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Wheels on the Bus.pdfWheels on the Bus:
Wheels on the Bus:
Developing Successful 21st Century Paratransit Services
Developing Successful 21st Century Paratransit Services
Sole responsibility for an analysis of paratransit policies and best practices.
My professional focus is suburban transit access, and paratransit serves an increasingly important but costly role as suburban populations age in place in car-dependent communities.
I interviewed the McHenry County Department of Transportation, which had recently consolidated their paratransit operations while expanding service to the entire county.
A key takeaway was how transit agencies and local municipalities can improve cost efficiencies by building out sidewalk networks and comfortable bus shelters that naturally shift paratransit users to fixed-route services.
This literature review was completed for my Masters in Urban Planning and Policy Transportation specialization, Urban Transportation I: Introduction and Policy.
From the paper:
From the paper:
Utilizing route cancellation and denial data provided by First Transit, McHenry County has been able to further improve the program by identifying rider “desire lines” (R. Peterson, personal communication, April 6, 2021). This resulted in seven new out-of-county destination points, including a regional hospital which serves as the major senior healthcare facility for southeastern McHenry County.
McHenry County has developed rider awareness most successfully through virtual group engagement, among other efforts. This provided transit training to senior care facilities and ADA employment groups even during a pandemic when in-person visits have been impossible (R. Peterson, personal communication, April 6, 2021). McHenry County also provides materials in both English and Spanish. This enables MCRide to reach the 14.2% of people who speak a language other than English at their home (United States Census Bureau).
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