Creative Ways to Manage Paratransit Costs

As communities continue to move toward providing a wide range of public transportation services – often referred to as the “family of services” – one common concern is the rising costs of providing services, specifically those falling under the paratransit umbrella. Although paratransit services are usually the most efficient way to provide specialized needs or life sustaining service for the most vulnerable citizens, they are typically the most expensive, least available, and most difficult to coordinate. Cities, counties, states, and other transportation agencies that provide or purchase paratransit services are continually pursuing methods to contain, control or reduce paratransit costs. The purpose of this project was to define types of paratransit services and their characteristics, document major paratransit expense factors and their trends, and identify and document best practices in paratransit cost containment.