Examples of Useful Practices

Six agencies were chosen for in-depth examination because of their exceptional success in applying ITS and other technologies for coordinating human services transportation and improving mobility for transportation-disadvantaged populations. For each site, an emphasis was placed on how the site uses technology to improve coordination to accomplish its mission. Transit features that are of greatest importance to this segment of the population include:

• Flexibility of routes and schedules
• Easily understood and easily obtainable transit-related information
• Simple-to-use fare payment options
• Safety and security.

The focus sites for this study, their specific coordination strengths, and the approximate size of their services are shown in Table 2. Five of the six sites profiled — Wheels of Wellness⁴, Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA), Flint Mass Transportation Authority (MTA), Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) and TriMet — are transit providers or brokerages or both that use software for transportation coordination. (A transit provider provides rides to passengers; a brokerage contracts with other agencies to provide rides for clients.) A sixth site — Client Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking (CRRAFT) — is a software system, currently used by the New Mexico Department of Transportation Public Transportation Programs Bureau and several rural transit providers.

Table 2. Size and Scope of the Six Focus Sites

Size	Location	Type of Coordination	Size and Scope
Wheels of Wellness	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Coordination through brokerage	Primarily a brokerage, but Wheels also provides transit services through its volunteer division Large urban service area Contract brokerage with eight carriers totaling 229 vehicles providing 5,000 door-to-door paratransit trips/day 100 trips/day provided through Volunteer Division Service limited to medical trips
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority	Cape Cod, Massachusetts	Coordination through mobility management	Transit provider Medium-sized system in a rural/urban area with high congestion during tourist season 120 buses, about 1/3 are fixedroute ~4,000 trips per week Service includes both fixed-route and demand-response
Flint Mass Transportation Authority	Flint, Michigan	Coordination with decentralization	Transit provider Medium-sized system with fixed routes in the city and county-wide curb-to-curb service 150 vehicles provide 2,000 demand-response trips/day
Ventura County Transportation Commission	Ventura, California	Coordination of accessibility on all modes	Transit provider and brokerage Medium-sized, multimodal, county-wide system Service includes both fixed-route and dial-a-ride program 113 contracted vehicles plus 33 directly operated vehicles
TriMet	Portland, Oregon	Coordination of accessibility on all modes	Transit provider that brokers services for its medical program Very large, urban, multimodal, three-county system Fixed-route: 300,000 boardings/day including bus and light rail; 44-mile, 64-station light rail system and 93 fixed-route bus lines comprised of 660 buses Paratransit: 210 buses and 15 sedans; 1 million rides/year Medical transportation: 45 contract carriers; 1,400 medical trips/day Ride Connection: 30 provider agencies; 250,000 rides/year
Client Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking	New Mexico	Coordination of client information among agencies	Software system Statewide, mostly small rural communities served 27 rural transit providers About 75-100 vehicles delivering paratransit trips

Wheels of Wellness: Coordination Through Brokerage

Wheels of Wellness ("Wheels"), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a nonprofit medical transportation brokerage that provides non-emergency medical transportation using primarily contract carriers.

Transportation Operations and Coordination

Wheels' Volunteer Division reimburses its own clients when they take public transit and reimburses people who give clients a ride. These drivers provide about 100 rides each day. Clients are encouraged to choose the less costly option of public transportation, if possible.

For trips provided outside of its Volunteer Division, Wheels manages every aspect of each trip except for the physical operation of the vehicles. Wheels operates the call center for scheduling trips, manages all of the routing and scheduling for the contract carriers, tracks carrier vehicles, handles customer complaints, and performs inspections of its contractor's operations. The MDCs and AVL equipment installed on contract carrier vehicles are owned and maintained by Wheels.

The system accommodates both regularly scheduled and previously unscheduled trips. The bulk (85 percent) of the 5,000 paratransit trips per day are subscription trips, meaning that they occur regularly each week on the same day and at the same time. There are, however, 200 to 300 changes per day to the subscription trips and 400 to 700 previously unscheduled trips per day that need to be accommodated in the new routing schedule. Routing and scheduling software has dramatically improved efficiency by reducing the number of manually scheduled trips. The routing and scheduling software has also improved coordination between Wheels and its contract carriers and has enhanced communication among the various departments within the organization. Finally, the tracking software is useful because clients frequently call for information on the location of their ride (Figure 3).

