Bay Area transit accessibility initiatives moving forward
Key Bay Area transit accessibility initiatives are moving forward, according to recent updates provided by Drennen Shelton, MTC Senior Transportation Planner at MTC’s Policy Advisory Council Equity and Access subcommittee on July 28th.
Shelton provided new information about progress on a pilot program for one seat paratransit rides and an initiative to create “mobility manager” services in each county to provide a single point of contact for people with disabilities and caregivers.
The Transit Transformation Action Plan lays out 5 initiatives that the Bay Area can take in the near-term to improve accessibility, albeit the timeline for many of these actions has fallen behind schedule.
For background, improving transit accessibility for people with disabilities is one of the five pillars of the Transit Transformation Action Plan. This plan consists of 27 actions the Bay Area can take in the near-term to create a more connected, seamless, and equitable transit network. Seamless and seven other advocacy groups jointly released a Transit Transformation 1-Year Report Card in September 2022 to track progress on these 27 actions. In the report card, the accessibility improvements (Items 21-25) were lagging behind the initial schedule.
One-seat paratransit ride pilots
Under current paratransit service, riders are often forced to transfer from one paratransit service to another whenever crossing jurisdictional lines. Currently, there are 20 different paratransit providers operating in the 9-county Bay Area.
Additionally, people with disabilities cannot make “on-demand” paratransit trips and must schedule rides at least a day in advance. Both of these factors pose serious hurdles for people with disabilities – planning and the execution of cross-jurisdictional trips can be a time-consuming and arduous process, presenting a major barrier in mobility for people with disabilities.
The Transformation Action Plan (TAP) includes pilot programs providing one-seat paratransit rides, including the development of cost-sharing policies for cross-jurisdictional paratransit trips (Action 22).
Shelton announced that MTC is creating a framework for grant programs funding pilots that provide one-seat paratransit trips. MTC is working on the framework with the transit agencies and county paratransit coordinating councils as these groups act as de facto technical advisors.
The pilot programs were originally set to roll out in late 2022, but now Shelton hopes that the grant program will be out by early 2024. She cited limited staff capacity as a contributing factor to the slow implementation of this project.
The pilot programs will expand on a current pilot in Contra Costa County and parts of Alameda County (Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore). This program, in place since November 2020, provides paratransit users with a one-seat ride within the boundaries of the four participating agencies – County Connection LINK, Tri-Delta Transit, WestCAT, and LAVTA (also known as Wheels Bus). Since implementation, average dwell times have decreased, no show and cancellation rates decreased, and on-time performance increased. Agencies share the cost of trips based on the time spent in each service area.
East Bay Paratransit, however, has not joined this program. “Right now there’s not a great way to make agencies join pilots,” Shelton said at the meeting. “We’ve asked. We are trying to address some concerns. It really would be critical to get their participation in the pilot.”
An East Bay Paratransit vehicle transporting a passenger using a wheelchair. The operator is seen in a green safety vest, assisting the passenger reach their destination.
Mobility Manager Services
Shelton announced that the Mobility Manager initiative (Action 21) is also now moving forward. This initiative will designate a “Mobility Manager” to coordinate rides and function as a liaison between transit agencies in each county, serving people with disabilities, older adults, and people with low incomes.
Preliminary county-by-county stakeholder lists and meetings will be held starting in 2024, with participation open to all members of the public. Progress on this action has been much delayed, with the Transformation Action Plan hoping to have this accomplished by mid-2022.
Paratransit user group to recommend reforms (Action 24)
The goal of this initiative is to identify top issues for paratransit users and to recommend reforms. Shelton noted that MTC will need consistent participation from paratransit users from throughout the region and that no such group already exists. As such, they plan to get a group set up by Spring of 2024 and want a group that is representative of multiple disabilities, ages, and geographic locations. This action will update the Coordinated Plan (full title is Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Plan). This timeline is later than the anticipated finish date of early 2023.
Streamlined eligibility and Clipper payment
Shelton also provided updates on two initiatives that were already in the works - streamlining eligibility, and integrating ADA paratransit payment into Clipper.
MTC has been working with transit agencies to standardize the eligibility process for people with disabilities (TAP Action 25). Originally anticipated to be completed in late 2022, draft MTC staff recommendations for each transit agency are now set to be released before the end of 2023. “We’re heading into the homestretch” according to Shelton. These recommendations seek to address inconsistencies across agencies, reducing confusion for people with disabilities using transit.
Also, ADA paratransit payment is being integrated into Next-Generation Clipper (TAP Action 23). Once integrated, paratransit users will be able to pay for their rides using Clipper Cards, whereas now paratransit systems have their own internal fare payment systems.
Shelton acknowledged that progress on this action has been slow, but stated that a contract with booking software provider Trapeze has been circulating internally at MTC. Trapeze already serves 13 of the 20 paratransit systems in the Bay Area. Once the booking software is connected with Clipper, SF Paratransit will launch a pilot program (likely to last 9-12 months) before the program is rolled out to all paratransit services.
Conclusion
Integrating paratransit services is vitally needed for people with disabilities who bear the brunt of our fragmented, inaccessible, and car-dependent transportation infrastructure. Despite lagging timelines, accessibility measures are moving forward that will enhance paratransit services into a more seamless system.
Paratransit services suffer from fragmentation and lack of coordination, similar to the Bay Area’s fixed route transit system. This has greatly hampered the mobility of our most transit-dependent communities – leading to inequitable outcomes and worsened quality of life for people with disabilities. The speed of reform implementation have not been up-to-par with the urgency required to fix our onerous paratransit network and serve the riders that depend on its essential services.