Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Paratransit Brokerage

The benefits of interagency coordination of public and human service transportation have been recognized and promoted by federal, state and local governments. Potential coordination benefits can be realized by centralizing critical functions of transit operations. One of the ways this can be realized is by brokering partransit services. This paper discusses barriers that agencies face when planning to implement paratransit brokerages. The barriers were developed from a synthesis of the literature and interviews with paratransit providers in Illinois. Strategies for implementing brokerages that attempt to overcome these barriers based on an analysis of paratransit operators in the state of Illinois are also presented. These strategies include establishing an advisory board, developing an agreement among participants, specification of the type of brokerage that will be implemented and technological changes.