WR tES EJEC B®R mN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD 1975 Officers Milton Pikarsky, