C-12 Description of Performance Measurement Program Tri-Delta collects monthly data on passenger per mile/hour and cost per hour/mile. The data is collected by the service contractor which is reviewed by the ECCTA Director of Finance. This performance measure is different than measurements for other service, because the Delta Express is a high-end service that is structured to provide incentives to attract passengers to transit rather than provide service to the more transit dependent. This service is limited to eight commute runs, but has strong ridership and a solid cost recovery ratio. In contrast, ECCTA’s regular service is geared to the general commuter population and all day riders and is measured y passenger per mile/hour. Cost per hour and total ridership, whereas Delta express is measured by farebox return. If standards are not met on regular service, typically the route is changed or eliminated. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services This high-end service is difficult to measure with typical performance standards because this particular commuter market is different than the general commuter and fixed-route patrons. They expect a different level of service because the fare is much higher and the service is limited to eight daily runs. Ridership is growing more slowly than regular fixed-route service because it serves a limited area. However, combined, both services have a 98% fare-box recovery ratio, although the Dublin BART/Hacienda Business Park service operates at a lower ratio (50%). Transferability to Other Systems Tri-Delta Express provides fixed-route, commuter service targeted at a specific ridership markets with established regional employment destinations, which are cost effective. The target market is high-end professionals who are one of the most difficult market segments to shed their cars for transit, despite the significant amount of traffic congestion on the Route 4/Highway 580 corridor. Due to the luxury features of the buses, the commute has essentially become an extension of the workday for most commuters, which provides an additional travel time savings. Operating Data Table C-1: Tri Delta Express – Service Characteristics Tri Delta Express – Eastern Contra Costa Business Authority Service Characteristics Lawrence Livermore National and Sandia Labs Hacienda Business Park Total Annual Passengers 18,000 3,700 21,700 Annual Miles 43,000 57,000 100,000 Annual Service Hours 1,500 1,600 103,100 Annual Service Costs $75,000 $80,000 155,000 Span of Service 5:18 am / 6:18 am 3:55 am / 4:55 pm 5:03 am / 5:18 am 4:20 pm / 5:35 pm N/A Days of Operation Monday thru Friday Monday thru Friday N/A Type of Equipment MCI “E” Series MCI “E” Series N/A Schedule/Frequency Four am and four pm trips Four am and four pm trips N/A Transit Priority Buses are Equipped (1) Buses are Equipped (1) N/A (1) All buses are equipped with signal priority, however we are still working on getting all cities to allow the use of these devices.

C-13 ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (OCTA) Location: Orange County, CA Contact Person: Scott Holmes/Beth McCormick Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Bus, commuter rail, ADA paratransit, light rail (planned) Agency Description Orange County Transportation Authority, “OCTA,” is the county’s primary transportation agency, responsible for all forms of transportation ranging from streets and roads projects to bus and paratransit service. OCTA is responsible for providing fixed-route bus service in its 797 sq. mi. service area, which consists of 34 cities, unincorporated areas, and a total of nearly 3 million residents. In 2003, the OCTA fixed-route bus network had more than 65 million passenger boardings. Description of Suburban Transit Services Although OCTA is planning to implement some more creative suburban transit services in the near future, their current services are not particularly innovative. OCTA’s fixed-route bus system is expanding rapidly to meet increasing passenger demand in Orange County, however, and OCTA does utilize smaller vehicles to provide fixed-route service in some parts of the county that have either steep terrain or lower demand. Description of Operational Issues Since OCTA is not currently providing any innovative suburban transit services, there are no operational issues to report. Description of Funding Arrangements In addition to regular state and federal funding sources, OCTA relies upon Measure M funding, which is one half cent sales tax that was approved by Orange County voters in November 1990 for countywide transportation improvements. In 2002, approximately 20% of the $136 million Measure M revenues went towards transit projects. Description of Marketing Program OCTA uses traditional approaches to marketing transit services, including website development, special events, PSAs, etc.

C-14 Description of Performance Measurement Program OCTA is currently revising their performance measurement program to be more extensive. The current program includes factors such as minimum service span, ACCESS standards, transfer wait time, loading standards, etc. OCTA does have different standards for its different types of bus service as follow: • Core bus service: 30 pass/hr • Local bus service: 20 pass/hr • Small bus service: 10 pass/hr Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services OCTA is considering operating deviated fixed-route service but is optimistic about the probable success of this service model. Recent outreach in its service area suggests that each community would like to have its own OCTA sub-system of circulator type routes. OCTA has yet to act on these service requests.

C-15 PIERCE TRANSIT Location: Pierce County, WA Contact Person: Eric Phillips, Senior Planner Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Bus, ADA paratransit, vanpool, and demand-response - hybrid Description of Suburban Transit Services In addition to traditional fixed-route services that often extend into the suburban service areas, Pierce Transit operates two non-traditional general public services (hybrid services) designed to serve the rural portions of the service area. Bus PLUS service is a route-deviated regularly scheduled service that allows off-route deviations for customers who make advance reservations. This service began in September 2003. Loop service is a general public dial-a-ride type service that provides reservations-only service. Both services operate as a curb-to-curb type of general public service from established pick-up and drop-off locations. This service began in 2001. Description of Operational Issues Bus PLUS and Loop services can be operated internally or by contractors. Services are either demand-responsive route deviated or reservations only. Operating issues typically relate to the overall design of the service, locating passenger pick-up and drop-off locations and meeting connecting services that meet the travel needs of customers traveling into and out of the more rural portions of the service area. Description of Funding Arrangements Funding for hybrid services comes from local operating resources and special needs transportation grants. Special Needs Transportation funding is only available through special appropriation by the state legislature and receipt of funding is based on submittal of grant requests through a competitive process. Description of Marketing Program Service is marketed in local printed media, through community presentations, promotional brochures, direct mailings to area residents and through Pierce Transit’s public timetable book and website. Customer satisfaction is measured consistent with other transit services provided by Pierce Transit including service monitoring and adjustments during regularly planned service changes, handling direct customer complaints consistent with practices in place for fixed-route and paratransit services and through community outreach provided to garner additional input on how service can be improved or modified to best meet the needs of the communities served.

C-16 Specific service standards and performance measures are in place and adopted by the Board of Commissioners to monitor these services. Description of Performance Measurement Program Hybrid services are a combination of fixed-route and demand-responsive services that serve low-density suburban or rural areas which cannot be cost-effectively served by conventional fixed-route services alone. These are generally areas with a combined employment and residential density that is less than 1,800 persons per square mile. Recognizing that hybrid services generally have excessive operating costs per passenger carried, they are only initiated when the social benefit provided by these services outweighs their financial limitations. Hybrid services possess far more flexibility than other fixed-route services. Generally, the specific operating characteristics of a particular hybrid service should be tailored to meet the needs of the neighborhoods it serves. Because they combine general public and paratransit services, hybrid routes do not need ADA complementary paratransit services. Pierce Transit operates two forms of hybrid service: • Zone routed services provide a vehicle to area residents at specified hours of the day. Customers must reserve a ride in advance. Zone routed services will transport customers from any part of the pickup zone to one or more drop-off points, where connections to other Pierce Transit services are provided. • Deviated fixed-route services operate along a fixed route and schedule but will deviate off that fixed route to pick up passengers when they reserve a trip in advance. Hours of operation, service frequency and bus stop locations provided on hybrid services vary, depending upon the specific needs of the area served. Generally, service levels are much less than what is offered on traditional fixed-route services. New hybrid services should be determined to have the potential to transport five passengers per total vehicle hour of operation within three years of the startup of services. Hybrid services will be evaluated periodically on the basis of total passengers carried per vehicle hour and operating costs per passenger boarding. Each Hybrid service will be judged to be “S” (Satisfactory) or “U” (Unsatisfactory) based upon the results of this evaluation. Unsatisfactory routes will be considered for service level reductions or elimination, as appropriate.

C-17 Table C-2: Pierce Transit Hybrid Services Passengers per Cost per Vehicle Hour Boarding Passenger New Routes (less than one year old): Satisfactory >3.0 pass/hr <$11.30/pass Unsatisfactory <3.0 pass/hr >$11.30/pass Routes one to two years old: Satisfactory >4.0 pass/hr <$8.50/pass Unsatisfactory <4.0 pass/hr >$8.50/pass Routes more than two years old: Satisfactory >5.0 pass/hr <$6.80/pass Unsatisfactory <5.0 pass/hr >$6.80/pass All costs in 2003 dollars. They should be indexed for inflation. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services In September of 2003 service on the Key Peninsula was converted from a “Loop” service to “Bus PLUS” service. Ridership went from 7 passengers per day to over 30 per day average. Bus PLUS service has resulted in lower reservation requests and more general use of the system for local trips as well. Customer response, given the service is only every two hours, weekdays only, has been excellent. Marketing for this type of rural services has been a challenge and opportunities to boost ridership are most likely to come from personal attention (neighborhood meetings, meetings with schools, senior centers, etc.). Transferability to Other Systems Designing a service that allows deviation based on time seems to allow flexibility for a service while allowing consistent hours of service to be known. Should more demand arise at a particular trip time than can be accommodated then, riders still have options to catch that trip or make a reservation on a later or earlier trip. Reducing call activity to a reservations center makes this option easy to integrate into an existing reservations center with minimal staffing and budget impacts. The system is flexible and allows operators to mange optimal operations at their discretion within set business parameters.

C-18 VALLEY METRO Location: Phoenix Contact Person: Teri Collins, Principal Transit Planner Size of Agency: Medium – large Transit Modes: Bus, light rail, shuttles Agency Description Valley Metro serves a population of 2.9 million with a peak-period fleet of 501 vehicles. Approximately 37 million annual unlinked trips are served with 1.25 million vehicle-hours and an annual operating budget of $104 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services Valley Metro has 3 types of suburban services: express service, neighborhood circulators and RAPID. RAPID service makes fewer stops than the express as some express routes service as local routes in the suburbs. Plans are to move away from routes that provide both services. There is one flex route service in southwest Avondale. Description of Operational Issues Most of the fixed-route service is contracted out. Cities individually run and maintain their own Dial-A-Ride services. Description of Funding Arrangements The Valley Metro service area does not have a dedicated funding source. They usually get 2 percent of the half-cent sales tax. Some cities (Phoenix, Tempe and Glendale) have passed local dedicated taxes. These funds are only used for services that are strictly within their respective cities. There currently are no private partnerships with major employers, etc. These are avenues that are being explored. Description of Marketing Program On the whole, Valley Metro does very little marketing due to funding constraints. The City of Phoenix has marketed the RAPID service and neighborhood circulators—mostly because these are new services. Description of Performance Measurement Program Valley Metro does little to no performance based planning. Service evaluations are not routinely conducted because local politicians are not pleased with the resulting numbers. Ridership is monitored on a monthly basis, but is not used for service evaluation purposes. A

C-19 customer satisfaction survey is conducted on an annual basis. The results of this survey give the agency a better idea of where to center their focus. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services The root of a lot of the challenges faced by Valley Metro is the lack of a dedicated funding source. The agency is in the process of making service reductions in cities that do not have a local dedicated tax.

C-20 METROPOLITAN TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT BOARD (MTDB) Location: San Diego, CA Contact Person: Conan Cheung, Senior Transportation Planner Size of Agency: Medium - large Transit Modes: Bus, rail, trolley Agency Description The San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) provides regional Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) bus and rail services directly or by contract with public or private operators for southwestern San Diego County. MTDB’s area of jurisdiction is approximately 570 square miles and has about 2 million residents. MTS consists of 15 express bus routes, 2 trolley routes, 74 local/urban bus routes, 6 demand-responsive services and 2 ADA complementary paratransit operators. These services have a peak fleet requirement of 173 vehicles and provide 547,000 revenue-hours of service. On average, MTS has an annual ridership level of 84.5 million unlinked trips and an annual operating budget of $23 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services • Suburban: Intercommunity services, serves low to medium densities, inconsistent stop spacing • Corridor Express: Operates on freeways/major arterials, usually compliments local service along corridor, less frequent stop spacing, more streamlined routing • Commuter Express: Operates on freeways/major arterials during peak hours, limited stop, serving major employment centers • Neighborhood: Provides neighborhood circulation, short routing Description of Operational Issues About one-third of MTDB’s service is contracted out. The agency’s most utilized, and therefore most successful routes are those that target low-income, minority communities. Commuter Express services are also popular (mostly choice riders) because they utilize managed lanes on otherwise very congested facilities, such as the I- 15. Due to budget cut backs, most dial-a-ride services are being cut. There are currently some flex routes, however, they will also eventually be cut as a result of budget constraints. Description of Funding Arrangements Some routes use JARC funding. The air district funds some routes that provide service between the Coaster (commuter rail) and business parks.