Figure 3. A Dispatcher Responds to a Client's Request for Information

"One of the big advantages of the technology is that it allows us to identify who is really being served." – Barbara Caballero Fiscal Manager, Wheels

The MDCs on board each vehicle retain one hour of schedule/route information, so temporary outages or gaps in network coverage are buffered by one hour. The contract carriers' dispatch offices are networked to the Wheels system so they can view the routing and scheduling information. The carriers also receive paper copies of all manifests transmitted electronically. These hardcopy manifests can be used by carriers in the event of a prolonged network outage. Allowing carriers to view routing and scheduling information helps to keep the carriers well informed of operations, which in turn improves communication and promotes trust between the carriers and Wheels.

Wheels communications uses a wireless network. If the building that houses the Wheels operations center should be inaccessible due to an evacuation or some other event, Wheels managers and customer service representatives in the field could access their systems from anywhere within the wireless network coverage area.

Information Dissemination

The software used for routing and scheduling also has a module for billing which significantly reduces the effort required by Wheels staff and provides them with statistics that would not otherwise be available. According to Barbara Caballero, Fiscal Manager at Wheels, "One of the big advantages of the technology is that it allows us to identify who is really being served."

Reservationists at Wheels take requests by phone Monday through Friday. In addition, there is an interactive voice response system with an automated menu. Though the IVR system does not work well for all clients, it works very well for some agency representatives who become familiar with the system.

Safety and Security

It is not uncommon for a client to schedule a ride and then not show up. There is a maximum number of "no shows" within a period of time before riding privileges are suspended. Wheels notifies clients of changes, and technology plays an important role in the notification. By automating the process and tying it to a client database, letters are automatically generated and mailed to clients. Not only does this automation reduce the amount of manual labor involved, but it also reduces clerical errors, ensuring that the letters are timely and accurate.

All drivers undergo background checks and a verification of all required documents such as the driver's license. The driver information is then loaded onto an electronic ID card. At the beginning of each shift, a driver must swipe an ID card in the vehicle's MDC. The information from the ID card is then transmitted to Wheels where it is verified by a database to ensure that the driver's records are current. Wheels maintains detailed client and driver databases.

Once a driver's ID card has been validated, Wheels transmits the manifest to the driver's MDC over its wireless network. Because all pick up and drop off points are geo-coded with longitude and latitude coordinates and the vehicles are equipped with GPS-based AVL, Wheels is able to require that a vehicle is within a few meters of the geo-coded point before accepting the confirmation of a pick up or drop off.

To resolve complaints or conflicts that cannot be adequately resolved over the phone, Wheels has three customer service representatives that travel around the city by car with a cell phone and a laptop computer. The customer service representatives are able to access the routing and scheduling system at Wheels using its wireless network. They investigate complaints throughout the city and verify that vehicles in the real world match operations reported by the system.

Wheels was forced to discontinue the use of the onboard panic buttons due to an excessive number of false alarms. It is believed, however, that their removal has had little impact on safety because vehicles are very closely monitored and can be tracked at all times. In one instance, the system led to the quick discovery and rescue of a driver who became incapacitated and required immediate medical attention.

Wheels formerly used a Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) wireless network. In 2005, however, Wheels replaced the CDPD network with an Evolution Data Optimized (EvDO) wireless network. The new system allows enough bandwidth to handle streaming video from in-vehicle security cameras, which gives Wheels the option to add yet another layer of security.

CCRTA: Coordination via Mobility Management

The Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has provided both fixed-route and general public dial-a-ride service since the late 1970s. The 413-square-mile peninsula in eastern Massachusetts is considered rural, due to the designation of the Cape Cod National Seashore. However, during the summer, when Cape Cod's population triples to 600,000, the influx of tourist traffic causes extreme congestion. About a third of the population are older adults. CCRTA is responsible for providing Cape-wide transportation to the public for any purpose with door-to-door and traditional regional bus route service.

