Ridership Patterns in Transportation Services for the Elderly and Handicapped

摘要

The study is designed to synthesize and assess what is known about the ridership response of target groups like the elderly, handicapped, and low-income groups to the provision of various transportation services and options. The purpose of this work is to help local agencies understand the travel patterns common to clients facing a number of different travel options. This report is organized into three parts. Part 1 describes the background of the study, the organization of the work undertaken and analyzes the available literature on special target groups such as the elderly and handicapped. Part 2 describes a comprehensive study of the impact of specialized transportation services provided to the clients of a large social service agency in Austin, Texas. This study generated working hypotheses to test four additional case studies, namely: Brockton, Massachusetts; Houston, Texas; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. The report provides descriptions of the four case studies as well as general conclusions made about the ridership patterns, trip characteristics, and financial arrangements of these coordination experiences. Part 3 examines the growing body of empirical literature on the experiences of a number of systems providing specialized services to target populations. Using the perspectives and observations first generated in Part 2, the study makes general conclusions about the ridership patterns of similar agency systems in other communities.