C-21 Description of Marketing Program Suburban transit services are not marketed any differently than other services. Some special market services will be especially advertised, but these are not necessarily suburban services. Description of Performance Measurement Program MTDB is in the process of making amendments to their performance measurement program. As it stands now, however, MTDB uses a service evaluation program that is equally based on quantitative and qualitative criteria. The quantitative criteria include three productivity measures: passengers per revenue mile, passengers per revenue hour and subsidy per passenger. The qualitative criteria can be summed into 3 aspects: transit supportive land uses (population & employment densities, activity centers, pedestrian orientation), regional transportation priorities (support of MTDB’s transit plan, support of major capital investments such as a transit center, serves a congested corridor) and quality of service (operator priority, schedule adherence and reduces overcrowding). Land-use data is collected by SANDAG. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services As smart growth has become trendier, there are pockets of new residential development that are based on neotraditional design (e.g., Otay Ranch). In MTDB’s experience, while these areas are more transit friendly, the residents living in these areas are typically more affluent and not as likely to use transit. In areas where concentrations of transit captive customers reside, site design is not as conducive to transit use; however, ridership levels in these areas are much higher. Transferability to Other Systems MTDB’s service planning and evaluation methodology are relatively sophisticated as they are able to utilize regional data from SANDAG. Not all agencies are likely to have the same data resources, though MTDB would serve as a good example to other agencies of what they could do given the right resources. Suburban bus services in the San Diego do not demonstrate the same level of innovation as found in other notable case studies.

C-22 KING COUNTY METRO (METRO) Location: Seattle, WA Contact Person: Mike Beck, Transit Contractor Administrator, 206-684-1753 Size of Agency: Large Transit Modes: Bus, rail, shuttle Description of Suburban Transit Services In the suburban communities in King County, Metro provides the DART transit program which is a combination of fixed-route and route-deviation service. The service has been in operation since the early 80’s and provides transit service to the general public in areas with low population densities and multiple destination points. The service is established on fixed routes for increased productivity, but each route has an element of route-deviation to improve rider convenience. Description of Operational Issues Requests made for deviations off the fixed route are made within a previously designated zone and are limited to the time available to provide such service while still maintaining the fixed-route schedule. The DART service is provided by a contractor who is responsible for operating the routes and providing the staff, vehicles, facilities and equipment necessary for the service. The contractor manages the day-to-day operation of the service, including a call center for scheduling and dispatching trip reservations. Metro establishes a multi-year contract with the service provider, who is paid once a month based on the contract’s hourly rate. Description of Funding Arrangements Funding for this service comes from the County’s annual operating budget for transit service. Description of Marketing Program There is no marketing program for DART service. Description of Performance Measurement Program Performance is primarily measured by productivity and on-time operations. Data is collected and provided by the contractor as a requirement under the service contract. In addition, Metro has staff that monitors the service performance in the field. The data and performance information is provided to the DART program manager. The findings are used to evaluate schedules, driver performance, routing revisions and other service factors.

C-23 Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services The DART program has proven to be an effective transportation tool for providing convenient, cost-effective service for suburban communities. The service operates primarily as fixed-route service using transit vans, but has the flexibility to deviate off the specific routing within a limited service area. This concept of combining fixed-route service with route-deviation flexibility has increased productivity while providing more convenient service for suburban areas. The challenge continues to be managing the schedules and routes for service that has both a fixed-route element and the ability to deviate off route. The fixed-route service must have time available to make deviations but still maintain the fixed schedule. Establishing the service areas for deviations must be large enough to make the service convenient, but not so large that the deviations result in poor schedule adherence. For this type of service, it is important to have performance standards clearly identified in the contract. In addition, the staff has found that financial penalties and incentives are effective tools in managing the service quality provided by the contractor. Also, it is important that customer communication pieces (timetables, website, etc.) provide clear information about the nature of this service and how it can be used, since it differs from regular transit. Transferability to Other Systems It is assumed the DART service program used by King County Metro could be incorporated by other transit agencies, particularly in areas that have communities with low population densities and multiple destination point. This type of service is generally more productive than strict dial-a-ride, but can provide more customized service with the flexibility of route deviation.

C-24 DENVER REGIONAL TRANSIT DISTRICT (DENVER RTD) Location: Denver, CO Contact Person: Jeff Becker, Senior Manager of Service Development Size of Agency: Large Transit Modes: Light rail, fixed-route bus service, express routes, and ADA paratransit service Agency Description Denver RTD provides transit service to 38 municipalities in 6 counties. Its service area is 2,406 square miles and has a population of 2.5 million. RTD operates 175 fixed routes and had nearly 79 million annual passenger trips in 2003. Description of Suburban Transit Services RTD operates a number of suburban transit services throughout its service area. One of the more interesting services is RTD’s Call-n-Ride (cnR) service, which is general purpose demand-response service operating in geographically defined communities. The cnR service is shared-ride public transportation service that requires passengers to call the service provider to arrange for their pick-up. Instead of calling a central dispatch office to make their reservation, passengers call the driver directly on his/her cell phone. The driver then schedules the trip and provides the passenger with an estimated pick-up time. Smaller vehicles are used to provide this service. RTD has been operating the cnR service since 2000 and the service generally transports between 3 and 5 passengers per hour at a $9 to $14 subsidy per passenger. Description of Operational Issues All cnR service is contracted out to a private operator. By decentralizing the responsibilities for vehicle routing and scheduling to the drivers, the cnR program reduces the cost of control room personnel and facilities compared to traditional demand-responsive service delivery (e.g., access-a-Ride), but also burdens the driver with these responsibilities. The totally manual solution now in place for drivers is time consuming, error prone, distracting, and requires significant back-office data entry and analysis. RTD is considering a transition to mobile computer technology that will simplify driver’s order taking, scheduling, and data recording responsibilities, as well as automating the most of the back-office data compilation requirements. Making this task easier, safer and efficient has the potential to make drivers more productive and improve quality of service for the customer. In addition, RTD would have the basis to incrementally modernize service delivery. This application and its data communication component is also intended to function as a building block for future cnR technology innovations, for example, internet reservations, e-mail, driver maps/directions (positioning), caller ID data capture, and automated scheduling assistance. Description of Funding Arrangements All suburban transit services, including cnR service, are funded through RTD’s regular set of revenue sources, including farebox revenues and local, state and federal funds.

C-25 Description of Marketing Program RTD uses their traditional advertising channels to market and promote the cnR service, including direct advertising, special events, promotional materials, and the RTD website. RTD also believes in strong customer service and conducted a ridership survey in late 2000 to gauge customer satisfaction with the cnR service. When asked to rate their overall satisfaction with cnR service, customers rated the service between good and very good, or 4.6 on a scale from 1 to 5. Availability of cnR when wanted, on-time performance and driver courtesy were the three factors that had the greatest influence in respondents overall satisfaction. Description of Performance Measurement Program Data is regularly collected by RTD to evaluate the cnR services. RTD staff calculates productivities for each of the cnR service areas and evaluate their performance to one another and to established performance standards for the cnR service. As necessary, staff recommends corrective action to address poorly performing cnR service. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services RTD’s cnR local circulation and feeder service provides many-to-many and many-to-one service to its customers through an innovative approach to service delivery. The cnR service provides complementary service to many of the other more traditional transit services operated by RTD, which likely results in an overall increase in ridership for the transit system. As mentioned above, there have been some operational issues with the cnR service that RTD is taking measures to address through the use of mobile computing technology, but the service has generally been considered a success. In fact, due to the success of cnR services, RTD has replaced poorly performing fixed-route service with cnR service, which has resulted in a higher performing service that serves the community better. Transferability to Other Systems The cnR service should be highly transferable to many communities with similar a similar service area and network of transit services to RTD.

C-26 TRI-COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION DISTRICT (TRIMET) Location: Portland, OR Contact Person: Kerry Ayres-Palanuk, Service Planner Size of Agency: Large Transit Modes: Bus, light rail, ADA paratransit, general public dial-a-ride Agency Description TriMet is the transit service provider for the majority of the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area, serving a 575-square-mile area that includes the city of Portland and many of its suburbs. As described in more detail in the Wilsonville, Oregon case study, Oregon law permits Portland’s smaller, outer suburbs to withdraw from the TriMet district; four cities in 15 years have chosen to withdraw and start their own transit services and thus are no longer (or only minimally) served by TriMet. Description of Suburban Transit Services Three types of suburban transit services are addressed in this case study: • Cedar Mill Shuttle, a general demand-response service feeding a light rail station; • Suburban circulator routes in Clackamas County; and • Shuttle routes in Washington County distributing trips from light rail to major employers. Cedar Mill Shuttle The Cedar Mill Shuttle started in 1999 as a weekday many-to-few general demand- responsive service in the Cedar Mill area, a primarily low-density, somewhat hilly residential area located about 8 miles west of downtown Portland by road. The service area covers 2.6 square miles. When service started in 1999, it was contracted to a local taxi company. TriMet’s union agreement allows contractors to provide service for pilot projects for 18 or 36 months, after which time the service must be brought in-house or eliminated. It served the Sunset Transit Center light rail station, as well as several other designated destinations within the area (e.g., supermarkets and a library). When TriMet brought the service in-house in 2002, the service hours were reduced to peak hours only as a cost-saving measure, based on an analysis that showed that most trips were commute trips to and from the light rail station. Although, in theory, one could use the shuttle to access other destinations within the service area, the service is currently promoted as a many-to-one light rail feeder. A 12-passenger accessible van is used for the shuttle. One-day advance notice is preferred, with reservations being handled in-house by a TriMet Trainer. Same-day service can be provided subject to availability (the driver is called directly for same-day requests and for last-minute changes or cancellations). Subscription service is offered. Regular TriMet fares are charged (currently $1.30–$1.60, depending on overall trip length, with free transfers). The pick-

C-27 up window is +/- 10 minutes of the scheduled time, and the driver will wait one minute after arriving. The shuttle currently operates weekdays, 6–9 a.m. and 3–7 p.m. Clackamas County Circulators The northwestern portion of Clackamas County is urbanized and is part of the Portland metropolitan area. It includes the cities of Oregon City and Milwaukee, smaller outlying communities such as Happy Valley, and an extensive amount of unincorporated urban residential land. In the late 1980s, demand-response service was started in the Milwaukee area, later converted to deviated-route service due to low ridership, and eventually, after the passage of the ADA, converted to fixed-route service. This route is now Route 152, Milwaukee, which runs between a transit center in downtown Milwaukee and the Clackamas Town Center regional mall and transit center, serving retail developments and residential areas along the way. In 1992, the County Board of Commissioners requested that TriMet extend service to the area along Sunnyside Road, which ran through a hilly, rapidly urbanizing portion of the county. More of TriMet’s customers requested that service be provided to the Sunnyside area than any other portion of the region. Further, a 1,900-home “neo-traditional” development, Sunnyside Village, was proposed toward the east end of the corridor. In May 1993, the Sunnyside Shuttle began service within the Sunnyside area, connecting to the Clackamas Town Center. Service was originally demand-responsive, because it could be contracted out and therefore was less expensive than fixed-route service would have been. TriMet’s ADA contractor was used to provide the service and handle reservations. The same minibuses used for ADA service were used for the shuttle routes. Following discussions with the union, the service was brought in-house in December 1994, a conversion that “was neither anticipated nor planned.” Costs increased from $27/hour as a contracted operation to $50/hour with union operators. A union dispatcher was also required to handle reservations. Route 154, West Linn, was started in 1994. It connects a hilly, residential area to the Oregon City Transit Center. In 1995, TriMet’s service district was expanded to include Sunnyside Village and the city of Happy Valley, and service was extended to those areas. In 1998, in an effort to reduce the cost per ride, eliminate the need for the dispatcher dedicated to these routes, reduce peak bus requirements, and increase local awareness of bus service and local ridership potential, the demand-responsive service was proposed to be converted to fixed-route service. TriMet took input from current riders, the general public, and agency staff, and combined it with demand- responsive trip patterns, population data, and land-use data to develop four fixed routes. The new routes were implemented in March 1999 and were operated using 27-foot buses. Routes 155, Sunnyside, and 156, Mather Road, form a loop between Clackamas Town Center and Sunnyside Village—an eastbound Route 155 becomes a westbound Route 156 bus on the return trip, and vice versa. Route 157, Happy Valley, travels between Clackamas Town Center and Happy Valley, duplicating Route 155 for the portion of its route along Sunnyside Road. Buses are scheduled to spread out the 155 and 157 buses, resulting in alternating 20- and 40-minute headways on the shared portion of the routes, rather than having two buses arriving

C-28 together every 60 minutes. Route 158, Stevens, served an area closer to the Clackamas Town Center than the other three routes, but was discontinued in December 2002 due to low ridership. The Sunnyside routes currently operate hourly with service on weekdays and Saturdays; Routes 155 and 156 also provide Sunday service. The Milwaukee and West Linn routes operate hourly on weekdays only; the Milwaukee route provides 30-minute peak service. Regular TriMet fares are charged. Westside Light Rail Feeders/Distributors When TriMet’s light rail line was extended west to Washington County in 1998, much of the western end of the line between Beaverton and Hillsboro ran through relatively undeveloped land adjacent to the former railroad right-of-way that was used for the line. This land is planned for—and, in some areas, has already developed as—transit-supportive residential uses, whose residents can walk to light rail to travel to jobs in downtown Portland. At the same time, several large employers, such as Intel and Nike, plus a number of office parks, are located in Washington County. Their employees who live elsewhere in the region potentially could use transit to commute in the opposite direction to work. These job sites are located beyond walking distance from the light rail line. Therefore, there was a need to provide a bus connection between the stations and the job sites for light rail to serve those trips. Finally, bus service in residential areas on the west side generally was realigned to feed the light rail stations. Four routes (41, Hawthorn Farm, 42, Orenco, 49, Quatama, and 50, Cornell Oaks) were developed to distribute trips from light rail stations to job sites; all were discontinued between 2002 and 2004. Two other routes (46, North Hillsboro and 47, Baseline/Evergreen) toward the east end of the light rail line serve a mix of poorly connected, medium-density residential areas and office parks and have been somewhat more successful. Service is or was provided by standard 30- and 40-foot buses. Regular TriMet fares are charged. Description of Operational Issues TriMet’s union agreement requires that all service be provided in-house, except for the first 18 or 36 months of pilot projects. Other than the van purchased for the Cedar Mill Shuttle when TriMet took over the service, all other routes use buses that are part of the regular fleet. When the Sunnyside fixed-routes were being designed, residents of local streets being proposed as turnarounds strongly objected. As a result, routes were redesigned to travel only on the major traffic streets in the area. On the west side, at least one major employer (Intel) operated its own private shuttle system that connected four of its campuses and two light rail stations. The Intel service was more attractive to Intel’s employees not because of cost (employees’ transit costs were provided as a benefit, so there was no cost to employees to use either Intel’s shuttle or the TriMet service), but convenience. The Intel shuttle ran more frequently and stopped at the building entrance, while the TriMet service stayed on the street, requiring a several-minute walk across a parking lot to get to the building entrance.