Transportation Operations and Coordination

In 1980, CCRTA was one of the first transit systems to deploy a computer-assisted scheduling and dispatching system. Using a minicomputer, software was written locally and was placed in the public domain. Over the years, the CCRTA upgraded its hardware and software platforms, implementing additional ITS components, such as MDCs, AVL (GPS-based), and a GIS. The software programs remain in the public domain. A dedicated radio system for data transmission and a local area network were deployed in the late 1990s.

All vehicles are equipped with GPS-based AVL and MDCs with a covert emergency button to alert authorities in case of emergency. The MDC provides real-time communications capabilities between the driver and dispatchers (see Figure 4). CCRTA currently uses conventional radio communications at a 450 MHz frequency with three radio towers to transmit data to the MDCs. A converter is needed to convert the signal from analog to digital to enable the MDCs to receive the data.

CCRTA has an impressive history of coordination within public and human service transportation. Since 1999, both fixed-route and paratransit data communications have used the same infrastructure.

Figure 4. An MDC Provides Real-Time Communications

Once contracts are in place and individuals have been approved for services, the rides are assigned by the operations center using the custom-built CCRTA routing and scheduling software. By analyzing the locations of origins and destinations of Medicaid trips as well as CCRTA's paratransit services, the agency was able to move most of its Medicaid trips from single-ride taxi trips to less expensive shared-ride public paratransit trips.

Implementation of technologies has allowed dispatchers to serve more people, answer queries better, and maintain open communications between drivers, dispatchers, and clients. As stated by Larry Harman of Bridgewater State College's GeoGraphics Laboratory, "The tools are now available, so it is time to start pushing for the use of these technologies in transit operations. You really can't talk about coordination without talking about the science behind it. Unless you approach coordination in a systematic and verifiable way, which is best accomplished through the use of technology, it is just guess work and not really coordination in any useful sense of the word."

"...Unless you approach coordination in a systematic and verifiable way, which is best accomplished through the use of technology, it is just guess work and not really coordination in any useful sense of the word." – Larry Harman Bridgewater State College GeoGraphics Laboratory

Information Dissemination

The CCRTA provides riders with several options for access to travel information. For example, CCRTA has three computer terminals in the Intermodal Center in Hyannis. One is a transit planner using Web-mapping, another shows estimated arrival times, and the third shows departure times. All of the bus location information is available on the Internet in real time and can be accessed by any Web-enabled device. There is also an IVR telephone system although some clients, especially older adults, do not like the menu system. While not often used, both a telephone line for foreign language speakers and a TDD/TTY line are available.

One of the best examples of information dissemination is the CCRTA transit travel planner, developed in 2000 (Figure 5). The planner uses a low-cost Web mapping tool. Up to three destination points can be entered by a user. These points are then matched with CCRTA fixedroute services. The user follows links to determine scheduling information. While the service is primarily used by tourists in the area, it is also used by persons who need to use transit to access a job. This feature offers the capability to plan for a childcare stop.

Figure 5. Opening Screen of the CCRTA Travel Planner

Another means for riders to obtain information is the estimated time of arrival (ETA) tool. The ETA tool, which is only available on fixed routes, is accessible using PDAs, mobile phones, the Internet, and a spoken announcement available online. The locations of the buses are collected every 60 seconds using the AVL/MDC devices on the buses. These data are transferred via radio to a central location for processing by a custom-built prediction algorithm, which runs on a commercial software platform.

Flint MTA: Coordination with Decentralization

The Flint Mass Transportation Authority provides public transportation in the city of Flint, Michigan, and throughout the entire 636-square-mile area of Genesee County, which is home to over 400,000 residents. In addition to accessible fixed-route services, Flint MTA operates an extensive curb-to-curb paratransit service. Passengers who are unable to ride fixed-route transit due to a disability, and passengers outside the city of Flint where fixed-route service is not available, are eligible for the paratransit service. By following a regional ITS architecture and applying technology to support its goals, Flint MTA has been successful at obtaining outside funding, improving service, and becoming recognized in the community as a vital resource.

