Automation of paratransit reservation, routing, and scheduling

Santa Clara County, California experienced a sharp growth in demand-responsive paratransit ridership for individuals with disabilities, as a result of the passage of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). This paper describes an automated paratransit system for the ADA-type paratransit operation implemented in Santa Clara County. It automated paratransit reservation, scheduling, and routing functions. The key components of this system were a digital geographic database (DGD) and an automated trip scheduling system (ATSS). Empirical evidence after one year of operation indicates numerous benefits of this automation. There were significant reductions in the paratransit operating costs and an increase in the percent shared rides. The savings in operating costs far exceeded the annualized capital cost of automation. A user survey indicates that these improvements were achieved without degradation to service quality such as vehicle on-time performance, invehicle travel times, vehicle response to open return, and ride comfort.