C-29 Description of Funding Arrangements All services are funded solely by TriMet. The majority of TriMet’s operating revenue (54% in 2003) comes from a 0.6218 percent payroll tax levied on employers within the district. Description of Marketing Program Marketing efforts (brochures) were made when the Cedar Mill Shuttle started and when TriMet took over operations, but not much has been done since. TriMet staff meet with the Cedar Mill Community Planning Organization annually to review the service and get feedback. TriMet’s marketing department sponsored a public meeting during the service design phase of implementing the Sunnyside fixed-route services. A marketing brochure was also mailed to all households and businesses in the community. No general marketing efforts are currently underway for the Clackamas services. TriMet’s employer coordinators worked with west side employers to promote the shuttles to employees who might benefit from them, and a special branding was designed for them (“The Local”) and a few similar services elsewhere in the region. Special efforts are made to redesign and/or promote a service when it is determined to be low-performing. For the West Linn circulator, for example, TriMet solicited public input and met with City of West Linn staff in an effort to find ways to make the route more attractive. As a six- month trial, the route was shortened and the frequency doubled to half-hourly; however this experiment does not appear to have improved ridership. If the route is eventually eliminated, TriMet plans to use the service hours to improve service on a trunk line serving West Linn. Customer satisfaction is measured the same way for the suburban services as for other TriMet services. TriMet tracks compliments and complaints on a continual basis, and conducts an Attitude and Awareness Survey once a year. Description of Performance Measurement Program The main performance measure used is boarding rides per vehicle hour, with TriMet’s threshold for a low-performing route being 15 boarding riders per vehicle hour. The Cedar Mill Shuttle does not have a defined performance threshold; qualitatively, TriMet’s performance expectations are lower for it than for fixed-route service. Except for the Cedar Mill Shuttle, boarding rides are collected using automatic passenger counters, which are installed on most of TriMet’s fleet. The data are evaluated quarterly by the service planning department and are used to adjust service as needed. Passenger boarding data for the Cedar Mill Shuttle are collected by the van operator and are reviewed by the shuttle project manager. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services The Clackamas County suburban circulators have been modestly successful, with growing ridership, with the exception of the West Linn route. The Sunnyside routes draw their best ridership from the multi-family residential along Sunnyside Road itself, and less so from the

C-30 single-family residential areas away from the Sunnyside Road; in that respect, the Happy Valley portion of Route 157 “struggles,” even though the route as a whole meets TriMet’s performance criteria. The lesson from the west side light rail distributors was that service that has a single destination (e.g., one major employer) is very difficult to serve effectively. The economic downturn that started in 2001 hurt ridership on those routes, as companies in the area laid off employees and reduced the potential customer base for those routes. The private shuttle service offered by Intel competed with one of the routes for customers and offered better headways, as well as service to the building door. Most of the high-tech manufacturing plants on the west side are set well back from the street and are surrounded by large parking lots, making them difficult to serve: if service remains on the street, customers must walk a considerable distance to their destination; if service is allowed to enter the site, travel time increases. The two routes studied that serve both residential (albeit low-density residential) and office parks, with connections to light rail, are not meeting TriMet’s performance standard, but are showing gradual increases in ridership. As a 14-hour-per-day service, the Cedar Mill Shuttle averaged about 135 boardings per day. In its new peak-period-only configuration, the shuttle averages 50-55 boardings per day. Clearly, there was a midday market for the service; however, the cost differential between the contracted operation and the unionized in-house operation required the reduction in service. Transferability to Other Systems The west side feeder and Cedar Mill Shuttle experience would be most applicable to agencies operating rail or rapid bus service, where connections are required between stations and trip origins or destinations. The Clackamas County circulator experience is applicable to developing suburban areas, particularly those with topographical constraints.

C-31 CHAMPAIGN – URBANA MASS TRANSIT DISTRICT (C-UMTD) Location: Champaign - Urbana, IL Contact Person: Mike Stubbe Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Fixed-route bus service, shuttle service, ADA paratransit Agency Description C-U MTD has operated local bus service in Champaign and Urbana since 1970. Beginning in 1989, C-UMTD also began operating bus service on the University of Illinois campus. In FY 2001, C-UMTD’s ridership figures were over 10 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services Demand Responsive (dial-a-ride) service operates within an area with fixed boundaries. The service operates from a pulse (transfer) point every 30 minutes, where connections to fixed- route services can be made. Customers within the area can schedule a ride during the service’s operating hours by calling a published number and speaking directly with the driver of the vehicle. The customer provides the driver with a street location for pick-up, their destination, and whether or not they need to transfer to a fixed-route service. The driver will provide the customer with an estimated time of arrival. Trip making consists of passengers traveling between points within the service area and passengers utilizing the service to complete trip making between fixed-route services at the pulse points. The Demand response service operates in low density areas of a community (total population of 125,000) where ridership does not warrant fixed-route service or the area and street network is conducive to implementing fixed-route service. The demand-response service utilizes smaller vehicles, such as 10-13 passenger vans. The service typically operates during off-peak service periods (i.e. Evenings and Weekends). C-UMTD operates three Direct routes, which are demand-responsive services where passengers can either board at one designated location or call C-UMTD to be picked up. Two of these (Southeast and Southwest Direct) operate during the weekday evenings and on weekends in substitution for fixed routes that operate during the weekday daytime period. The other (Northeast Direct) runs during the weekday peak period. The Northeast Direct serves an area in northeastern Urbana that is a mix of light industries, a mobile home park, and other low-density residential areas. Service is provided during the weekday peak periods from 6:55 a.m. to 9:06 a.m., and from 4:06 p.m. to 6:06 p.m. The Southeast Direct service operates in Urbana during weekday evenings and on weekends in substitution for weekday daytime fixed-route service. It runs on weekdays from 7:44 p.m. to 11:25 p.m., on Saturdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:25 p.m., and on Sundays from 9:14 a.m. to 5:25 p.m. There are several shopping centers in this zone. The rest of the service area is a mix of single-family homes and apartment complexes. The Southwest Direct service is based at a shopping center in Champaign. It runs from 7:48 p.m. to 11:25 p.m. on weekday evenings, 7:00 a.m. to 11:25 p.m. on Saturdays, and 9:18 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. on Sundays. The District has been utilizing this service concept for seven years. In FY 2003, the Direct services transported a total of 25,839 passengers at a cost of $221,973.

C-32 Description of Operational Issues C-UMTD operates service internally at same hourly rate as other services. No significant constraints exist for operating this service. Bus drivers serve as the dispatcher for the Direct service, which can create challenges for the drivers at times. Due to the designated pickup location for the Direct service, there are instances in which passenger’s travel times are extended in order to serve this location as scheduled. Description of Funding Arrangements C-UMTD does not have any special partnerships for funding the Direct services. Similar to all transit services, the Direct services are funded through farebox revenues, local property tax revenues and state funding. Description of Marketing Program Other than the regular channels that C-UMTD uses to market all its transit services, there are no special marketing approaches taken to market the Direct services. Description of Performance Measurement Program Every four months the District completes a performance evaluation of each service type. Passengers per hour is the key performance indicator for C-UMTD. C-UMTD’s Direct routes are expected to transport a minimum of 2.5 passengers per hour. C-UMTD’s Operations Department reviews the system’s performance and provides staff reports to the C-UMTD Board. Individual Direct services that fall below this level are evaluated to determine if any measures could be taken to increase ridership. If it is determined that there are none, then the possibility of reducing the level of service or total elimination is explored. Individual Direct services that exceed 7.5 passengers per revenue hour, which is 50 percent greater than the peer average, become candidates for improved service. This can include adding vehicles to improve frequency, expanding the coverage area, or conversion to fixed-route service. C-UMTD occasionally performs customer service surveys to gauge overall customer satisfaction. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Direct service has had better success when it substitutes for fixed-route service in lower demand times, such as evenings and weekends. Ridership is lower on the Northeast Direct, which serves a lower density area that does not have any fixed routes. Basing the service at a location that is both a destination and a major transfer point is an important feature in the design of C-UMTD Direct services, particularly when timed transfers are scheduled. Trip purpose is also an important factor that influences the success of these C-UMTD routes. Direct service is convenient for local shopping trips that stay within a neighborhood. Many of these trips are taken during the evenings and on weekends, which are when the routes perform the best. A disadvantage of having one of these demand-response routes based at an outlying location, which tend to be served by fewer routes, is that some passengers may have to transfer twice to complete

C-33 their trip, which increases travel time and reduces systemwide ridership. Because of the demand- response feature of the C-UMTD Direct services, passenger productivity can be expected to be lower than fixed-route service. Based on the experience of C-UMTD and other similar services, the Direct service is not expected to exceed an average of ten passengers per vehicle hour. Of the three Direct services, the Northeast Direct is the only one performing below the recommended standard. Another lesson learned for the analysis of the Direct services was that it relied primarily on two types of trips for ridership – riders accessing a major shopping destination and those transferring to fixed routes. The fact that the transfer location and shopping generator were one and the same in the case of the Southeast and Southwest directs were largely what made those services successful. Transferability to Other Systems It is expected that these services are fully transferable to other areas with similar land-use characteristics. This service model appears to do best in areas in which the demand-response service supplements regular daytime fixed-route service during off-peak periods such as evening and weekends. This is the case with the Southwest and Southeast Direct services, but not with the less productive Northeast Direct service. Having demand-response services complement fixed routes provides an existing base of fixed-route bus riders who may be willing to use a demand-response service in some instances. Building a ridership base for general public demand-response services from scratch would be considerably more challenging, however.

C-34 DES MOINES METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHORITY (DMMTA) Location: Des Moines, IA Contact Person: Donna Grange, Paratransit Director; Sherry Cooper, DMMTA analyst; Becky Wymore, MPO contact Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Fixed-route bus, express bus, demand-response, and paratransit Agency Description DMMTA serves a population of 371,000 with a peak-period fleet of 175 vehicles. Approximately 4.2 million annual unlinked trips are served with 230,000 vehicle-hours and an annual operating budget of $12 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services DMMTA has operated demand-responsive night services in the southern and eastern parts of its service area for more than 5 years. Two years ago, the agency expanded the concept to include a weekday peak-period feeder service in suburban Urbandale and a midday service in suburban Johnston. Description of Operational Issues The night service operates with one vehicle providing service between 6:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on weeknights from the downtown transit hub to two zones in southern and eastern Des Moines. The service is available only to customers requiring drop-offs more than 4 blocks from a bus route. The vehicle returns to the transit center every 60 minutes to make timed transfers with fixed routes. Reservations are accepted by a supervisor before 6:00 p.m. and transmitted to the driver on a written manifest. Calls after 6:00 p.m. are relayed by radio on a first-come, first served basis. The service was started before cellular telephones were widely available and the operating procedure has not been updated. The Urbandale On-Call service replaces three express routes with one modified express route and three zones services that provide feeder and distributor functions. Anyone can ride. The service operates on weekdays between 5:45 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. and between 3:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Some reverse commute demand is accommodated. A central call center handles advanced reservations, which represent 95% of demand. The driver has a cellular telephone and accepts spontaneous requests en-route. When demand is high, DMMTA negotiates slight adjustments in pick-up time or locations with customers. The service area is shown in the figure below.