Transportation Operations and Coordination

Flint MTA's paratransit service, which began in 1975, was originally dispatched from a single large service center. By 1995, however, it became clear that changes were needed. The agency frequently fell short of customer expectations. Furthermore, many clients felt the paratransit service was an impersonal one because they spoke with a different receptionist and were picked up by a different driver for each ride. The nature of paratransit often requires attention to special needs, and many riders prefer to develop a personal relationship with their transit providers. To address these concerns, Flint MTA decentralized the single large service center and created 11 separate service centers throughout Genesee County. The following are benefits that Flint MTA experienced from the restructuring:

• Individual service centers are able to be more responsive to the communities they serve.
• Locating vehicles closer to where they are needed results in faster response times and reduced mileage per vehicle. The smaller service centers provide operators and clients with the opportunity to develop personal relationships.
• Establishing a physical presence outside the city of Flint increases visibility and helps to build public support.

Figure 6. Genesee County and its 11 Distributed Service Centers

It was necessary for activities of the distributed service centers to be coordinated in order for them to function as a single transit provider that offers countywide service. Technology played a significant role in making such coordination possible.

Flint MTA opted for a single routing and scheduling software system to be used by all of the service centers. To facilitate coordination among the service centers, the agency chose a centralized structure for the software. This structure has several advantages:

• The central database ensures uniformity of data and data format.
• Each service center can easily view operational information from any other service center.
• A central client file, which can be viewed by all service centers, provides detailed information about each client within Genesee County.
• Software upgrades are easier, eliminating the need to upgrade 11 separate systems.

Although the vehicles from each service center operate primarily in their own service area, it is very important that the service centers coordinate vehicle usage as well as passenger information to facilitate smooth and efficient transfers between service areas. Wheelchair passengers are not required to transfer between vehicles when traveling across the county, so it is not uncommon for vehicles to travel outside of their service area.

A vehicle traveling outside its service area may pick up clients in other service areas as they pass through. This innovation helps to keep per passenger costs at a minimum but requires the service areas to coordinate their activities in order to realize this efficiency.

Aside from the important role technology has played in allowing Flint MTA to have decentralized service centers that are operationally integrated, the routing and scheduling software has also substantially increased the efficiency of scheduling rides. It is now possible for a service center to schedule 300 rides in just 3 minutes, leaving only a few that need to be scheduled manually. In addition, the technology is helpful in assigning rides to appropriate vehicles.

The software also has a module that allows for more efficient and flexible reporting of trips. Each of the service centers can generate reports by agency or from all service centers combined. Having a system that collects operational data in a centralized database has made it possible for Flint MTA to address inquiries more efficiently. The software ensures that vehicles with wheelchair lifts are assigned when necessary, while less expensive sedans are assigned to rides for which a wheelchair is not required.

VCTC: Cross-jurisdictional Coordination

The Ventura County Transportation Commission, in Ventura, California, administers a multimodal, multipurpose program. With only 18 employees, VCTC addresses customer, operational, planning, funding, and technology issues, and coordinates all of the transportation needs of Ventura County. VCTC's system consists of primarily vendor-supplied software. All projects are managed in-house by VCTC staff.

Transportation Operations and Coordination

VCTC is both a brokerage and a transit agency. In its role as a brokerage, VCTC coordinates with both public and private local area transportation services of all modes, including bus, rail, air, and even bicycle. VCTC also coordinates with other organizations that broker travel such as rideshare programs. In its role as a transit agency, VCTC operates VISTA, an intercity system consisting of 20 fixed-route buses, which connect cities in three counties. VCTC also operates 13 vans, which provide general public dial-aride service to rural areas and low-income communities. VCTC coordinates with five municipal transit providers operating 113 buses in the county. All vehicles are wheelchair-accessible, and paratransit dial-a-ride service exists within each city.

