COST-EFFECTIVE BUS TRANSIT BARRIER REMOVAL POLICIES FOR ELDERLY AND HANDICAPPED

This paper examines the benefits and costs of reducing bus transit barriers for the elderly and handicapped by: 1) retrofitting an existing bus fleet; or 2) providing a separate dial-a-bus operation for only the elderly and handicapped. Using data from the Albany, N.Y. metropolitan area, the extent and perceived severity of the barriers and their effect on travel was determined through personal interviews, and various potential structural modifications to the existing bus fleet along with the effect of dial-a-bus operations on these barriers was ascertained. The costs of implementing the two programs and their components then was determined. From this data the benefits (the increase in ridership) were compared to the annual costs of implementing and operating the two programs. The study showed that a bus-modification program is more cost-effective than a separate dial-a-bus system, and that certain modifications to the existing bus fleet, made at little or low cost, could eliminate many of the more severe barriers. Improvements to existing buses can be made incrementally, with the least effective to be postponed. Among the poorest cost-effective improvements, the differences in the benefit-cost ratio is so small that the least expensive improvements should be made first to insure greater flexibility in making future budgetary decisions. /Author/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Prepared in part with the financial assistance of DOT.
• Corporate Authors:

  New York State Department of Transportation

  Planning Division, State Campus, Building 4
  Albany, NY  United States  12232
• Authors:
  • Hartgen, D T
  • WEISS, D L
• Publication Date: 1977-7

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 20 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Barriers (Roads); Bus transportation; Cost effectiveness; Improvements; Metropolitan areas; Paratransit services; Persons with disabilities
• Uncontrolled Terms: Barriers
• Old TRIS Terms: Dial-a-bus
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Motor Carriers; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00172916
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Report No. 118
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Apr 12 1978 12:00AM