Introduction
Who Are the Transportation Disadvantaged?
Large numbers of transportation-disadvantaged people are without access to a private vehicle. Their concerns include: how to find alternative transportation, how to pay for it, and if it is safe.
For older adults who have had to curtail or completely cease driving, for persons with physical or cognitive disabilities, and for people who are unable to afford a vehicle, transportation needs are fundamental. For these people, obtaining access to any form of convenient, dependable, and affordable transportation can be a challenge. Although there are 62 different Federal programs to provide assistance, being able to find the right program and to coordinate the program with available transportation options is daunting at best.1
What Are Their Transportation Needs?
These populations have well-defined needs: access to easily understood traveler information, low fares that are simple to understand and pay, safety and security, access to transportation with sufficient service coverage, convenient schedules, and reasonable journey times. Transportation issues include physical, sensory, and cognitive limitations, income constraints, and concerns about personal wellbeing. Addressing these issues and needs usually requires coordination of services among multiple agencies, carriers, and modes.
It is true that sometimes these needs are well satisfied by small agencies, using nothing more than phone, fax, pegboard, and determination. In agencies across the U.S., however, demand for transportation services is growing, and the need for technology to help meet the demand is becoming obvious.
What Are the Challenges to Meeting These Needs?
Coordinating services among multiple transportation providers is a significant challenge because these organizations often have different goals for, approaches to, and capabilities of meeting the needs of transportation-disadvantaged communities. Four agencies fund most of the transportation services of the transportation-disadvantaged populations: the Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Department of Education (DOE). For each of the transportation-disadvantaged populations, programs may be administered by more than a single agency. For example, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is administered through HHS and Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) is administered through DOT. While the programs are different, they both serve low-income populations.
When a city or agency makes plans to deploy ITS technologies, policy issues can be as important to consider as the technology itself. Reaching a consensus among different agencies or organizations, or across political boundaries, is not simple. Obstacles include differing standards and policies among the various agencies, varying funding streams, and limited guidance. Figure 1 displays the complexity of these relationships and the difficulties of communication.
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Figure 1. Examples of Federal Funding Agencies and Programs That Assist
States and Local Agencies with Human Services Transportation
Paratransit is often more expensive than fixed-route transit. In addition, the number of paratransit trips is growing. Use of ITS technologies to increase flexibility, efficiency, and coordination may be an effective way to reduce costs.
Rapid changes in technologies are another challenge. It is difficult to decide on the right time to implement a new technology because of the fear that tomorrow may bring a better technology.
Another issue is the tremendous challenge of meeting a wide variety of needs within these populations. Even in the community of people with disabilities, the needs of a person with a sensory loss (e.g., sight, hearing) are different from the needs of a person in a wheelchair or a person with a cognitive disability.
How Can ITS Technology Help?
ITS technologies involve computers, electronics, and communications systems for improving the surface transportation system. A primary goal of the U.S. DOT and the transportation industry is to use ITS to move people more efficiently and with greater safety. In the following sections of this report, specific examples from six focus sites (Figure 2) illustrate how these agencies used ITS technologies to provide an effective means for improving transportation operations, safety, and customer satisfaction.
Figure 2. Locations of the Six Focus Sites Highlighted in This Report
1General Accounting Office (June 2003). Transportation-Disadvantaged Populations. GAO-03-697. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03697.pdf.