| Title | Accessible Bus Service in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area |
|---|---|
| Record ID | 48767 |
| Personal Name Creator |
Englisher, Larry S.; Wexler, Amy L. |
| Source | 336p. in various pagings |
| Corporate Creator | Multisystems, Inc. |
| Corporate Contributor |
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.); United States. Urban Mass Transportation Administration. Office of Technical Assistance and Safety |
| Publisher | United States. Urban Mass Transportation Administration |
| Publication Date | 19830101 |
| Language | English |
| Abstract | The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) began operation of lift-equipped fixed-route service on several of its Metrobus routes in July 1979. Using 151 Flxible buses equipped with Vapor front-door lift devices, WMATA made 8% of its weekday (and a higher percentage of weekend) bus trips accessible to wheelchair and semiambulatory disabled. The UMTA Service and Management Demonstrations Program provided grants to WMATA and George Washington University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center to develop and conduct driver and consumer training activities and to perform surveys and data collection to enable an evaluation of the project. This evaluation report describes the implementation and operation of the lift-equipped service and investigates issues related to equipment design, service quality, travel behavior and operator productivity. Among the evaluation's key conclusions is that disabled individuals, like other potential passengers, are quite sensitive to service convenience and reliability, and that ridership will not develop if there are serious deficiencies in these characteristics. With only partially accessible Metrobus service scheduled and only 80% of scheduled service provided, lift ridership averaged only seven to eight boardings per day. The users, primarily young, male, affluent and mobile, were atypical of the disabled public. While these individuals indicated a preference for fixed-route service over door-to-door service, follow-up surveys showed few continuing riders. Despite favorable attitudes toward the fixed-route service concept, non-users cited barriers such as curbs as significant deterrents to their use of Metrobus. While ridership was too small to affect operator schedules, the maintenance and repair costs combined with low ridership made total per trip costs quite expensive, over $300 per trip. Although the lift equipment underwent modifications to overcome initial difficulties, lift damages and repairs remained a major problem. |
| Rosap ID | dot:10264 |
| Rosap URL | https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/10264 |
| TRT Terms | Aged; Persons with disabilities; Wheelchair lifts; Bus drivers; Accessibility; Equipment; Fixed routes; Implementation; Quality of service; Travel behavior; Operations |
| Classification | AGR - PASSENGERS - PASSENGERS; AGR - PASSENGERS - Transit; NTL - PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION - Bus Transportation; NTL - PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION - PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION |
| Geographical Coverage |
Washington (District of Columbia) |
| Contract Number | DOT-TSC-1412; HS034 490 |
| Report Number | DOT-TSC-UMTA-82-58; UMTA-DC-06-0239-83-1 |
| Resource type | Tech Report |
| URL | https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/48000/48700/48767/DOT-TSC-UMTA-82-58.pdf |
| Format | |
| Database | NTL Digital Repository |