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Maximizing Savings through Free Fixed-Route Rides for Paratransit Customers

Learn how offering free fixed-route rides to paratransit customers can save money and analyze ridership data to understand customer behavior and patterns. Explore how this policy impacts mode shifting and encourages more efficient transportation choices.

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Maximizing Savings through Free Fixed-Route Rides for Paratransit Customers

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  1. Mobility Management:Do you save money by allowing paratransit customers to ride free on fixed-route? CalACT Conference April 2019

  2. Background • SamTrans is a mid-size transit agency in the San Francisco Bay Area • SamTrans has offered free fixed-route rides to paratransit customers for many years • Started to issue magnetic stripe ID cards • Analysis of a partial data set

  3. Ridership numbers Monthly Average for CY 2018 Free trips on SamTrans: 42,362 Paratransit trips: 29,135 Difference: 13,227 Paratransit customers take a lot more trips on fixed-route than on paratransit

  4. Rides per person • Paratransit customers riding SamTrans fixed-route took a average of 18.55 trips per month in CY 2018 • A recent SamTrans bus survey shows 81% of fixed-route customers ride at least 3-4 days per week.

  5. Use paratransit or just fixed-route? • Of paratransit customers riding fixed-route, 73% did not ride paratransit at all in the same month.

  6. Paratransit ridership patterns For paratransit customers who rode BOTH fixed-route and paratransit • Average fixed-route trips per month: 16.53 • Average paratransit trips per month: 9.57

  7. Do they ride paratransit less than the average customer? Average number of rides per month (of those using paratransit in a specific month) • All paratransit customers: 10.41 • Paratransit customers who also ride fixed-route: 9.57 Difference 0.84

  8. Eligibility category Rode SamTrans with Paratransit ID Redi-Wheels Only Conditional 38% 14% Temporary 3% 8% Trip-by-trip 22% 8% Unrestricted 37% 70%

  9. Paratransit trips – trip distance All paratransit customers: 7.71 Paratransit customers who also ride fixed-route: 8.76 Difference 1.05

  10. Are the same people riding each month?

  11. Other demographics Compared to overall paratransit customers, paratransit customers who use their paratransit ID card to ride fixed-route • Customers are more likely to be ambulatory • Their trips on paratransit have a higher percentage of “demand” trips • Their trips on paratransit are slightly more likely to be no-shows or late cancels • Their trips on paratransit are slightly more likely to be cancelled in general

  12. Anecdotal Information Eligibility office reports requests for “the free bus pass” Bus Operators report a few irregularities

  13. Do we save money? Yes. If 10% of trips by paratransit customers who ride fixed-route are mode shifting from paratransit to fixed-route, we save money. Does the policy actually encourage customers to mode-shift or would these trips have been taken on fixed-route anyway?

  14. Thank you Tina Dubost SamTrans 650-508-6247 Dubostc@SamTrans.com

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