Guide

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What trip purposes will be permitted?
• Will you serve any trip purpose or limit your trips to just one or a few trip purposes such
as to work, school, or health services?
• Can cultural and recreational trips be added during off-peak hours, as noted in our case
studies from Moscow and São Paulo?
How much will you charge for the service?
• Will you charge no fare, a lower fare due to serving very poor persons, or a higher fare
to reflect the actual unsubsidized costs of paratransit service? Will you charge a flat
rate, or will you charge more for longer trips, or trips to different zones?
What level of specialized services will you offer?
• Will your service be from curb-to-curb (or from the edge of the street outside a
residence), or door-to-door, or from within a residence (to assist a person to the
vehicle), or some combination as needed?
• Will the service require advance reservations, allow same-day requests, or both?
• If serving a social service agency, will a certain number of passengers be required in
order to efficiently use the vehicle? Will each vehicle trip pick up passengers who live
near each other in a single neighborhood or along a corridor in order to lower your cost
per trip?
• Will you provide attendants for elderly and disabled passengers?
• What weight limits or size limits will be placed on wheelchairs?
How many and what size vehicles will you initially require?
• Your vehicle fleet needs will be clarified as you respond to the questions above and
determine the estimated trips per vehicle per hour that are achievable in the planned
situation. Other considerations include your current vehicle fleet, if any, and your
available and anticipated resources for procuring vehicles. The discussion in Section 5
on vehicles may also help you answer this question.
• Will most or all of your vehicles provide wheelchair ramps or lifts, thus requiring
wheelchair securements within these vehicles?
• If you are importing new, used, or donated vehicles, what are the import and customs
regulations? Keep in mind that vehicles must comply with regulations or it may not be
possible to import them.
For a list of smaller but important decisions, and for more details about planning and
performance monitoring, go to Richard Schultze's detailed discussion at www.globalridesf.org/paratransit/supplement/planning.html.
Note: It is better to start small and learn from your mistakes than to start with a large system
and find yourself with higher costs per trip than initially estimated, or criticism in the media
due to not being able to keep your promises to disabled customers. No plan can perfectly
predict what will happen once you begin – the plan is a necessary tool but the first months of
service provide the opportunity to adjust the service to deal with unanticipated issues.