THE NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA, EASYRIDE TRANSPORTATION BROKERAGE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

The Easyride transportation brokerage demonstration in Newport News and Hampton, Virginia was initiated in July 1978 to assess the effectiveness of transportation brokerage in achieving higher vehicle occupancies. Easyride is a service of the Peninsula Transportation District Commission, the transit authority serving the cities mentioned above. Easyride promotes that form of ridesharing which best serves a site's employee's needs by collecting trip data at employment sites and providing matchlist and ridesharing promotional materials. Easyride provides special transportation service for the handicapped through Handi-Ride, a demand-responsive transportation service involving both Easyride-provided service as well as contract services provided by a local taxi company. Easyride also brokers special transportation services through a 16(b)(2) procurement review program and a vehicle leasing program available to local social service agencies. Easyride's experience with the rates of matchlist usage and carpool formation demonstrate the need for assistance to employers with follow-up promotions to matchlist distribution. Easyride's Handi-Ride program demonstrates that this type of service can be provided effectively through a combination of user-side subsidies and publicly operated service. A 16(b)(2) procurement review policy and a vehicle leasing program for social service agencies can be useful elements in a comprehensive special services transportation coordination effort. The most significant demonstration finding is that a brokerage program offers a transit authority opportunities to provide alternatives to conventional fixed-route-and-schedule bus service. Brokerage enables the transit authority to provide service extensions in areas and markets unsuited to fixed-route transit and, where appropriate, to substitute alternative service for existing bus service which is not cost-effective.

• Corporate Authors:

  Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Company

  1990 K Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20006

  Urban Mass Transportation Administration

  Service and Management Demonstrations Program
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Barber, E J
  • Wagner, D W
  • Ellis, R H
  • Hallenbeck, M E
• Publication Date: 1982-9

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 248 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Brokerage; Carpools; Demonstration projects; Management; Persons with disabilities; Ridesharing; Vanpools
• Geographic Terms: Virginia
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00371103
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: UMTA-VA-06-0050-82-1Final Rpt., HS-033 887, DOT-TSC-UMTA-82-25
• Contract Numbers: DOT-TSC-1758
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 31 1983 12:00AM