EVALUATION OF THE BARNSTABLE COUNTY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

This paper evaluates the public transportation demonstration project in Barnstable County, Massachusetts (population, 130,000; area, 100 sq km (389 sq miles); 15 towns. Service was provided with ten 12-passenger vehicles on a prearranged demand-responsive basis. The demonstration project operated for 22 months and was then continued on a permanent basis. The paper addresses various aspects of planning and design, which include preliminary project planning, program monitoring and evaluation, a rider-identification pass, data collection, user characteristics, system performance, financing, user attitudes, pricing, and simple supply-and-demand relationships. Major results and conclusions are that (a) some form of door-to-door public transportation service is necessary to meet the special needs of the elderly and the handicapped in small urban and rural areas; (b) consideration should be given to coordinating any new service of this type with similar existing services; (c) the system performance of such a service may need as much as 15 months to reach a stable condition; (d) the use of a rider-identification pass is a relatively low-cost simple mechanism by which to collect fares, market service, and obtain useful data; (e) attitudinal surveys may be helpful in determining user satisfaction and in identifying desired service changes; (f) consideration should be given to pooling various federal, state, and local funds to finance projects; and (g) any method used to apportion the local share of a deficit among towns may have to include a trip-length variable such as passenger kilometers if the desire of local officials is to base the apportionment on each town's level of use. (Author)

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1980/761/761-013.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=EVALUATION+OF+THE+BARNSTABLE+COUNTY+PUBLIC+TRANSPORTATION+DEMONSTRATION+PROJECT&author=J.+Collura&author=R.+Warren&author=D.+O%27Leary&author=D.+Bohn&publication_year=1980
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309031036
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Rural Public Transportation. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Collura, John
  • Warren, Robert P
  • O'Leary, Dennis P
  • Bohn, David
• Conference:
  • 59th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1980-1-21 to 1980-1-25
• Publication Date: 1980

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 58-65
• Monograph Title: Public Transportation Planning
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 761
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Coordination; Demand responsive transportation; Demonstration projects; Financing; Persons with disabilities; Programming (Planning); Public transit; Rural areas
• Geographic Terms: Barnstable County (Massachusetts); Massachusetts
• Old TRIS Terms: User characteristics
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Public Transportation; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00331061
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309031036
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Oct 28 1982 12:00AM