C-35 Figure C-2: Urbandale On Call Service Area The Johnston On-Call service shares a vehicle with the Urbandale service and operates on Tuesdays between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. While anyone can ride, a major function of the service is to serve shopping trips for seniors. Recreational, medical, and after-school employment trips are also served. DMMTA operates all of the services with paratransit drivers who volunteer for the duty and enjoy the challenge. When demand is high, adjustments to pick-up times or locations are negotiated with customers. The $2.00 fares are greater than those of the regular fixed-route services. Description of Funding Arrangements The night services are funded with JARC grants and are intended for employees who end work after the afternoon peak period. The Urbandale feeder service is funded with a CMAQ grant. The city of Johnston funds the midday circulator.

C-36 Description of Marketing Program DMMTA has relied on word of mouth since shortly after the initiation of the Urbandale and Johnston On-Call services. Initially, the services were promoted with flyers on vehicles at park-and-ride lots, flyers at apartment complexes, bulletin boards at grocery stores and community centers. The night services have not received much marketing. Description of Performance Measurement Program DMMTA tracks the NTD statistics for each service, but has established no rigid standards. The night services average 2.5 passengers per hour. The Urbandale service averages between 4.2 and 8.2 passengers per hour, depending on zone. The Johnston service averages approximately 2.9 passengers per hour. The Urbandale service has also diverted some people from paratransit, resulting in significant cost savings. DMMTA has received no negative feedback from customers. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services DMMTA has learned about optimum zone sizes and demand levels. Zone sizes range from approximately 2 to 4 square miles. DMMTA is comfortable accommodating at least 4 passengers per hour per zone, which is slightly greater than its paratransit productivity of 3.5 passengers per hour. Transferability to Other Systems DMMTA provides limited experience operating flexible services and could provide several good data points to compare with other systems. DMMTA has provided historical data on operating experience with Urbandale On-Call service and the express routes it replaced. This data is summarized in the tables and figure on the following page.

C-37 Table C-3: Urbandale On-Call Operating Statistics Urbandale On-Call Before - After Comparison: Average Ridership on 3 Express Routes before On-Call 3,292 Average Ridership on 1 Express Route after On-Call 3,527 Average Ridership on 3 Flex Feeders 1,873 Operating Performance by Zone Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 All Approximate Zone Size (sq. mi.) 4.2 2.0 3.9 10.1 Average Monthly Revenue Hours 103 111 98 311 Average Monthly Revenue Miles 1,176 842 1,234 3,251 Average Monthly Passengers 841 464 568 1,873 Average Monthly Passengers per Sq. Mi. 200 237 146 186 Average Monthly Revenue Hours per Sq. Mi. 25 57 25 31 Aveerage Monthly Revenue Miles per Sq. Mi. 280 429 317 323 Average Passengers per Hour 8.2 4.2 5.8 6.0 Average Passengers per Mile 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.6 Average Miles per Hour 11.4 7.6 12.6 10.4 Figure C-3: Urbandale On-Call Ridership Urbandale On-Call Ridership 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Ma r-0 2 Ju n-0 2 Se p-0 2 De c-0 2 Ma r-0 3 Ju n-0 3 Se p-0 3 De c-0 3 Ma r-0 4 Zone 3 Flex Feeder Zone 2 Flex Feeder Zone 1 Flex Feeder

C-38 Table C-4: Johnson On-Call Operating Performance Johnston On-Call Operating Performance Average Monthly Revenue Hours 46 Average Monthly Revenue Miles 548 Average Monthly Passengers 134 Average Passengers per Hour 2.9 Average Passengers per Mile 0.2 Average Miles per Hour 11.8

C-39 MADISON METRO Location: Madison, WI Contact Person: Julie Maryott-Walsh, Marketing Manager Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Fixed-route bus, express bus, and paratransit Agency Description Madison Metro serves a population of 219,000 with a peak-period fleet of 240 vehicles. Approximately 35 million annual unlinked trips are served with 468,000 vehicle-hours and an annual operating budget of $36 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services Madison Metro reorganized its system in 1998 to serve four transit hubs through its downtown isthmus. These transit hubs serve as transfer points between routes going through the center of the city and local community circulators. The transit hubs are generally located on the periphery of Madison before reaching areas where newer automobile-oriented development predominates. None of the community circulator routes currently exhibit any flexibility or targeting to specific trip purpose or destination markets. Madison Metro operates one reverse-commute limited-stop route to an employer that relocated from downtown Madison to the suburbs. This service is the subject of the following discussion. Description of Operational Issues The reverse commute express has been in operation since April 2002. The service operates on weekdays with one trip in the morning and one trip in the afternoon. The service provides limited-stop point-to-point service from near the former downtown location of Alliant Energy to the American Center office park. The business park accommodates 48 employers with more than 4,000 employees, including Alliant Energy, American Family, and University of Wisconsin Health / Herzog College. Madison Metro also provides taxi vouchers to participating employers as a “guaranteed ride home” program. Description of Funding Arrangements When the service was initiated, the developer of the office park contributed $25,000 and to cover the first four months of operating costs. In exchange it received a number of special passes to distribute to subscribers at employers in The American Center Owner’s Association. After interlining the route with its regular fixed-route system, Madison Metro assumed the costs of the route. Many employees take advantage of a commuter benefit program.

C-40 Description of Marketing Program Madison Metro worked through American Center employers to distribute flyers and emails to employees. Subscribers were provided with free passes for four months, personalized trip itineraries, and a guaranteed ride home. The agency followed up with surveys of commuting frequency and travel patterns. Transferability to Other Systems This single service may not be sufficient to warrant a full case study in Madison.

C-41 SUBURBAN MOBILITY AUTHORITY FOR REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION (SMART) Location: Southeast Michigan, including Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties Contact Person: Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Bus, ADA paratransit Agency Description SMART is a suburban bus agency that operates fixed-route and advanced reservation demand-response service in three southeast Michigan counties: Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb. SMART operates sixty-two routes, serving suburb to suburb trips and service operating between the suburbs and Detroit. SMART’s fixed-route ridership was 8.4 million last year. In 1967, SEMTA (now SMART) began fixed-route service including some routes that it had acquired from private operators. Some of those early routes have continued to this day. Demand response service started in 1975 and ADA paratransit service began in 1994. Description of Suburban Transit Services SMART operates several types of demand-response services including advance reservation, flex route, ADA Paratransit, and Job Express service. Job Express service is provided in specified job express zones, offering same day demand-response trips between the fixed-route bus stop and the passenger’s destination or pick up location within the zone. Flex route service began in 1995. SMART indirectly provides service through its Community Partnership Program (CPP). The CPP is a unique vehicle procurement program designed to help local communities acquire vehicles by using federal funds and revenue generated by county transportation millages (local tax). The CPP gives communities control of transit service that meets their specific needs. Fifty- five community partners provide service through this program. The CPP began in 1996, expanding upon a purchase of service program involving four local service providers. Description of Operational Issues All fixed-route service is operated internally. Demand response service is operated internally and by communities participating in the Community Partnership Program. Some night and weekend ADA trips are assigned to designated private operators. Regarding capital requirements, SMART has purchased 136 paratransit vehicles over and above its normal requirement to support the services operated by the CPP providers. In addition to the benefit of flexibility, this program is a cost efficient way to provide local service, as it would cost SMART significantly more to provide these services internally.

C-42 Description of Funding Arrangements These services are funded through federal, state and local millage (property tax). The use of millage tax revenue requires a number of partnerships including participation from county commissions, special purpose transit authorities, and 75 local communities. Description of Marketing Program Radio, TV, newspapers, local community outreach programs, public forums (e.g., transportation fairs), targeted outreach to local businesses, SMART web site (Hwww.smartbus.org). Customer satisfaction is measured through periodic customer surveys and by tracking comments/complaints received. Description of Performance Measurement Program SMART collects data daily for its performance measurement program, which consists of basic operational items such as passengers, hours, miles, accidents, complaints received, etc. SMART management reviews the data and the services are primarily evaluated based upon their productivities, ridership, and number of complaints received. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Need to closely monitor that the service is meeting the needs of the communities served; particularly as it relates to SMART’s target market of entry level employees, older adults, and persons with disabilities.

C-43 TOLEDO AREA REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY (TARTA) Location: Toledo, OH Contact Person: Jim Gee, Director of Planning Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Fixed-route bus, express bus, demand-response, and ADA paratransit. Agency Description TARTA serves a population of 429,000 with a peak-period fleet of 188 vehicles. Approximately 3.6 million annual unlinked trips are served with 328,000 vehicle-hours and an annual operating budget of $22 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services TARTA operates Call-a-Ride services in three suburbs to serve intra-community trips and to provide connections to the regional fixed-route system. The first service was initiated in Perrysburg in 2002. Maumee was added a year later. Sylvania began service in March 2004. TARTA also operates the Alexis Industrial Express, a reverse-commute service between the downtown Toledo transit center and an employer that relocated to the suburbs. A second reverse- commute express operates to the Arrowhead business park, a large industrial area, but this service is not targeted at any specific employer. Description of Operational Issues Call-a-Ride services are provided using a single 19-passenger cutaway bus in each community. All reservations and route planning is performed by drivers who volunteer for this challenging and customer relations-intensive duty. Services operate from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on a 60- to 80-minute headway in a route-deviation format along a designated loop route with timepoints. Approximately 50% of the running time is allocated to deviations. Passengers can call the driver just before the bus reaches them, but deviations are provided on a first-come, first- served basis. No subscriptions are offered. The 50¢ fare is less than for regular TARTA service. The service is popular with senior citizens and students after school. Seniors are generally comfortable with the reservation procedure and their travel times overlap very little with the students. The majority of riders travel within the community without any transfer to other regional bus services. Description of Funding Arrangements Call-a-Ride services are funded from the same 2.5 mil property tax and fare revenue as the rest of the TARTA system. The suburbs like the service because they perceive that they are getting better return on their contribution to the regional transit system, even though service hours have not necessarily increased.

C-44 Description of Marketing Program TARTA has promoted the Call-a-Ride service in each community through community newspapers, presentations at city council, speakers’ bureau services, posters, and yard signs. A similar approach is used each year as TARTA adds a new service area. Description of Performance Measurement Program Call-a-Ride services average from 20 to 80 passengers per day in each community or approximately 3 passengers per vehicle-hour (TARTA paratransit averages 2.4 passengers per hour). No customers are diverted from paratransit. TARTA follows up after one year of service with a customer satisfaction survey, which have been positive. TARTA monitors route alignment and response time more than riders per hour. Given that similar coverage could not be achieved with a fixed-route service and its performance would likely be low in these suburban settings, TARTA is generally satisfied if the service outperforms paratransit. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services TARTA initially marketed the service as a large taxi. This created expectations of a private ride and the agency has had to work to make the concept of shared rides acceptable to some passengers. On the Arrowhead Industrial Express service, which attracts fewer than 5 passengers per trip, TARTA has realized the importance of working directly with employer sponsors in designing and funding reverse commute services. The service does not closely match shift change times and operates in a large area without a focus on any single employer. Transferability to Other Systems TARTA demonstrates how a flexible service can be implemented with very little capital investment, with very little technology, and at less cost than fixed-route service covering an equivalent area. As a result of a recent regional transit study by TMACOG, the Toledo MPO, there is good availability of data on service area characteristics.

C-45 KANSAS CITY AREA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (KCATA) Location: Kansas City Contact Person: Julie Hostak, Planner Size of Agency: Medium - large Transit Modes: Bus, shuttle Agency Description KCATA is an interstate agency of Missouri and Kansas City, having jurisdiction over seven counties with a service area population of 756,000. KCATA’s Metro division operates 70 bus routes, which carries approximately 50,000 passengers a day or 14.7 million unlinked trips per year. These services are provided using a peak fleet of 329 vehicles offering 650,000 annual revenue hours of service. The Metro has an annual operating budget of $40.5 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services KCATA provides three classes of service: Freeway Flyers, Rapid Riders and Local Links. Under the Local Links classification, KCATA provides fixed, flexible and demand- responsive service. For each flex-route service, customers are provided an area in which customers may request personal service. They must give KCATA 24 hours notice or set up a standing order for service. Flex-route service is provided with 12 passenger vans. Full-size buses cannot maneuver through the local routes. Description of Operational Issues KCATA operates all of its own service. Description of Funding Arrangements KCATA receives 3/8 cent for every dollar made in sales tax. Route #229 receives JARC funding. There are no other known dedicated funding sources. Description of Marketing Program Special marketing is done only for brand new or newly improved services. Also, there are special marketing programs for services that cater to the elderly. Customer satisfaction is measured through an annual survey. Description of Performance Measurement Program Route performance is usually based on passengers per mile, however, these statistics usually don’t look impressive due to the greater lengths traveled in suburban areas. Currently,

C-46 there is no consistent set of criteria used to evaluate performance. Performance measures are in the process of being developed. KCATA values community buy-in and typically plans its services based on needs identified by the community. The community identifies the region’s major activity centers. Little to no planning is done based on zoning, land-use or census data, although this is a direction in which the agency plans to move. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services When KCATA was just beginning to provide Flex Route service, they started by providing fixed routes that could deviate up to three blocks from the route. The lesson that they learned was that you should not have a combination of fixed and flex—that a route should be one or the other. Customers were getting confused and passed up by buses that deviated from the fixed route. Additionally, customers were frustrated when they needed the service to go just beyond the 3 blocks allowed to the operator. Transferability to Other Systems In the absence of service area data, many operations could benefit from KCATA’s experience with leveraging community involvement to “gather data” about community transportation needs. Most of KCATA’s outreach efforts have been targeted at meeting the needs of the elderly and peoples with disabilities.

