RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF DIAL-A-RIDE SERVICE IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

For one year, the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) offered dial-a-ride service to the general public in four suburbs under two different institutional arrangements. The public operator, Regional Transit Service, and a private operator, Paratransit Enterprises, each provided service in two communities. They also provided demand-responsive service to the elderly and the handicapped throughout Rochester. This unique arrangement was part of the Rochester community transit demonstration, an outgrowth of the earlier Rochester integrated transit demonstration, both projects funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration Service and Methods Demonstration program. The community transit demonstration was specifically designed to test cost-effective demand-responsive transit strategies. RGRTA sought competitive bids from paratransit operators and asked communities to fund a share of the operating deficits for postdemonstration services. Thus, the demonstration made it uniquely possible to compare service levels, ridership, and costs for public and private dial-a-ride that served both the general public and the elderly and the handicapped. By the end of the demonstration, three of the four communities found that they could not afford to continue paratransit services by using local subsidies. One town, however, developed an innovative funding strategy and supported dial-a-ride services for five additional months. By 1980, no general market dial-a-ride services were operating, although the cost-effectiveness of private operation was successfully demonstrated. Today, RGRTA supports privately operated paratransit services for the elderly and the handicapped throughout the county. The activities of the demonstrations are reviewed and implications are derived that may be useful to others considering implementing demand responsive transit service. (Author)