CHAPTER 1

Introduction to the Guide

What Is an Alternative Service?

An alternative service, in transit industry parlance, is an on-demand or same-day transportation option subsidized by a transit agency and offered to its ADA paratransit riders as an alternative to the next-day service of ADA paratransit.

An alternative service is structured with the sponsoring transit agency subsidizing the cost of providing trips for eligible riders on an existing publicly available transportation service, where the provider or providers of such service—typically taxi companies and TNCs—agree to participate in the program under a contract or agreement. Figure 1-1 shows marketing materials for the alternative service provided by Broward County Transit that uses taxis.

Importantly, an alternative service must also provide wheelchair-accessible service to be ADA-compliant. If the service providers do not have wheelchair-accessible vehicles (not all taxi companies have WAVs and TNCs do not operate WAVs directly) the transit agency will require that the primary providers provide for WAV service—for example, through a subcontract—or the transit agency may need to contract directly with a separate provider with WAVs.

How Is the Subsidy Provided?

The transit agency’s subsidy can be provided in at least two ways: to the user or to the provider. With a user-side subsidy, the transit agency gives the money directly to the rider—typically a monthly amount with the rider paying a portion of the total. From there, all financial transactions are between the rider and the transportation provider.

With a provider-side or supply-side subsidy, the transit agency subsidizes riders’ trips (via trip tickets, vouchers, or more recently a swipe card) by paying the provider in arrears for the trips provided, in accordance with the agreement between the transit agency and the provider. Provider-side subsidy programs are more common.

Why Provide an Alternative Service?

According to the literature, and echoed by this research project, there are two primary reasons transit agencies offer an alternative service to their ADA paratransit riders:

1. To provide an additional mobility option that exceeds the minimum requirements of ADA paratransit
2. To reduce the cost of providing ADA paratransit service

The on-demand/same-day nature of the alternative service—exceeding ADA paratransit’s requirement for next-day service—is popular with many ADA paratransit riders, and transit agencies understand this.

Regarding the second reason, however, transit agencies may not be able to report to what extent—or even if—the alternative service reduces overall paratransit costs. Understanding whether the alternative service reduces paratransit costs requires two types of trip data: (1) mode-shift trips diverted from ADA paratransit to the alternative service and (2) induced trips beyond what riders would have taken on ADA paratransit, given the convenience and appeal of the on-demand service.

Background to the Research Project

A small number of taxi-based alternative services have been around for many years. A new approach to alternative services began when selected transit agencies experimented with TNC partnerships as TNCs entered the for-hire transportation landscape in the mid-to-late 2010s. Figure 1-2 shows a passenger using the MBTA’s alternative service that uses TNCs.

When these transit agencies began using TNCs in addition to or instead of taxis to provide on-demand service for their ADA paratransit riders, questions arose about TNCs’ sedan-based service that required a smartphone for access: Does Title VI apply? What about accessible service? Is drug and alcohol testing for drivers required? These issues remain relevant today as more transit agencies have designed and implemented an alternative service since the late 2010s. This is the background for this research project, which was structured to address three core questions:

1. To what extent do alternative services for ADA paratransit riders reduce overall paratransit costs?

   If the savings from riders using a lower-subsidy alternative service instead of higher-cost ADA paratransit service exceed the additional subsidies the transit agency pays for new trips

on the alternative service, then the transit agency can reduce its overall cost of transporting ADA paratransit riders. However, this is a challenge to prove as there is no collection of data about how transit agencies calculate the costs and whether there are overall savings. The transit industry would benefit from a conclusive and common way to determine whether a reduction in overall cost has been achieved.

2. To what extent do alternative services, particularly those that use the new ridesourcing providers, meet the travel needs of ADA paratransit riders, especially those who use wheelchairs?

   This question relates to equity, which has been accentuated with the use of ridesourcing companies for alternative services. The drivers for ridesourcing companies typically use their own private cars, usually sedans without a ramp or lift to accommodate wheelchairs. Even with an accessible component of the alternative service available, Curtis et al. (2019) found that fewer riders who use wheelchairs used their transit agency’s alternative service than might be expected from their use of the agency’s ADA paratransit service.

3. What are the legal and regulatory issues around planning, implementing, and operating an alternative service? What should transit agencies address to ensure their alternative service complies with applicable regulation?

   The third core question relates to federal laws, regulations and guidance that govern alternative services. These regulatory matters affect design and deployment of alternative services, and some of these are not straightforward when applied to alternative services. For example, what is the “taxicab exception” and how does that affect planning and operation of an alternative service when TNCs are used?

Products of the Research Project

The research project has produced:

• This research report, which outlines a process for planning, implementing, and evaluating an alternative service for ADA paratransit riders and documents the findings of the research project
• An Excel-based tool to estimate whether an alternative service reduces overall costs for ADA paratransit (available at nap.nationalacademies.org by searching for TCRP Research Report 239: Provision of Alternative Services by Transit Agencies: The Intersection of Regulation and Program)

• An outline for a workshop training curriculum, which, in addition to other elements, is structured to introduce the data tool and how to use it (available at nap.nationalacademies.org by searching for TCRP Research Report 239: Provision of AlterServices by Transit Agencies: The Intersection of Regulation and Program)

Research Report Contents

Part I provides the information for planning, implementing, and evaluating an alternative service; Part II documents and synthesizes the findings of the research project; and Part III contains the appendices, including full write-ups of the five case studies conducted for the project.

Part I: Alternative Service Guide

Chapter 1 outlines the background and products of the research project and identifies components of the guide.

Chapter 2 defines “alternative service” and describes how an alternative service works.

Chapter 3 is the first of three chapters that outline a logical process for starting and providing an alternative service, a process that has been developed through the work and findings of this TCRP research project.

Chapter 4 starts with information about procuring providers and ends with service start-up.

Chapter 5 focuses on monitoring the use and cost of an alternative service and evaluating whether it’s meeting defined objectives.

Chapter 6 presents the data tool developed for the research project, designed for planning the parameters of a new alternative service and estimating the cost savings from an existing alternative service. Step-by-step instructions for using the Excel-based tool are provided.

Chapter 7 has snapshots of the five case studies conducted for the project, highlighting many aspects of the information in Chapters 3–5. The full write-ups of the case studies are in Part III, Appendix A.

Part II: Research Findings

Chapter 8 identifies and discusses the regulatory framework for transit agencies’ alternative services, including federal laws, regulations, and guidance. Important to know: this research project does not provide legal advice or formal instruction related to transit agencies’ use of alternative services. As stated in Part I, transit agencies should involve their legal and risk management departments in planning and implementing an alternative service.

Chapter 9 introduces the project’s survey of transit agencies’ alternative services, summarizes the survey findings, and provides brief profiles of the alternative services captured by the survey responses.

Chapter 10 describes the different ways transit agencies have approached designing and implementing their alternative services, using findings from the research project’s survey of transit agencies and the case studies. The different models that operate service and different policies that structure the service are described, with their advantages and disadvantages.

Chapter 11 cumulates key findings to address the research project’s three core questions. It also documents effective practices for providing an alternative service that come from the lessons learned reported by the transit agencies participating in the research.

Part III: Appendices

Appendix A contains the case study write-ups, which describe alternative service programs provided by five transit agencies and representing different approaches to the service.

Appendix B includes various items provided by transit agencies participating in the research project, such as contracts and RFPs for an alternative service. This is a large file and is provided as a separate document.

Appendix C contains the results of the research project’s survey of 18 transit agencies that provide an alternative service.

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