C-47 METROPOLITAN COUNCIL Location: Twin Cities, MN Contact Person: David Christianson Size of Agency: Large Transit Modes: Light rail, bus, circulators, general public dial-a-ride Agency Description The Metropolitan Council’s area of jurisdiction includes all or portions of nearly 190 cities and townships in the Twin Cities region. This region has approximately 2.6 million residents and Metro Transit serves an area populated by approximately 1.9 million people. The MetCouncil operates Metro Transit and provides oversight to local semi-autonomous transit services. Metro Transit operates 70 local, 51 express and 16 contract service routes, serving over 230,000 riders per weekday or 70 million annual trips. This service is provided with a peak fleet of 841 vehicles providing 2 million annual vehicle-hours of revenue service and an annual operating budget of $193 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services Suburban transit services are provided by three means: Metro Transit, private operators and semi-autonomous private operators (called opt-out services). Metro Transit provides approximately 35 percent of suburban service. 65 percent is provided by private operators. The most innovative services are generally provided by the opt-out services since these operations are based mostly on community input. The community based operations have been in existence for 12 to 15 years and were initiated by local agencies that opted out of the regional dedicated transit tax and decided to run their own local transit services. There are a variety of services available, varying by municipality. Some of the services include dial-a-ride, circulators and vanpools. Vanpools were recently taken over by the MetCouncil as a regional program—subsidized through CMAQ and regional TDM program funds. Description of Operational Issues Opt-out services are privately operated, but are subsidized and receive some oversight from the MetCouncil. The MetCouncil helps to evaluate opt-out service performance, but cannot give these operations any directives. Description of Funding Arrangements Sixty percent of community based operations (opt-out services) are subsidized by MetCouncil as required by state law. The municipalities cover the rest of the cost. Since transit subsidies must flow through MetCouncil, the Council maintains some oversight, providing

C-48 evaluation and guidance. MetCouncil, however, cannot make any directives on how opt-out services should operate. Description of Marketing Program Typically, there are no special marketing efforts made for any services other than new services. A customer satisfaction survey is done annually for transit riders and biennially for non- riders. It is done region-wide and covers all operators and providers of regular route service in the 7-county area. The information is used to direct marketing campaigns to improve public perception and increase ridership, as well as restructuring internal training, supervisory, and management efforts to address any evident shortcomings or negative trends. Description of Performance Measurement Program The MetCouncil divided its planning region into 8 sectors. Each sector is evaluated on a rotating basis through a redesign process, a process that takes about 3 years from start to implementation. The redesign process involves starting from a clean slate and examining a sector’s land use and demographics to restructure the transit operations within that sector. The data supporting the redesign process includes census data, land-use data (e.g., major activity points), transit amenities (e.g., sidewalks, park and ride facilities). Most of the data used in the redesign process is a result of an original data collection process. This data is not collected on a routine basis by the MetCouncil outside of the redesign process. Each sector undergoes the redesign process on average once every 10 years. The redesign has a direct impact of how service is provided through Metro Transit. At times opt-out services voluntarily follow redesign efforts. Performance measures used by the MetCouncil include: subsidy/ride, riders/hour, adherence to transit policy, adherence to transit redesign, coverage in area and political realities. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Opt-out operations are all doing relatively well. Larger operations have not had as much success with dial-a-ride services as the small and medium operations. Larger operations are finding dial-a-ride to be too costly to operate. A premium dial-a-ride service (idea borrowed from Winnepeg) is being operated in two areas (Stillwater?), where customers are guaranteed same day service, giving at least 2 hours notice. The ridership on these services has gone up from the original fixed-route service that it replaced. Circulator routes are pretty healthy and very well-received. However, ridership levels are still low. From Metro Transit’s point of view, flex-route services that deviate from a fixed route are not performing very well. These services will probably be discontinued. Another experiment with flex-route service, called Dog Bone routes, was an attempt to combine express service from the suburbs (the end where the service would go door-to-door) to the downtown area (the end where there were only a few stops). The collection zone on the suburban end of the operation

C-49 was proven to be too costly, especially since full-size buses were used. This service will likely be restored to being strictly express. Transferability to Other Systems Other agencies could probably learn a lot from MetCouncil’s redesign process. Though it may be too costly for many agencies to conduct such an evaluation, agencies can still benefit from learning what a more thorough transit design effort would entail and begin to incrementally implement these processes. The funding structure in the Twin Cities is what allows for local communities to take ownership of local transit design by means of opt-out services. This may not be a political reality for many other metropolitan areas.

C-50 PACE, SUBURBAN BUS DIVISION OF THE REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (PACE) Location: Chicago, IL (suburban) Contact Person: Lorraine Snorden, Strategic Services Size of Agency: Large Transit Modes: Fixed-route bus, employer shuttle, subscription commuter bus, vanpool, paratransit Agency Description Pace is one of the largest transit operators operating primarily in a suburban area in the United States. Pace serves a population of 4.5 million with a peak-period fleet of 1,380 vehicles. Approximately 35 million annual unlinked trips are served with 2.2 million vehicle-hours and an annual operating budget of $131 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services Although Pace operates more than 200 traditional fixed-route bus services, we concentrated on several services introduced over the last decade that are targeted to specific groups and markets: • 12 Shuttle Bug routes and 4 reverse commute bus routes that provide connections between Metra commuter rail stations and employment campuses. • Several subscription bus routes using over-the-road coaches to provide long-distance connections between neighborhood park-and-rides and major suburban employers. • Vanpool services, especially several recent variations on the traditional arrangement, including Metra feeder vanpools in which the vehicle overnights at a commuter rail station to serve the last mile between the train station and the workplace, municipal vanpools operated by a community as a circulator, and non-emergency medical vanpools operated by medical providers to serve some trips otherwise taken on paratransit. Description of Operational Issues Pace operates the majority of its fixed routes. Exceptions include some Metra feeder routes. Pace operates its Shuttle Bug services. Subscription services are contracted to private intercity coach operators. For vanpool services, Pace provides the capital equipment. Description of Funding Arrangements Pace receives a share of the regional sales tax under the stipulation that it achieve a minimum recovery ratio, currently at 40 percent. Shuttle Bug services are funded 50% by

C-51 employer contributions to a transportation management association (TMA) and 50% by Pace and Metra JARC grants. Vanpools and subscription services are nearly fully funded by employer subsidies or employee fares. Fare revenue makes up the majority of remaining funding. Description of Marketing Program For Shuttle Bug services, most of the promotion is provided by the TMA through participating employers. Pace provides assistance in the development of marketing materials. Pace targets promotions for its other services on an area-wide basis, rather than targeting specific services. Description of Performance Measurement Program Pace collects farebox and AVL data constantly. Automatic passenger counters are coming online. Because of its high farebox recovery ratio requirements (currently 40%), Pace has a long tradition of conducting a quarterly service review to identify the worst-performing routes. Metrics include average daily ridership, passengers per revenue-hour, subsidy per rider, and recovery ratio. Pace’s vanpool shuttles are expected to achieve a recovery ratio of 153% in 2004, compared to a non-ADA vanpool program average of 102%. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Pace has found that the traditional fixed route is not effective in much of its service area. The agency is in the process of revamping its service planning process to broaden the spectrum of service formats that it uses to respond to the wide variety of market conditions in its service area. Pace is exploring restructured fixed routes that provide faster suburb-to-suburb connections between radial rail lines. Pace is exploring various mixes of fixed-route community circulators, off-peak deviated route services, and general public dial-a-ride services to supplement its streamlined arterial- and expressway-based inter-suburban fixed-route network. Transferability to Other Systems Pace’s experience with employment-oriented suburban services, especially the Shuttle Bugs and the newer Metra feeder vanpools could provide models for elsewhere in terms of public-private partnerships in planning, operations, promotion, and funding. Pace has regional land-use data, employer location data, limited on-off count data, and other information that could support analysis of relationships between land use and service performance in specific areas.

C-52 BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA AND MUNICIPALITIES WITHIN THE COUNTY Location: Broward County, FL Contact Person: Robert Fossa, Senior Planner (954-357-8336) and multiple municipal representatives Size of Agency: Medium (250 vehicles) Transit Modes: Buses on major arterials, and minibuses in local transit circulator services Agency Description Broward County Transit is a division of the county government in the Ft. Lauderdale area (southeast Florida) and has the Board of County Commissioners as its policy board. The agency carries approximately 27,000,000 passengers per year, or 90,000 passengers a day. The County focuses on providing fixed-route, line haul service on the major corridors throughout this county of 1.7 million people that is mostly suburban in nature, with various degrees of density. In addition, there are about 17 local municipalities within the county that have entered inter-local agreements with the county to provide local transit circulator services. These services are also fixed-route, fixed-schedule services, and are provided through standard minibuses provided by the county. Description of Suburban Transit Services As noted above, a number of cities within Broward County now provide local transit circulator services with standard minibuses. The areas served by these circulators vary considerably in terms of density, though most focus on residential areas and commercial areas. These services tend to be provided from approximately 8 am to 6 pm (again this varies from city to city). The vast majority provide service only between Monday and Friday. Service is provided in a fixed-route, fixed-schedule basis, and varies in frequency from once every 30 minutes to once every 90 minutes. The circulators are intended to provide a basic level of service for those who have no vehicles or prefer not to drive for local trips. The routes within the cities are all required to connect with the regional service provided by Broward County Transit. Description of Operational Issues In most cases, the local municipal transit circulator services are provided on a contracted basis. A couple of cities provide service with their own drivers. The unusual thing is that the ATU local union representing employees at Broward County Transit never objected to the fact that federal grant money received by BCT was used to purchase the minibuses being used by the local municipalities through the inter-local agreement with the County. A cottage industry of sorts has sprung up to provide these contracted services within the cities. Hourly rates to provide service vary from $29 to $35, significantly lower than Broward County Transit’s costs of approximately $60 an hour. The possible explanation for the union’s silence was that they were not willing to open the door to two-tier wages that would have been required for BCT to provide

C-53 such service within the cities. It appears the cities are pleased with the performance of the private contractors. Description of Funding Arrangements The primary reason these local transit circulator services have flourished is that the County passed an additional one-cent local option gas tax about three years ago, and dedicated a substantial portion of the proceeds to local municipalities to provide local circulator services. The county provides $20 an hour toward the cost of these services, and it also provides the vehicles required. If the city would like to receive it, the county also provides technical advice in terms of routing and scheduling, and provides training to operators prior to them starting service. Hence, it costs the cities approximately $10 an hour from their own treasuries to pay for and provide these local circulators. Description of Marketing Program There are too many local systems in place to have found out just how the services are marketed and promoted. However, one of the principles behind the county establishing the inter- local agreements was the awareness that local cities know their own citizen’s needs and desires better than the county ever could. There is more energy at the local level to see these services succeed since they are identified with the city rather than the county. It is fairly easy for the local officials to promote awareness of the transit service through utility bills, notices in government buildings, mentioning it at city hall meetings, direct mail notices, visiting civic association meetings, working with local businesses and shopping malls, etc. These are all very direct, targeted promotion efforts, versus shotgun advertising campaigns. City officials also talk with the drivers and the managers of the contracted service to get feedback on how the service is working. In almost all cities, the local circulator service is provided fare free. In three cities, a fare of $.25 is charged. Description of Performance Measurement Program Each municipality is required to keep accurate records of ridership on a daily basis by route. Ridership is recorded manually by drivers and handed in to either city officials or the contract manager. Then monthly reports are provided to the County. The County requires that municipal circulators carry at least five people an hour in order for county funding to continue. The performance varies by route and by city, and ranges from five passengers an hour to 30 passengers per hour. Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Broward County Transit regards these services as being highly successful. At first, the local circulators allowed the County to remove its large buses from certain low density, low ridership neighborhoods. This in turn allowed the county to straighten out its routes for more direct, faster service and better frequency on cross-county routes. Now the local circulators are being implemented in areas where no transit service exists, and is helping to feed more

C-54 passengers to the regional system. The challenge is always how to design a route that is the most efficient and effective possible in terms of carrying the most passengers possible with the limited resources at hand. One lesson learned is that charging even low fares makes a huge difference in ridership. One local circulator service saw its ridership double when it changed its fare from $0.50 to free. Another lesson learned is that high school students are a big problem for these local circulators. When the majority of passengers are elderly in particular communities, there are real conflicts when the circulator goes by local schools, resulting in loud, energetic kids to be in the bus at the same time as there are senior citizens. Transferability to Other Systems While not unique, it still might be tough for other transit systems to deal with potential union objections to establishing the kind of inter-local agreements that exist in Broward County. It would be possible as long as no existing union operators have their current conditions lessened in any way. However, the model of local circulators feeding a regional system is still sound, and there are various ways of accomplishing this through either two-tier wage scales, private contracting where no existing employees are losing their jobs, or through some other form of partnership.

