The MBTA’s On Demand Paratransit Pilot Program: A Case for Public Transit Agencies to Partner with Uber and Lyft to Improve Paratransit
The State of Paratransit Today
As I mentioned in my previous post, I would love to see more partnerships between paratransit systems and Uber/Lyft much like we’ve seen in Massachusetts with the RIDE, Massachusetts’ paratransit program. Paratransit programs are known for providing poor services. Users must schedule well in advance and when scheduling, often have no other option than to choose a pickup times hours before they need to be somewhere. Drivers are also quite unprofessional, showing up late or marking you as a no show even if you though you were on time. You then might need to spend hours on board as there may be many other drop-offs. And unfortunately, many disabled people have no other option.
Paratransit programs are also quite costly for public transit agencies. The average paratransit ride in the U.S costs public transit systems $29.30, around 3.5x the average cost of $8.15 for a regular bus/metro trip. In NYC, it costs $57, in D.C, $50, and in Boston, $30.
The MBTA Partnership Pilot Program
The MBTA decided to tackle these issues by actually considering an innovative strategy that incorporated technology. Their solution was to partner with ride hailing applications and launch a pilot program where RIDE customers could take subsidized rides ordered through ride hailing applications instead of using the RIDE. And so in September 2016, the pilot program was launched.
The initial pilot began with 400 participants and riders would activate their allocated subsidized rides based on historical RIDE data as follows:
The MBTA would then subsidize these rides up to a specific dollar amount (it’s currently $40) based on a set pricing scheme. This is the current pricing scheme:
Within just 5 months of the pilot’s launch, it was clear that this program was working. In late February 2017, the MBTA reported that in those 5 months alone, the program covered 10,000 rides covering 45,000 miles with around $40,000 in cost savings for the MBTA. The MBTA also found that during the pilot program, customers experienced shorter wait times, same day booking, faster trips (34 minutes shorter), and elimination of shared rides. the program allowed customers to take 28% more trips at a reduced cost of 80% for the MBTA, falling from $46/trip on the RIDE to $9/trip with Uber/Lyft. Customers rated this program at 79% (Net Promoter Score=Promoters of the Program-Detractors of the Program) as opposed to 10% for fixed route. Likely due to this clear success, the MBTA expanded the program to all customers eligible for the RIDE starting in February 2017.
And a year and 5 months after the pilot launch, the program was still going strong. In February 2018, the MBTA reported that the 4% of Ride users in the pilot took 43% more trips overall and their Ride trips fell by 27%. They also found that the pilot members were about 1% cheaper, saving the MBTA about $2,800 per month. The program score also rose to 85%. In June, Ben Schutzman, the MBTA’s director and overseer of the RIDE, reported that paratransit customers in the program was rising to 6% and the number of trips through the apps was rising to 7%. There were 2,061 paratransit customers in the program (out of 30,000 RIDE users), who took 12,204 trips as of April. Now, assuming the MBTA was still saving $2800, per customer, per month, then the MBTA annual savings from the pilot program alone are around $69,249,600 and if the program expanded to all 30,000 RIDE customers, the savings could be around $1,008,000,000 roughly around the levels savings estimated by the Brookings Institution (they estimated it to be around $1.1–2.2 billion of operational costs could be saved).
And the fact the MBTA has extended the program to January 1, 2019 is a testament to its success and the need for transit agencies to approach accessibility (and all issues for that matter) from an innovative mindset that embraces the use of technology.
Much of the success of the MBTA paratransit partnership program was the result of the MBTA’s strong engagement with customers, shareholders, and the advocacy community. They hosted 90 open meetings and actually tried to make changes based on customer feedback and their review of program metrics. The other key, at least from the standpoint of wheelchair users, is ensuring that their are enough wheelchair vehicles out of the road. This was still an issue in Boston and something the MBTA recognizes, but it’s certainly improving with more WAVs out on the road. The DC transit system, WMATA, was considering adopting a similar program with Uber/Lyft, but disability activists pushed them to avoid Uber/Lyft because they said lacked wheelchair accessible vehicles. Of course, Uber has worked to address this lack of vehicles in D.C. and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority should reconsider this. And Uber definitely has a great opportunity to become a strong partner of public transit agencies and friend to the disability community.
How Can the Program Improve the Physical and Mental Health of Paratransit Users?
Such a partnership could also help improve the health of paratransit users and their ability to be independent and social individuals. Many paratransit users have complex health needs and are likely have a lot of doctor appointments. It’s also estimated that 3.6 million Americans miss or delay medical care because of transportation issues. For this reason, we’ve seen the launch of Uber Health, Circulation, and many Uber/Lyft partnerships with senior homes to address these issues (which I hope to discuss in another blog post).
A recent study funded by the AARP Foundation and UnitedHealthcare, found that these programs could help combat the social isolation by seniors. The AARP Foundation and UnitedHealthcare gave the USC Center for Body Computing (CBC), a leader in digital health research focused on wearable sensor technology and a part of the USC Keck School of Medicine system, a $1 million grant to test the impact of giving free Lyft rides on the health of elderly USC patients. Of the 4,806 free Lyft rides, researchers found subjects took an average of 1 ride/day and that there was a 35% increase in activity. 90% of the subjects said that free rides had a “positive impact” on quality of life, 74% said it increased their social visits, and the Lyft users took 2x the number of rides as those relying on the other services. Many of these issues apply to wheelchair users and other people with disabilities and such a program would certainly increase their independence (making them less dependent on family/caregivers to drive them), make it easier to socialize, and improve their overall mental well being. I think for this reason, it might even be particularly useful to carry out a similar case study with younger wheelchair users and people with disabilities.
And from my experience, being able to use Uber/Lyft like everyone else makes you feel more independent and free. When you have to take a clunky paratransit vehicle, you just feel disabled and like your choices are being dictated by your disability. You also don’t need to plan your schedule based on when public transportation is open and you don’t need to worry about the weather (a game changer in Massachusetts).
Overall, the success of the MBTA’s On-Demand Paratransit Pilot Program illustrates that contracting out paratransit to ride hailing apps can work really well. Paratransit customers receive better service and are happier and public transit agencies save money and can actually please their customers. I really hope to see the indefinite continuation of the MBTA’s On-Demand Paratransit Pilot Program and that we’ll begin to see more programs like MBTA On-Demand Paratransit Pilot Program being implemented across the country
