Shared Ride Taxi Services as Community Public Transit. Executive Summary

摘要

The report examines the use of taxi firms as the providers of publicly supported demand responsive transit (DRT). The use of taxi firms as DRT providers raises a number of important institutional and performance issues. Accordingly, the primary purposes of this study are to: (1) analyze the issues associated with taxi firm provision of publicly sponsored community transit service, including the institutional reasons for contracting, competition for contracts, and contractual arrangements and their effects; and (2) evaluate the performance of taxi-based community transit systems and the consequences for taxi firms becoming public transit providers, including legal implications, operational changes, labor-management relations, impact of subsidization, and effects of contracting on the firm's financial situation and future plans. Shared ride taxi (SRT) performance is evaluated in terms of cost-efficiency and effectiveness, and is also compared to that achieved by other forms of community level transit. These subsidized SRT systems have become the predominant form of general public DRT in California, with 29 such systems now in operation. Based on California's experiences with subsidized SRT, this study presents case reviews of SRT implementation and operation, analyzes the issues associated with the development of taxi-based transit services, and evaluates the performance of subsidized SRT.