C-55 FORT WORTH TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY Location: Fort Worth, TX Contact Person: Carla Forman, Assistant Vice President Size of Agency: Medium (175 vehicles) Transit Modes: Bus and paratransit Agency Description Fort Worth Transportation Authority, “The T,” is a medium sized transit authority that operates bus and paratransit services, with all services provided by McDonald Transit Associates, Inc. The agency has almost 600 employees and serves the city of Ft. Worth and those surrounding areas that elect to be part of the taxing district of the transit authority. Description of Suburban Transit Services The T provided flexible transit services in some of the spread out suburban areas just outside of Ft. Worth from 1998 to 2003. The service offered was point deviation in areas that were a mix of low density residential, commercial, and industrial land uses. While the start point and the end point, and the scheduled time associated with each of these points was known, the routes were otherwise completely flexible and traveled along roads based on requests for pick ups or drop offs by passengers either on the bus or would-be passengers who were calling the bus operator on his/her cell phone. Passengers could also flag down a bus coming toward them, even if there was no bus stop sign. It was referred to as “Rider Request” service. These point deviation routes connected with other T routes, at some shopping centers, and at one train station, allowing passengers to connect with the broader system. In one route’s case, the rider request service replaced former fixed-route service, while in two other routes’ cases, it was new service placed where the agency thought fixed route was not feasible. These routes were provided Monday through Saturday. Description of Operational Issues The point deviation services that were provided in the Fort Worth area were provided with minibuses that operated with frequencies of once an hour, generally from 6 am to 7 pm Monday through Saturday. Operators carried cell phones and made their deviations based on calls they received, balancing requests for deviations against their awareness of other passengers’ requests for drop offs and pick ups. Cost for the service was $1.25 per trip. Some of the passengers liked the service because they were picked up and dropped off right where they wanted to be, which was particularly helpful during any bad weather. However, other passengers disliked it because they did not like having to plan their trips a day in advance. Others disliked the service because they thought it was unreliable. The bus operators were apprehensive at first, and most regular operators adopted over time, though they found it difficult to provide. The extra board operators never adopted well. They were not interested in learning how to provide demand-responsive service.

C-56 The challenge seemed to be how to develop the appropriately designed zone for point deviation. If the zone is too large, then it becomes hard to meet your schedule. If it is too small, then you don’t have enough market to draw from. If the philosophy is to provide mobility regardless of cost, it doesn’t matter, but if the philosophy is to be efficient, they didn’t accomplish that in Fort Worth with Rider Request. They ultimately eliminated all of these flex services and now provide only fixed-route services. Description of Funding Arrangements The T is funded with sales tax revenue from those cities that elect to be part of the authority’s taxing powers. The other revenue collected by the T is through the farebox. Description of Marketing Program The marketing of the flex service was done on a targeted basis, with door-to-door flyers handed out. These flyers provided information on the service and discount coupons to use the service. The service represented a very small percentage of the agency’s overall responsibility, so there was limited effort. One noteworthy technique was distribution of a postcard with a magnet attached that could be placed on a refrigerator, with the message “Every house is a bus stop”. Description of Performance Measurement Program The T kept daily records of ridership, and use service standards to judge performance of bus routes. The ridership was not very good on any of the routes, ranging from .25 passengers per mile to .5 passengers per mile, or from 2.3 passengers per hour to 6.8 passengers per hour, averaging less than four passengers per hour and approximately .3 passengers per mile. The subsidy per passenger ranged from $10.44 to $25.73, averaging $17.16. By comparison, the fixed-route service in Ft. Worth averaged 17 passengers per hour, 1.5 passengers per mile, and cost approximately $4 per passenger. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services In two routes, fixed-route service was not feasible, so rider request service was a good alternative to try. It was very well received by students who lived within two miles of their school and were not eligible for school bus transportation. Parents liked having their children picked up at home, dropped off at school, and brought back home for $15 a month. For many passengers who had been used to fixed-route service, they never got used to having to call in advance for service, and consequently they were not pleased with the rider request alternative. For those who are used to reading a schedule, they know when they have to be at a bus stop to be picked up. However, with flexible rider response service, operators have a 30-minute window in which to pick a passenger up. Those passengers who were used to fixed-route service would often panic after 20 minutes and just didn’t feel like the service was reliable. Driver training, booking trips correctly, drivers’ ability to find the pick up locations, educating the passengers on how to use the service (especially in predominately Hispanic areas

C-57 where English was limited), expense of having enough staff to book and schedule the trips, and having enough vehicles to meet the demand all presented significant challenges. One agency representative believed that rider request service was particularly hard for those who spoke only Spanish, given the limited bilingual skills at the agency. Another issue was that the T hoped to attract paratransit passengers to the flexible rider request service. However, paratransit is door- to-door while flex service is curb to curb, and it did not attract many people from paratransit. Transferability to Other Systems The experience is probably very transferable to other agencies.

C-58 CHARLOTTE AREA TRANSIT SYSTEM (CATS) Location: Charlotte, North Carolina Contact Person: Brad Miller, Director of Operations; Larry Kopf, Director of Planning Size of Agency: Medium sized transit agency with 325 vehicles Transit Modes: Bus and paratransit, planning for light rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) Agency Description CATS is actually a department of the City of Charlotte, but has a separate board that provides guidance and policy to the agency. The Charlotte area has gained considerable positive notoriety for its attention to coordinating land use and transportation corridor investments. CATS is well on its way to getting approval for major investments in a number of corridors, which will feature either light rail or Bus Rapid Transit. Charlotte is a rapidly growing area that passed a general half-cent sales tax in 1998 for transportation improvements. Prior to that time, virtually all transit services were provided in the city of Charlotte. Now, all residents of Mecklenberg County pay the half-cent tax, and that has meant that CATS has needed to address how to provide some type of transit service in the suburban areas outside of the city limits. Virtually all of the bus service is provided through a contract with McDonald Transit Associates. Description of Suburban Transit Services CATS has provided non-traditional services in four different settings within lower density suburban areas. These services were put in place after the passage of the half-cent general sales tax, and after a consultant prepared a county-wide10-year transit services study that identified a number of new service areas. Two of the services were established but discontinued when they were carrying less than three passengers per hour. One of those services (South Park) was a neighborhood circulator that focused on a service area comprised of office buildings surrounding a major shopping center, with some apartment residential. The service was provided in a fixed-route, bi-directional loop operating on 30 minute frequencies and operated seven days a week from 9 am to 9 pm. The second service that was tried but later discontinued was a route deviation service to the township of Matthews, south of Charlotte. This was an area that had had no local transit service prior to the route deviation experiment. Matthews is a relatively low density area (2-3 units per acre) without a well defined downtown. Two routes providing route-deviated service every 30 minutes were established, operating Monday through Saturday from 7 am to 8:30 pm. Two other suburban services stemming from the transit services study succeeded and are still in operation. Route deviation services were put in place in the north Mecklenberg towns of Davidson, Huntersville, and Cornelius. Four routes, providing 60-minute service, pulse at the regional library and operate seven days a week, from approximately 7 am to 7 pm. These routes average almost 10 passengers per hour. The last of the four suburban services is a demand- response shuttle service that connects with regional CATS routes near two interstate highways, and feeds passengers from the regional service to businesses within the industrial park region around the interstate highways. Six cutaway minibuses provide service in the area, with three

C-59 providing service throughout the day from 6 am to 6:30 pm, while the other three provide service only during the peak morning and afternoon hours. Description of Operational Issues The South Park circulator was intended to serve the second largest concentration of office buildings in Mecklenberg County, in a manner similar to a very successful downtown circulator in downtown Charlotte that carries over 60 passengers per hour. The hope was that employees in the area would use the circulator to go to the shopping center and restaurants in the area, and that residents in the surrounding area would also use the circulator to access the mall. There was also the thought that the circulators would be used by people going from one shopping mall to other malls in the service area connected by the shuttle. The service was offered for free to passengers. The circulator also connected with CATS routes in the region. This service never generated significant ridership. There was an enormous amount of free parking for the office complexes and the shopping centers that made using a car very convenient and inexpensive. There were a number of office buildings that offered cafeteria-type eating services in the buildings, making it less necessary for anyone to leave their buildings to get meals. The surrounding residential areas were relatively higher end apartments that tended to have few transit dependent people living in them. Some shopping mall employees used the circulator as it connected with CATS regional routes, and a few transit dependent people also used it. However, ridership never exceeded over four passengers per hour. The Matthews route deviation transit service also failed to generate meaningful ridership. The area served was mostly single family development with densities of two to three households per acre. There was no defined downtown center. There were also no sidewalks or safe, convenient ways for people to access bus service. The majority of people who used the service on an ongoing basis were teenagers going to movies, the YMCA, or to shopping areas. There was also a senior citizen center that generated occasional use depending on where activities with lunch services were being held. The transit service started out as two buses on one route providing service every 30 minutes, but was changed to two routes with 60-minute service each. It was a difficult area to serve even with route deviation techniques because of the lack of centralized activities. Almost 70 percent of all trips were deviation requests. Passenger fares were $.25 The route deviation services provided in the north Mecklenberg towns was considerably more successful. Densities were approximately the same among the single family areas as in Matthews, but there are also a number of areas with townhouses and apartments, and there is a substantial trailer park as well. In addition, there is a large immigrant population in the area that tends to be more reliant on public transit. Davidson University is located in this service area, generating both student and employee ridership. The number of requests for actual deviation among all passengers is only 25 percent, versus the 70 percent experience in Matthews. Pedestrian access is an issue of concern in the north Mecklenberg towns as it was in Matthews, with few sidewalks. The passenger fare for this transit service is $.25. Four minibuses are used to serve the north towns, and they meet in a time-transferred fashion at a central location near the regional library. The last service to be noted is the demand-response shuttle service to and from the Arrow Wood Industrial Park. The area served by the six shuttle vehicles is totally non-residential.

C-60 While service is in place from 6 am to 6:30 pm, all six vehicles are only in service for about two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. In the middle of the day, only three vehicles remain in service. While the service is demand-responsive in nature, it is almost entirely subscription service that is being provided at present. The shuttle services meet on a scheduled basis with CATS express and regular route service at a “hub” outside of the industrial park. Description of Funding Arrangements The shuttle services for the Arrow Wood industrial park were initiated with state grant funds as part of an economic development program supported by businesses in the industrial park. Otherwise, all other services in the suburban areas were funded through the new revenues made available through the half-cent general sales tax. The fact that the tax was passed was the impetus for providing service in areas that had not received service before. In the South Park area, the businesses located within the circulator service area provided $25,000 to help market the service. Description of Marketing Program The majority of the marketing was done through direct mail to households and businesses versus other forms of media advertising. There were meetings held in the various towns prior to the service being designed and established, and each town had the opportunity to promote the services. It should also be noted that the minibuses used in the north Mecklenberg towns were “psychedelic” in color and helped to make the service that much more visible. Description of Performance Measurement Program CATS is very serious about monitoring and measuring the performance of all of its transit service, and decisions on the provision or termination of service are made in accordance with these standards. CATS uses an index that measures all of their services through two different perspectives. First, each route’s performance is measured against all other routes of the same type by reviewing the ridership per hour and the subsidy per passenger. The average performance for all similar routes is rated “1”. Then every route is judged against all routes in the entire system (regardless of whether it is a local shuttle, express route, cross town, etc.) again using ridership per hour and subsidy per passenger as the measures, with the average for all services recorded as a “1”. If a route falls below a measurement of .5, it is eligible for termination. As noted earlier, two of the route services fell below this rating, and in spite of attempts to strengthen their performance, they could not improve enough to be justified for continued operation. The Board of Directors of CATS is very supportive of using these measures. The first priority for virtually every member of the board is to put premium services into place, and they would rather fund premium services that will be used rather than suburban services that are very weak.

C-61 Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services One of the lessons learned at CATS was that it is a challenge to get quality citizen input, particularly from senior citizens. It has been their experience that more accurate predictions of use among seniors are gained from social service representatives familiar with the seniors travel patterns than from the seniors themselves. Another lesson learned is that having highly visible buses is a plus when promoting new suburban transit services. A challenge that they must now deal with is how to provide better pedestrian access to new suburban services. The routes generally follow major arterials, many of which do not have sidewalks. An injury experienced by a bus passenger trying to cross the street to a shopping center has brought the issue to light. Finally, CATS has benefited from having a strict performance measurement system in place. They have found that they were given “good press” for putting in new services in these suburban areas, but they were also given good press when removing service due to low ridership. As mentioned above, the CATS policy board appreciates the standards as well, and lives by them even though there might be questions of equity that could be raised by areas that contribute to the half-cent tax yet have service removed. Transferability to Other Systems The experiences are highly transferable.

