DEFINING THE MTA ROLE IN COORDINATING COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Community-based transportation services (CBTS) are defined as those services from taxis and demand-responsive paratransit through fixed-route local circulators operated with smaller-sized vehicles, and have increased significantly in number in recent years. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) annually provides funding for $87 million of CBTS, and the 89 local jurisdictions in the County use their share of transportation sales tax revenues to fund an additional $100 million in these services. This paper focuses on the MTA role in coordinating health and human services transportation for incorporation into the countywide transit master plan begun as part of the long-range transportation plan process. The public transport element of the long-range plan envisions multiple tiers of service, including commuter, heavy/and light rail, bus rapid transit, and other buses operating on high demand corridors, traditional inter- and intrajurisdictional local services, and CBTS. The transit master plan will address policies to improve coordination of CBTS with specific implementation potentially guided by 5-year business plans.