Information Dissemination

The VCTC travel planner is available by telephone and on the Internet. VCTC estimates that about 80 percent of households in the region have Internet access. Transit Router, a component of the travel planner, allows travelers to plan a transit trip, which may include multiple modes such as buses, trains, and ferries. Travelers specify an origin, destination, travel date and time, and other options. Transit Router provides a customized transit trip itinerary based on the traveler's input and needs, such as minimal walking or fewest transfers — features which are of particular benefit to the cognitively impaired as well as the physically disabled. The system also allows the client to request special accommodations, such as wheelchair accessibility. The travel planner is available in Spanish or English, for origins anywhere in Southern California.

All VCTC buses are equipped with GPS-based AVL, enabling VCTC to provide real-time bus location and approximate arrival times to passengers. Information is provided over the Internet, by telephone, and on signage at high-usage transit stops. The bus arrival system and software are managed by an outside vendor, which VCTC strongly recommends for transit agencies of its size. VCTC maintains the hardware and informs the vendor of any changes to routes, at which time the vendor updates the software. In addition to improving customer service, the software also provides an internal benefit to VCTC. The software produces reports that are helpful to VCTC staff in evaluating and improving agency operations.

Fare Payment

The fare payment option used by VCTC is a contactless smart card. Smart card processors are on all buses. VCTC coordinates with several different human services agencies to provide cards. The cards all look the same so if a card is subsidized by an agency such as a welfare program, it is not detectable at the individual level. About 15 percent of the smart cards are issued to persons with disabilities.

The cards can operate as an "e-purse" or a monthly pass. The e-purse card acts as a debit system. The e-purse is loaded with a specific value. Each time the card is used, the fare card reader deducts the cost of the trip from the card and records the identity of the transit operator for payment purposes.

The pass card provides unlimited usage for a calendar month. When this card is used, the ride and the identity of the transit operator are recorded. At the end of the month, the transit providers are reimbursed based on the percentage of rides provided.

Cards are sold at 20 different sites, called "points of sale," including the six social service agencies in the county, such as the one shown in Figure 7. Customers may add value to the card at a number of locations, including on board the bus or remotely by phone.

Figure 7. Smart Cards Are Programmed at "Point of Sale" Locations

The smart card is valid across the entire county and among all of the transit providers. Although VCTC first pursued the smart card system because of its mobility benefits, the agency discovered that it benefited operators as well because it enabled people to get on the bus faster. Placement of the smartcard reader and fare box in convenient locations is important for speeding up the boarding process (Figure 8). Passengers may pay a regular fare or use a smart card. For passengers with smart cards, the processor reads from the card when the passenger boards the bus. Data are downloaded from the buses nightly using a wireless communications system at the bus maintenance facilities, and the purchase requisitions are reconciled using the database.

Figure 8. Smart Card Reader and Fare Box

In 1995, VCTC prototyped a smart card that was unsuccessful. The report, Ventura County Fare Integration: A Case Study,⁵ explores VCTC's implementation of its 1995 smart card system and the many lessons it learned through the experience. While the system was quite popular among transit riders, the transit providers did not believe they were being reimbursed fairly. By analyzing the failures of the first smart card deployment, VCTC was able to make the current implementation successful to both customers and transit operators, although its public acceptance has been hindered to some extent by its association with a cumbersome passenger counting system. According to Steve DeGeorge, VCTC Director of Technology, "Success in the world of transit can be measured in three ways: technical success, political success, and consumer success. The tracking and information dissemination technology has been a huge success in all three of these areas. The smart card has been a huge success technically and from a consumer point of view. From the political viewpoint, its success is questionable, because it has been tainted by its association with the passenger counting technology. To ensure greater use, better marketing is needed."

"Success in the world of transit can be measured in three ways: technical success, political success, and consumer success. The tracking and information dissemination technology has been a huge success in all three of these areas." – Steve DeGeorge VCTC Director of Technology

TriMet: Coordination of Accessibility on All Modes

TriMet is a municipal corporation providing public transportation for much of the three counties in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. TriMet operates a comprehensive transit network including a Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light rail system, fixed route bus lines, and paratransit. Additionally, TriMet contracts with other organizations to supplement regular services.

TriMet has one database format used by multiple applications. Even when purchasing new application software, TriMet stipulates that the software must match the existing database structure. TriMet has written many application programs in-house and is a proponent of open source development.