C-62 DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT (DART) Location: East Plano, North Central Plano, East Rowlett, Farmers Branch, Lakewood, North Dallas, TX Contact Person: Tim Newby, Service Planning Manager Katherine Eagen, Planner Size of Agency: Large (over 800 fixed-route buses, 170 paratransit vehicles) Transit Modes: Fixed-route, on-call neighborhood shuttle service, ADA paratransit, light rail, vanpool/carpool, HOV network Agency Description DART is a regional transit authority that serves Dallas and 12 surrounding cities with more than 130 bus routes, light rail transit, HOV lanes, on-call shuttle service and ADA paratransit service. The agency is governed by a 15-member board of appointed officials from member city councils. Description of Suburban Transit Services DART On Call provides limited curb-to-curb service in six neighborhood zones, roughly 4 to 5 square miles, within the DART service area. The system is a feeder shuttle serving six communities: East Plan, North Central Plan, East Rowlett Farmers Branch, Lakewood and North Dallas. Shuttles make daily stops at DART Light Rail stations or Park n Ride lots, Monday through Friday. During the midday hours, passengers may call the driver or central office to schedule a trip within a neighborhood service area. Pick ups and drop-offs are at designated stops within a service area. (See examples of service are maps attached). Typical stops include local neighborhood medical facilities, shopping centers, municipal centers, and social services. Service hours are Monday through Friday, 5 am to 8 pm. During morning rush hours (5:00 am to 8:30 am) and afternoon rush hours (3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.), DART On-Call provides neighborhood residents with service to and from the designated Light Rail station or Park and Ride station for each particular service area. During midday (8:30 to 3:30 pm), DART On-Call circulates throughout each neighborhood with stops at specified locations within each zone. Fares are $2.25 per trip. Exact change or one of several DART passes is required; drivers do not make change. To make as reservation for curb-to-curb service, rider must call at least one hour prior to travel time. Reservations are not required for service from a designation rail station or park and ride lot. Customers call the driver directly, who are equipped with cell phones to make a reservation. Reservations can be made up to one week in advance. Same-day service is available by calling at least one hour in advance. Description of Operational Issues Our first zone began operation in 1999, our second in 2000, and our third in 2001, and three more zones began service in October 2003. A seventh zone is scheduled for implementation in May 2004.

C-63 Service is provided by three private contractors who serve different portions of the service area. Of the six zones, one operator covers four zones, with the remaining two, covering one zone each. Description of Funding Arrangements DART receives sales tax revenues (1%) from each member city, and that funds all operations. Description of Marketing Program Prior to implementing a new zone, we hold an open house for prospective passengers; this teaches them how to use the service, and attendees of these open houses can use the service the week before the service is initiated. We also wrap all our vans with the DART On Call logo. We are currently working on a new marketing plan for one of our zones. Description of Performance Measurement Program The DART Board has adopted a service standard which is a subsidy of $4.30 per passenger, and 6.0 passengers per trip. The On Call standard subsidy per passenger is the same as for transit feeder routes, and the passenger per trip standard is comparable. Fixed route also tracks passengers per mile, which we don’t use for On Call. Contractors collect data using the passenger manifest, and this information is reviewed monthly by the Project Manager for DART On Call. There is no formal mechanism to measure customer satisfaction. Typically, satisfaction is anecdotal, through complaints or commendations received by DART and the contractors. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services The main lesson is that On Call might look like fixed route to planners, as far as service span and performance, but we’re the only department that sees On Call as a “fixed route.” We’ve spent a lot of time explaining the service and how to use it to stakeholders inside AND out. Transferability to Other Systems DART On Call is similar to other zone-based demand-response services that will be further reviewed.

C-64 POTOMAC AND RAPPAHANNOCK TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION (PRTC) Location: Prince Williams County, VA Contact Person: Eric Marx, Director of Planning Size of Agency: Small Transit Modes: Point deviation bus, commuter bus, ride-sharing Description of Suburban Transit Services PRTC provides OmniLink local bus service on 2 routes in the western part of suburban Prince Williams County, including Manassas, and 3 routes in the eastern part of the county, including Woodbridge, Dale City, and Dunmfries. The services operate as linear or loop routes with deviations on demand to designated points within ¾ miles on each side of the route. OmniLink was the focus of this review. PRTC also provides OmniRide commuter bus services provide express service to downtown Washington, DC and OmniMatch ridesharing services. Description of Operational Issues OmniLink is noteworthy due to its use of ITS technologies to automate scheduling of requests for deviations, dispatch, and vehicle navigation. The service began in 1995 as a new start and operated with manually dispatched deviations to avoid the need for complementary paratransit service. In 1998, automated scheduling and dispatch software was added and reduced the advance notice requirement from 24 hours to 2 hours. In 2003, mobile data terminals were added to automate control center to vehicle communication and allowed vehicle itineraries to be changed on the go. Description of Funding Arrangements Awaiting further discussion with PRTC. Description of Marketing Program PRTC conducts a bi-annual customer survey. Approximately ¾ of riders like the deviation feature, even though it is used on only approximately 12 percent of trips. Description of Performance Measurement Program PRTC tracks daily ridership, passengers per revenue-hour, cost per passenger, percent of passengers requesting deviations, and turndown rate.

C-65 Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services PRTC initially marketed the deviation feature very strongly and encountered challenges meeting the demand for these time-consuming trip segments (between 25 and 33 percent of a route’s run time is allocated for deviations). Since then the deviation rate has fallen despite increasing service levels, such as shorter advance request times. As part of a recent fare increase, PRTC recently added a premium fare (not assessed to elderly and disabled) to discourage the practice further. PRTC also provides a pioneering example of the costs, benefits, and challenges associated with technology implementation. Transferability to Other Systems PRTC was one of the first route deviation services, thus there is extensive data and history regarding modifications, etc. to consider.

C-66 MERRIMACK VALLEY REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY (MVRTA) Location: Haverhill, MA Contact Person: Joe Costanzo, Administrator Size of Agency: Small - medium Transit Modes: Bus and ADA paratransit service Agency Description MVRTA serves the northeast corner of Massachusetts, providing a mix of city, suburban, interurban, and rural scheduled bus service. Bordered on the north and east by the state of New Hampshire and the Atlantic Ocean, the MVRTA's service area includes Andover, Amesbury, Haverhill, Lawrence, Merrimac, Methuen, Newburyport and North Andover. The Authority also provides service to the Lowell Transit Center for connections with the Lowell Regional Transit Authority. While the MVRTA generally provides a mix of services to their member municipalities, many of which are characterized as suburban, the subject of this report will be two programs, the Ring and Ride program and the limited stop Express service to Boston, MA. Description of Suburban Transit Services Ring and Ride is a curb-to-curb demand-response transportation service for the residents of the town the service is provided in. The service is provided in wheelchair lift-equipped vans Monday through Friday 5am-7pm and 9am-6pm on Saturdays. Reservations need to be made at least 1 day in advance Monday through Friday 8:00am-4:30pm. It should be noted that the Ring and Ride service does not perform any better than MVRTA’S typical demand-response service, carrying an average of 2.3 passenger trips per revenue hour. Consequently, the average cost per trip is similar to other DR services operated by MVRTA. The Commuter Express service consists of two A.M. and two P.M. trips between Methuen and Boston. The service serves park and ride lot locations in Methuen as well as in Lawrence, and Andover, and provides express service from the last pickup location to five locations in downtown Boston, including Haymarket Square, Government Center, the Park Street MBTA station, Park Square, and Copley Square. Description of Operational Issues Ring and Ride Salisbury started on November 1, 2001. Ring and Ride Georgetown started on February 4, 2002. The service used to be provided by private contractors. A sub corp. of the MVRTA’s operating company called Special Transportation Services has provided the service since July 1, 2002. There are no special capital requirements to operate the Ring and Ride service. The commuter express service had previously been operated by a private operator but was taken over by the MVRTA in January of 2003. Over the road coaches are used to provide this service.

C-67 Description of Funding Arrangements The Ring and Ride service is funded by the MVRTA, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the local town the service is provided in, which is typical of transit services provided in MA. The commuter express service maintains an 85% farebox recovery, with a fare of $5.00 each way, and commuter fares available in 10 ride pass increments. The pass has magnetic strip capability to expedite boarding. Additionally, passengers have access to commuter check programs through their employers. Description of Marketing Program The Ring and Ride service is marketed through the operating company’s Director of Marketing. Brochures describing the service are placed in the town hall as well as the senior centers in each town that the service is provided. The Director of Paratransit Operations and the Director of Marketing also organize presentations explaining the services at local senior centers and job fairs, job development workshops, etc. Information is also available on MVRTA’s website. Customer satisfaction is measured by on-time performance, formal complaints filed, and missed or denied trips. Between July 2003 and March 2004, there were four formal complaints filed with MVRTA’s Office of Special Services. The Commuter Express service is marketed on the MVRTA website as well as through local advertisements. Description of Performance Measurement Program On-time performance for the Ring and Ride service is recorded for every trip and MVRTA monthly reports track on-time performance by route. The Director of Paratransit Operations regularly analyzes the data to ensure that the system is meeting its goals. The entire management team also reviews MVRTA monthly reports. Trip logs are also maintained to track missed or denied trips. Between July 2003 and March 2004, MVRTA Special Services have had 302 no shows, 56 late cancels, and 37 other passenger disruptions. Since MVRTA has taken over the commuter express service, ridership has increased from 55% capacity to 68% capacity. Other performance measures include: Cost per Hour, Mile and Passenger, and Passengers per Hour, Mile and Farebox Recovery. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Success is measured by the level of customer satisfaction. Service can be provided without using a fixed route to meet the needs of potential passengers within communities not needing a fixed route. The Ring and Ride service has been a great addition to the other demand- response service operated. It can fill down time and be worked into other shared ride services. Analysis needs to be done to determine the need for this type of service. Seniors and the disabled community use most of the service in Georgetown, while many different riders use the service in Salisbury. Most of the trips are standing orders and the trips are the same from week to week. The service is mostly used to go from dialysis and/or jobs.

C-68 Transferability to Other Systems The experience gained by MVRTA is applicable to any other transit system in the country.

C-69 CAPITAL DISTRICT TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (CDTA) Location: Albany, New York Contact Person: Jack Reilly, Deputy Director and Director of Planning and Development and Kristina Younger, Service Analyst, and Carm Basile, Marketing Director Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Route-deviation Agency Description CDTA is an all-bus system with 250 vehicles, providing service in a three county area including the cities of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy in upstate New York along the Hudson River. The area being served has a population of approximately 750,000. It is in the northeast and does not experience the explosive growth seen in southern and western parts of the country, but the area is still economically viable, with the state capital in Albany and a number of universities in the service area. Growth continues in the suburban areas in particular, and CDTA is one of the first agencies in the country to institute flexible services with minibuses as a way to serve this new growth in some of its suburban areas. Description of Suburban Transit Services CDTA stated to provide its “shuttle” services (Shuttle Bug, Shuttle Bee, and the Shuttle Fly) six years ago. These services are provided with 24-foot minibuses and operate on a route- deviation basis. The areas served by these routes are primarily non-residential suburbs. The routes vary from three to six miles in length. They are primarily commercial and industrial in nature, with some residential areas interspersed, as well as some institutional land uses. This would include office parks, industrial parks, colleges, and elderly housing complexes, as well as some scattered standard suburban residential growth. The services are provided seven days a week on the busiest route, six days a week on the next busiest, and five days a week on the lowest ridership route. Description of Operational Issues The shuttle services are route deviation services that generally operate from 6 am to 9 pm, with headways that vary from every 15 minutes during the morning and afternoon peak to once an hour in the middle of the day. The routes deviate up to a quarter of a mile based on calls from passengers who call the dispatcher, who in turn calls the minibus operator. The dispatcher makes the decision as to whether the deviation can be accommodated. The schedulers and planners built in up to 15 minutes of deviations in each direction for these routes. Minibuses are used because it allows vehicles to get in and out of tighter spaces than large buses could, and the deviations require the vehicles to make tighter turns. Requests for deviations can be made on a subscription type basis, or people can call five minutes in advance and hope to be picked up. One of the shuttle routes is provided through private contract, while CDTA personnel provide the other services. One of the operational issues is that some of the routes are now full

C-70 and cannot accept any more requests for deviations. In essence, the success of the service has become the challenge for the future. They are looking to cluster their deviations and essentially “subscriptionize” the route as much as possible to make the route more manageable. The frequent requests for deviations are not easy to administer. Description of Funding Arrangements Much of the original funding for these services came from Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) sources, with the remainder provided from the budget of the CDTA. However, they do get a limited amount of funding from two other sources. One source is a local city that contributes up to $50,000 toward the cost of the service. Another source is fairly rare, whereby developers who want to build in the service area can pay a one-time mitigation fee. In essence, this is an impact fee, and can be used by CDTA for either capital or operating expenses. The amount available in any given year is not likely to exceed $50,000. The Shuttle services are regarded as connectors, and fares are only $.25. Description of Marketing Program As can be seen by the name, CDTA deliberately gave distinctive names to these new services (Shuttle Fly, Bug, and Bee). The primary reason was to emphasize that these services were new, different, and special. This also allowed people in the service area to think in terms that this new service was “theirs”, not just another route on CDTA. The agency used special letterhead and envelopes with the insects on them. All of the effort was specifically targeted to the service area. There was almost no mass media used in the campaign. There was a lot of direct mail, with follow up phone calls and face-to-face meetings with major employers and institutions in the service area. There were lunches and breakfasts dedicated to providing specific information on the services. Description of Performance Measurement Program Fares are collected in electronic fare boxes and daily ridership reporting is available. CDTA does not necessarily have separate standards for this service versus the rest of the service it provides throughout the capital district. The different routes carry between seven and 12 passengers per hour in total, though during peak hours some of the minibuses are running full. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services The CDTA regard these shuttle services as successful, with one of the routes carrying almost 700 passengers a day, another carrying approximately 350 passengers per day, and the most recent carrying about 175 passengers per day. The challenge as noted earlier is that some of the runs on at least one of the routes are totally full, and there is no additional funding to put extra buses on the route. The agency has gone through a number of operational issues such as contemplating making the routes with right turns only to save time, to short-tripping some runs, to developing some form of hybrid route deviation that is primarily fixed route with just some strategic deviations. They can’t put bigger buses out there to increase capacity if they wish to continue all the types of deviations they are doing.

