Continuous Dynamic Optimization: Impacts on ADA Paratransit Services (2023) / Chapter Skim
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Chapter 2 - Survey
Chapter 2 - Survey
Pages 18-32
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From page 18... ...
Target agencies were identified in four ways: 1. In TTI's interviews with the technology vendors, some of the vendors identified transit agencies that they thought were using CDO to support their ADA paratransit services.
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Figure 1 shows the locations of these 11 transit agencies along with the names of their ADA paratransit services. Results Characteristics of Responding Agencies Of the 11 transit agencies, six are city transit departments, one is operated by a county, and four are regional entities.
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in Austin, TX, provided approximately 45,000 trips in October 2021. Service Mix Figure 3 shows the mix of vehicles used by the responding transit agencies in providing ADA paratransit service, how many use non-dedicated vehicles, and how many use a mix of dedicated non-dedicated vehicles.
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Two of the remaining responding agencies increased the percentage of riders on dedicated vehicles (as opposed to non-dedicated vehicles) by 2 percent and 29 percent from October 2019 to October 2021.
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One of the responding agencies, CityLink in Abilene, TX, has a service mix. The agency operates dedicated vehicles, and two contractors -- a taxi company and a human service agency -- operate non-dedicated vehicles.
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More than half of the responding agencies allow riders to book next-day trips and advance trips via an app or website. Fewer than half of the responding agencies allow booking of other types of trips via an app or website, and fewer than half allow any type of ADA paratransit trip to be booked by email.
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Methods of booking ADA paratransit trips. Scheduling Practice Number of Responses Percent of Responses Real-time scheduling 9 82% Delayed scheduling 1 9% Other*
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. Technologies Used Figure 10 shows the percentage of responding agencies that use the available brands of booking, scheduling, and dispatching technology.
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Impacts of CDO Reduction of Service-Day Issues Figure 11 shows that 73 percent of the responding transit agencies agreed that CDO reduced the number of real-time service-day issues requiring immediate dispatcher action. Improved Productivity Figure 12 shows that 55 percent of the responding transit agencies agreed that CDO improved productivity (i.e., trips per revenue vehicle hour)
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Figure 11. Did CDO reduce the number of real-time service-day issues requiring immediate dispatcher action?
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One agency noted that it was difficult to attribute changes in unit operating cost solely to CDO. Improved On-Time Performance Figure 14 shows that 46 percent of the responding transit agencies agreed that CDO improved on-time performance.
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One agency with staff that does both scheduling and dispatching commented that reducing "manual" scheduling allowed it to expand dispatching for other modes of scheduling and on Saturdays while expanding the dispatcher role to include assisting with fare payments during the service window. Reduction in Scheduler/Dispatcher Labor Costs Figure 17 shows that 27 percent of the responding transit agencies were able to reduce dispatcher and scheduler labor costs because of CDO.
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Another responding agency reported that customer complaints decreased from "many" to "few." One agency indicated that customer complaints decreased not solely because of CDO but also because of changes in policies, procedures, and the expectations of agency staff. General Impact on Service Performance Figure 19 shows that 73 percent of the responding agencies agreed that CDO improved system performance.
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Challenge Solution The learning curve to understand the CDO function Continuous training and time Changing old behavior Continuous training and time Had to turn it off due to COVID-19 Time If tablets are down, the agency cannot move trips or make changes in the system Turn off CDO until tablets are restored The learning curve for operators and dispatchers Support and training from the technology provider No major challenges Not applicable Having the right riders' Medicaid paperwork on board All drivers take all Medicaid paperwork Getting dispatchers to not touch the system None given Reacquainting dispatchers with proactive dispatching None given Getting everyone away from paper Ban paper manifests after one week Confusing riders by updating ETAs Better communication with riders; cap the amount of time that a pickup window can expand CDO resulting in trips with long deadheads Tweak settings to eliminate long deadhead trips Scheduling breaks for drivers of the dedicated fleet Still need to manually put in breaks Dynamic optimization not occurring after a run starts Vendor provided an upgraded optimization process Drivers not liking it Limit driver access to only the next trip Table 8. CDO implementation and deployment challenges.
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• Agencies that use CDO should make sure that the software both allows them to manually move trips in real time and permits optimization in real time. • Dispatchers and operations staff have to accept that CDO can work.
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