Transportation Operations and Coordination

TriMet uses many different types of vehicles — including light rail trains, fixed-route buses, small paratransit buses, and sedans — to provide a variety of services, such as shared-ride paratransit, medical trips, nonprofit community transportation, and work shuttles. TriMet found coordination among the various modes and functions was a significant challenge. In the late 1990s, the agency consolidated fixed-route bus and light rail operations in order to achieve better coordination between the dispatch services of these two modes.

TriMet's Fixed-Route Service

All MAX trains and TriMet buses are wheelchair-accessible. Buses are low-floor kneeling buses or are lift equipped. Low-floor kneeling buses are more easily accessible and more reliable than buses with the more complex lift mechanism. The ramps and lifts on buses and trains generate data when deployed. With the data generated from lift and ramp deployments, TriMet can easily determine which routes require the most deployments and assign the new low-floor buses to those routes. The older lift type bus serves those routes where lift or ramp services are rarely used. The data also help TriMet determine equipment and resources that are needed in the future and provide an indication of the client base that is served. TriMet's emphasis on accessibility has made the fixed-route service a valuable alternative to paratransit for many people with disabilities (Figure 9).

Figure 9. A Passenger with Her Guide Dog Boarding a Fixed-Route Bus

TriMet's LIFT

LIFT is TriMet's program that addresses regulatory requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), delivering door-to-door sharedride service for pre-qualified riders who are unable to use TriMet's fixedroute service. LIFT rides may be for any purpose. LIFT serves riders anywhere within 3/4 mile of all TriMet bus routes and MAX lines. The software used in scheduling, routing, and coordinating the rides is owned by TriMet but is not the same software used by the fixed-route service.

TriMet's Medical Transportation Program

The Medical Transportation Program is completely separate from LIFT or the fixed-route service. The Medical Transportation Program uses contract carriers and software developed in-house to manage the operation. Coordination involves TriMet, the state, the contracted carriers, and social services agencies.

TriMet automates the nightly download of the state's eligibility file to ensure that each morning the most current eligibility list is used. Ride requests are called in by telephone and a receptionist at TriMet enters the request into the software system. The software, which also handles invoicing and billing, was modified by TriMet personnel from outdated commercial software. TriMet coordinates with the contract carriers over the Internet through a secure password-protected Web application. This Internet-based program allows the carriers to perform the following operations:

• View trip scheduling information
• View trip details for any ride listed in the schedule
• Download trip scheduling information into a tab-delimited text format
• Create and delete invoices
• Archive information about each trip such as cost, driver name, and actual pickup time
• Create detailed and summarized billing reports.

Ride Connection

The non-profit Ride Connection, which offers assistance to people with disabilities and senior citizens without other transportation options, coordinates community-based transportation within a network of more than 30 provider agencies. TriMet contracts with Ride Connection to coordinate services that supplement regular TriMet services in the threecounty region. Unlike programs operated directly by TriMet, agencies and organizations affiliated with Ride Connection use a combination of volunteers and paid staff.

JARC funds were used in combination with other funds to purchase the vendor-supplied software used for scheduling rides. The software saved about half of the time the scheduler usually took to schedule rides. The software also helped to maximize the number of shared rides through the use of automated scheduling features. Dan Marchand, TriMet Transportation Planning Department, praised the reporting feature in the software and stated, "All this adds to our ability to deliver a quality service at a time when funding is flat and adding employees is not an option. After we have more experience with the software, we are confident it will also have a positive impact on our overall cost per ride."

Information Dissemination

Tracking Technology

Transit Tracker is TriMet's custom-built system that provides real-time bus and train arrival times. Transit Tracker is available over the Internet, by telephone, and on signage at high-usage transit stops. At some stops, the signage includes a text-to-voice audible announcement. Even though Transit Tracker is not used for paratransit, it is used extensively by transportation-disadvantaged populations. Many people with disabilities use TriMet's fixed-route service because of its convenience and reliability. The popularity of Transit Tracker can be measured in the number of phone calls that are logged by the system — over 6,000 daily.

