Guide

10
subvert the role of the market and ultimately harm the ability of everyone -- and especially
persons with disabilities -- to access public transport and paratransit services.
Unenforced regulations are largely useless and breed cynicism by all the actors with a role in
providing paratransit services. Regulatory agencies must have the capacity to carry out their
responsibilities. For example, transit laws and regulations require a sufficient number of
transit police to enforce these laws and make them meaningful. And regulators, police
departments, and other municipal agencies must be shielded from political pressures which
make it impossible to carry out their duties.
Can regulations enhance paratransit services with commercial vehicles?
When consistent and fair legal enforcement of contracts is available, it is usually best to try
and rely on competition to assure the efficiency of private sector paratransit providers in a
well-regulated market-driven environment. Some unregulated service can be especially
difficult to access on the part of elderly or disabled passengers. Many of the city paratransit
services studied in this guide utilize regulated private sector providers (companies) which are
subsidized with public funds.
The above discussion of regulations is based on materials prepared by Richard Schultze.
Go to www.globalride-sf.org/paratransit/supplement/regulations.html for his more detailed
discussion of this important topic.
1.6 The impact of new technology, in combination with low-cost smaller vehicles, to
create service models to increase affordable paratransit services
Taxis
Millions of persons with disabilities live in dense
urban areas. In many cases, taxis adapted with
ramps and wheelchair securements have
efficiently provided these services at all hours,
while in areas with fewer taxis the use of vans or
mini-buses traditionally has been advisable. Taxi
fleets already provide vehicles, drivers,
maintenance, dispatching and other service
elements. Even when not wheelchair accessible,
taxis equipped with swivel seats can serve 90%
of disabled passengers. (See case study of
Moscow Social Taxi.) Their use may eliminate the need to "reinvent the wheel" by creating a
new specialized service with dedicated vans or mini-buses which frequently must make
longer trips in order to serve fewer passengers in a dense urban area. Incorporation of taxi
companies into municipal paratransit systems is an activity that can benefit from the use of a
"paratransit broker." The broker can serve as a coordinating agency to select taxi and/or
commercial or NGO van or mini-bus contractors through competitive bidding or open-entry
agreements with these private or non-profit service providers. This mix of vehicles can then
serve different passengers in different situations or in neighborhoods with different densities.
This model is used by some USA cities, including San Francisco (photo above), metropolitan
Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh.