Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions (2018)

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51 Most of the service dimensions outlined below have many of the same options as 20 years ago. Although technological innovations have profoundly changed the way vehicles may be hailed, routed, and fueled, as well as the way customer and driver markets can be organized and accessed, no fundamentally new vehicle configurations have been introduced in that time. Con- tinuity exists with the options for passenger capacity and vehicle configuration, stop configura- tion, service areas, and access requirements. Newly introduced, however, are more options for requesting rides and more options for collecting fares, and these two changes have reinvigorated the private transportation market and introduced several new players. In particular, taxi-like services have grown in usage due to the ability—popularized by trans- portation network companies (TNCs) but by no means exclusive to them—to request a ride from anywhere at any time (on-demand) and the ease of paying for that ride electronically, usually within the same application. Table C-1 presents a taxonomy of private transit services and classifies them across five main attributes. The narrative provides additional description of the distinctions among these service types in other dimensions. The attributes of the taxonomy and their possible types are provided in Table C-2. Some private operators run multiple types of service, with a range of values for the various attributes. A P P E N D I X C Description of Taxonomy Categories

52 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions Service type Stop coniguration Service coniguration Ride request format Fare collection Access requirements Private Market Services On-demand pooled services (shared taxis or TNCs) - Many-to- many -Demand responsive - Zone route - On demand - Online/app - Cash - Credit - Technology restrictions Prearranged route- or zone- based services (microtransit) - Few-to-few - Few-to-one - Fixed route - Zone route - Prearranged - Ticket - Online/app - Technology restrictions Flexible route- based services (jitneys, dollar vans) - Many-to-one - Few-to-one - One-to-one - Fixed route - Route deviation - Request stop - Street hail - No arrangement - Cash - Ticket - General public Sponsored Services Employer- based commuter services - One-to-one - Fixed route - Request stop - No arrangement - Free/subsidized - Online/app - Ticket - Employee only Property-based services - Few-to-one - One-to-one - Fixed route - Request stop - No arrangement - Prearranged - Free/subsidized - Online/app - Ticket - Af†iliated-only Table C-1. Taxonomy of private transit services. Attribute Possible Types Notes Primary sponsor or service-initiator Private market services (vendor relationship is directly with rider) Employer sponsored Property sponsored (residential or commercial) Consortium sponsored Private market operations exist where they can make a proit. Employers, buildings, or property managers may initiate and subsidize a service to provide an amenity, often in a bid for competitive advantage over other employers/properties. Passenger capacity 3–4: sedan 6–8: minivan/SUV 9–15: passenger van 14–30: cutaway 30–40: transit bus 40–60: motor coach 60–80: double-decker motor coach Passenger capacity determines the regulating body and whether a service qualiies for federal transit beneits (at 6 or more seats). This attribute is included in text descriptions but not listed in the table. Stop coniguration Many-to-many: service with numerous or unlimited boarding/alighting points within service zone or along route Many-to-few: many boarding points, with alighting limited to a few designated locations, such as transit stations or employment areas Many-to-one: many boarding points, but a single alighting point This can be thought of as the number of individual stops that a service makes on both the origin and destination ends of a trip. A shuttle between a train station and an Table C-2. Descriptions of attributes in private transit taxonomy.

Description of Taxonomy Categories 53 Table C-2. (Continued). Few-to-few or few-to-one: express-type service from a limited number of boarding points to a limited number or a single alighting point One-to-one: service operating between two speciic points employer makes no intermediate stops, so is a one-to-one service. An on- demand shared ride makes individual stops at each rider’s origin and destination, so this is a many-to- many service. Service coniguration Fixed route: corridor or circulator routes with ixed stops and schedule Request stop: vehicles operate in conventional ixed-route, ixed-schedule mode and also serve a limited number of deined stops near the route in response to passenger requests Route deviation: vehicles operate on a regular schedule along a deined path, with or without marked bus stops, and deviate to serve requests within a zone around the path Point deviation: vehicles serve requests within a zone and also serve a limited number of stops within the zone without any regular path between the stops Zone route: vehicles operate in demand- responsive mode along a corridor with established departure and arrival times at one or more end points Demand responsive: vehicles are routed according to passenger boarding and alighting requests From TCRP Synthesis 53 (Koffman, 2004). Conigurations are listed in order of increasing lexibility. Coniguration presents a tradeoff between eficiency and lexibility. Attribute Possible Types Notes Ride request format Prearranged On-demand Street hail No arrangement (ixed schedule or very frequent headways, ixed route) All private routes require a ride request. Many public rides do not. Street hails are usually illegal for shared-ride services, but often happen anyway. Fuzzy line between prearranged and on-demand (what is the time differential?). Fare collection Cash only Ticket (online or in person) Online/app (credit/debit card or bank account) Fare collection can slow the boarding process and plays a role in determining who has access to the service. Some services depend on farebox return, while others run regardless. Access limitations Employee only Afiliated only (property residents, employees, or guests) Technology restrictions — Smartphone — Credit card General public (i.e., no restriction) The irst two are usually aligned with the service sponsor, whereas technology restrictions are spread throughout the population.