C-71 Another challenger is that the private contractor’s service is the subject of an unacceptable number of complaints for reliability and bus condition. CDTA has been providing these sorts of flexible services for six years and they have considerable experience to offer to this project. Transferability to Other Systems All the lessons learned through this case study are completely transferable to other transit agencies.

C-72 TRANSPORTATION DISTRICT COMMISSION OF HAMPTON ROADS (HRT) Location: Hampton Roads, VA Contact Person: Clayton Ashby, Chief Planning Officer Size of Agency: Medium Transit Modes: Bus, ferry, vanpool, ADA paratransit services Agency Description Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) provides bus and ferry service to a number of communities around the Chesapeake Bay, including Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. HRT service area is 369 square miles and the service area population is 1.2 million. Description of Suburban Transit Services Two routes have been identified for demonstrating Deviated-Route Service. Both routes provide regular fixed-route service; however, should someone need service within the specified distance, they are to contact HRT to make arrangements for pick-up and return trips. Route 116 was the first route to offer deviated service approximately 3 years ago. Route 57 has been providing service for about 1 year. Description of Operational Issues HRT operates the deviated route service internally and has not experienced any operational constraints or issues. There are no significant capital requirements for this service. Description of Funding Arrangements Service is funded through federal CMAQ program with the respective cities providing the local match. Description of Marketing Program Service is marketed through the distribution of schedules and rack cards. HRT measures customer service by tracking comments and complaints received by its customers. Description of Performance Measurement Program HRT does have a performance measurement program, which consists of collecting basic operational data such as ridership, revenue, hours, miles, productivity, etc. The data is reviewed monthly by the Service Planning Manager who gathers the information and prepares a staff report. This report is also reviewed by HRT’s Chief Planning Officer and other staff.

C-73 Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Productivity measures are utilized to determine whether a particular service is successful. HRT believes the Deviated-Route service to be successful based upon its performance. Foreseeable challenge may be if more riders utilize the deviated route, it may affect the actual fixed-route schedule. Service is also monitored for on time and safety performance. One lesson learned from this service is that it can take months to educate the public on route deviation and to get them to try the service. Transferability to Other Systems These services can be used by other systems to expand their coverage area and to less dense locations not generally served by transit, especially in rural areas, or areas with sprawling development patterns.

C-74 RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (RIPTA) Location: Providence, RI Contact Person: Mark Therrien, AGM/Director Transit System Development; Tim McCormack, Service Planner Size of Agency: Medium (220 buses and 125 vans) Transit Modes: Bus, ADA paratransit, and trolleys Agency Description RIPTA is a statewide authority, providing bus and paratransit service with 675 employees. Description of Suburban Transit Services RIPTA has established “Flex Service” in six different zones throughout the state. Some of the zones have regular fixed-route transit within a half mile, while others are located a long distance from regular fixed-route service. All Flex Service connects with a RIPTA fixed route, but not all the zones have time points associated with their service. In what they regard as “rural zones”, there are time points that show service being at certain locations once every two hours. However, in the zones they refer to as “outlying minor urban areas”, there are no time points. These outlying minor urban areas are generally near other fixed-route service and RIPTA does not want to encourage people who could use the fixed-route service to switch to Flex service. Hence, they require people in those zones to reserve 48 hours in advance to use Flex service. The Flex services were established primarily to assist those who needed mobility to get to work or get to vital human services. Zones were established based on the number of unemployed and the elderly and disabled people that were located in certain areas without transit service. Job Access Reverse Commute funds were used to fund these services initially. RIPTA regards these Flex services as serving both lifeline purposes and as feeders to the statewide transit system. Description of Operational Issues The Flex services generally operate five days a week, from 6 am to 6:30 pm, making them usable to those who work, as well as to the elderly, disabled, and others. They do not operate the services based on frequency, since it is almost entirely demand-response in nature. People are required to call 48 hours in advance for this curb-to-curb service. Almost 80% of the passengers are subscription riders. The vehicles used are 26-foot, 18- passenger vehicles with wheelchair lifts. All of the services are provided with RIPTA personnel who are bargaining unit employees working under a two-tier wage system. There were no real problems noted with the operations of the service to this point. Passengers call a dispatcher for service, who in turn calls the bus operator to convey the need to pick up a passenger. The major issue for the agency is how to most efficiently design a service zone that can be responsive to demand at the lowest cost.

C-75 Description of Funding Arrangements As noted earlier, federal funds from the JARC program provided the primary source of funds for these services. As those funds phase out, RIPTA uses its other funding to pay for these services. In one zone, the state’s Health and Human Services pay for a portion of some of the trips. Description of Marketing Program Targeted marketing is used in all cases. Examples include sending agency representatives to senior high-rise developments or to meal sites where they set up tables and distribute information about the Flex services. RIPTA claims that door-to-door flyers were not that effective. The agency makes use of press releases that tend to get printed in all local newspapers. They use no radio or television ads. They have found that targeting daycare services and welfare to work services provides the most effective way of reaching those they most want to help. RIPTA also painted the vehicles they use for the service a very distinct color, and put the phone number of the service on the outside of the vehicle in very large numbers to help people become aware of the availability of the service as the vehicles travel through their zones. Description of Performance Measurement Program RIPTA keeps track of all passenger activity on a daily basis. They report performance to their board. Performance varies based on the different zones, with the rural zones performing at lower levels. In the worst such zone, vehicles carry slightly more than one passenger per hour, while in the outlying minor urban zones, vehicles carry approximately 5 passengers per hour. In the more productive zones, it costs approximately $10 per passenger trip, while in the worst performing rural zone, costs might be higher than $40 per passenger trip. Even though Flex service is very expensive on a per passenger cost basis, there is no movement to eliminate such service. The availability of this service “quiets” virtually any otherwise heartbreaking story of isolation caused by non-mobility. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services RIPTA planners regard the Flex services as successful. In one zone, they claim they are carrying twice as many passengers as they used to carry with fixed-route service at about half the cost. In other zones where productivity is low, they believe it is still the best they can do under the circumstances, and provides needed mobility. The biggest challenge for the service planners is how to design a Flex zone for maximum productivity and efficiency. It is a function of size, population, and demand. There have been times when socioeconomic information would indicate likely demand, yet ridership never really developed. They have noted that a zone cannot be too large, or it will simply be too much for a single vehicle to cover effectively. This could cause people to feel that their trip is taking too long due to multiple pickups and drop-offs. However, the zone must be large enough to generate a population capable of providing a market. The service planner for the agency noted that if he had to do it over, he would have started service in some of the rural areas with service only one or two days a week. They could

C-76 have bunched the shopping trips with such a schedule, and then gained public input on how much more service was needed and expand service accordingly. Transferability to Other Systems The experience gained by RIPTA is applicable to any other transit system in the country.

C-77 NEW JERSEY TRANSIT (NJ TRANSIT) Location: Newark, NJ Contact Person: Sally Stocker Size of Agency: Large Transit Modes: Bus, commuter rail, light rail, ADA paratransit Agency Description Created by the Public Transportation Act of 1979, NJ TRANSIT was established to "acquire, operate and contract for transportation service in the public interest." In 1980, NJ TRANSIT purchased Transport of New Jersey, the State's largest private bus company at that time. Between 1981-85, the services of several other bus companies were incorporated into NJ TRANSIT Bus Operations, Inc. On January 1, 1983, a second subsidiary, NJ TRANSIT Rail Operations, Inc. was launched to assume operations of commuter rail in the State after Congress ordered Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) to cease its passenger operations. A third subsidiary, NJ TRANSIT Mercer, Inc., was established in 1984 when the agency assumed operation of bus service in the Trenton/Mercer County area. In 1992, following a full reorganization, all three subsidiaries were unified and operations were significantly streamlined. As stakeholders in NJ TRANSIT, State residents are represented by a seven member Board of Directors, appointed by the Governor. Four members are from the general public and three are State officials. The agency is structured to encourage broad public participation in the formation of transit policy for the State. NJ TRANSIT's board meets monthly at NJ TRANSIT headquarters in Newark. The Governor can override board actions by vetoing the board meeting's minutes. NJ TRANSIT Corporation's Board selects an Executive Director to administer the entire agency. The Executive Director serves as President of all three subsidiaries (NJ TRANSIT Bus Operations, NJ TRANSIT Rail Operations, Inc. and NJ TRANSIT Mercer, Inc.). In addition, NJ TRANSIT employs a Chief Operating Officer to coordinate operations. Two transit advisory committees provide the agency with additional input from the public. The North Jersey Transit Advisory Committee and the South Jersey Transit Advisory Committee are each comprised of fourteen unsalaried members. Members of the North Jersey Transit Advisory Committee serve four-year terms. Members of the South Jersey Transit Advisory Committee serve three-year terms. Description of Suburban Transit Services NJ TRANSIT has been experimenting with the provision of transit service oriented towards increasing suburban employment and commuting patterns with widely varying results over the past ten years. NJ TRANSIT has experimented with deviations to existing NJ TRANSIT routes, initiation of reverse-commute transit services, park/ride oriented services, suburban

C-78 employment services, flexibly routed subscription services, and various connecting services to rail stations and other transit hubs. Description of Operational Issues The WHEELS services are contracted out to a private operator. The only significant purchase at the time was the purchase of smaller cutaway vehicles for some of the circulator routes. The cost of these suburban transit services was similar to existing NJ TRANSIT service. Description of Funding Arrangements These experimental transit services were supported through the use of federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds for the first three years of operation. At the end of the third year of operation, “successful” services became part of NJ TRANSIT’s network of services and are funded through the regular channels, while routes that were not meeting their performance standards were eliminated. Description of Marketing Program During the initial implementation phase, NJ TRANSIT worked extensively with local TMAs to market the suburban transit services. Promotional events were held initially and free fares were offered to passengers. Description of Performance Measurement Program In 1993, NJ TRANSIT launched 40 new experimental transit routes, which were named WHEELS services. A performance measurement program was established for these services, with farebox recovery as the primary performance indicator. Second year farebox recovery goals for these services were 20% for new services and 25% for service extensions or enhancements. After two years in operation, fifty percent of the WHEELS services were meeting their goals and the remaining services had either already been discontinued or were scheduled for discontinuation. Ten years after these routes were inaugurated, approximately twenty five percent of the routes were still in operation. Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned with the Suburban Transit Services Several lessons learned have emerged from NJ TRANSIT’s foray into the realm of experimental transit services. First of all, there was considerable enthusiasm and marketing for these routes when they were first implemented and the ridership increased rather significantly on many routes. Over time, enthusiasm and marketing waned, as did the route’s ridership. NJ TRANSIT learned that marketing must be sustained for the long haul in order to ensure continued success for their WHEELS transit services. Routes that provided a direct connection to other transit services were also more likely to succeed than new routes in primarily auto-oriented parts of the state that do not provide a connection to the existing transit network. Lastly, routes operating in areas with higher employment and population density were much more likely to

C-79 succeed, as would be expected. While many of these issues were painful lessons at the time, NJ TRANSIT has learned from these experiences and has significantly improved their ability to plan non-traditional suburban oriented transit routes throughout the state. Transferability to Other Systems The WHEELS minibus routes are probably some of the most transferable of NJ TRANSIT’s suburban services. NJ TRANSIT still operates 15 of these routes and average ridership in FY 2003 was 7.36 passengers/hour, which is a respectable performance for a small vehicle, circulator type service.

Next: Appendix D: Case Study Methodology »
Developing Guidelines for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Web-Only Document: 34 Guidebook for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services examines the status of suburban transit from operational and land-use perspectives and describes the development of guidelines for evaluating, selecting, and implementing those services. The guidelines were published as TCRP Report 116: Guidebook for Evaluating, Selecting, and Implementing Suburban Transit Services.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!