San Jose, California, United States
Reaching Out with ITS
Summary Information
This article described the experience of the paratransit transportation broker Outreach program after implementation of several ITS improvements in San Jose, California. Improvements included a digital geographic database, an Automatic Vehicle Location system on a portion of the vehicles under contract to Outreach, and an automatic scheduling and routing system. Outreach benefited from increased ridership, better on-time performance, and a $500,000 reduction in operating costs during the first year of system operations.
FINDINGS
The article cited a University of California (Berkeley) study which reported the following benefits:
- The number of shared rides increased from 38 percent to 55 percent as a portion of all rides provided.
- The paratransit fleet was reduced from 200 to 130 vehicles, and subsequently could reduced traffic congestion and air pollution in the area.
- The cost per passenger mile decreased from $4.88 to $3.72