On-board Displays and Audible Enunciators

All MAX trains have audible announcements of stops. In addition, there are large liquid crystal display (LCD) signs that display the next stop on 75 percent of the rail cars. While this technology is of great benefit to all riders of TriMet, it is particularly helpful for those who are blind or visually impaired. TriMet is currently in the process of installing similar technology on its fixed-route buses.

Wayfinding Devices

TriMet data supports a new technology that allows the blind or visually impaired to access transit information in either Braille or audio format. Information is accessed through a portable note-taking system frequently used by the blind (Figure 10). Frank Synoground, a manager with the Oregon Commission for the Blind, notes, "Like any other blind person, I am looking to be as independent as possible, and this device is a tool for independence." Mr. Synoground continues, "We see this not only as a way to offer greater independence but also as a savings to our agency."

Figure 10. Frank Synoground Demonstrates the Use of His Wayfinding Device

CRRAFT: Coordination of Client Information Among Agencies

CRRAFT — Client Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking — is an Internet-based transit management software program. The goal of CRRAFT is to facilitate coordination between transportation providers and human services agencies in New Mexico. CRRAFT was developed to help agencies satisfy the requirements of multiple funding agencies and programs. CRRAFT is currently used by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (New Mexico DOT) Public Transportation Programs Bureau and several rural transit providers in the state.

CRRAFT was designed through collaboration between the New Mexico DOT, the U.S. DOT, and the New Mexico Department of Human Services. Developed by the University of New Mexico's Alliance for Transportation Research Institute, CRRAFT integrates human service client referral and service requirements with rural public transit operations and medical providers. CRRAFT generates financial and client tracking reports that meet each funding agency's criteria.

The CRRAFT software does not schedule paratransit trips itself. Instead, it provides transit agencies with a log of scheduled trips that is used in generating invoices to send to funding agencies.

Transportation Operations and Coordination

CRRAFT facilitates communication and provides coordination between transportation funding agencies and rural transit service providers. This coordination includes referrals, recordkeeping, trip validation, and reporting. CRRAFT was designed to ensure that these agencies have all the information they need to provide quality service to their clients and also to produce accurate reports, which ensure correct billing and record keeping.

CRRAFT was developed in order to achieve several objectives, namely to improve paratransit service, increase the accuracy of invoices sent to funding agencies, and reduce the time funding agencies spend collecting information on transit providers. An independent evaluation of CRRAFT published in 2005 concluded that the system was successful in increasing accuracy of invoices and reducing funding agencies' data collection burden. Service improvements were expected through more efficient scheduling, fewer unauthorized trips, and reduced operating costs. However, there was disagreement among transit providers that participated in CRRAFT as to whether or not its use contributed to such service improvements.⁶

Currently, clients have the ability to transfer from one transit system to another on the same trip and still count the ride as a single trip. To schedule a trip, a client calls the customer service representative at the funding agency and requests the trip; then the customer service representative sends the referral to a transit provider and requests the pickup.

An integrated smart card component was developed and tested in 2005. The smart card system is expected to facilitate ridership and financial tracking functions.

The functionality provided by CRRAFT is unique. It is the only Internetbased statewide coordination tool in existence. While CRRAFT is a Webbased system, it is password protected. Only authorized users, i.e., transit and funding agencies, may access the site. Because it is Internetbased, CRRAFT is available for use at any time by authorized users. Thus, transit providers are able to perform their scheduling at a time that is most convenient for them. This availability may be particularly helpful for small rural transit providers with limited resources and minimal staff.

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⁴ Wheels of Wellness provided non-emergency Medicaid transportation service from 1983 to 2005, and used ITS technologies to improve the management and delivery of that service. Currently, Wheels does not provide transportation for Medicaid trips and does not employ ITS. Nevertheless, Wheels staff learned many valuable lessons about the use of ITS in the paratransit setting that are discussed in this section.

⁵ U.S. DOT (2001). Ventura County Fare Integration: A Case Study. http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/jpodocs/repts_te/13479.html, EDL# 13479.

⁶U.S. DOT (2005). National Evaluation of the New Mexico Client Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking (CRRAFT) System: Final Evaluation Report. http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/jpodocs/repts_te/14175.htm, EDL#14175.

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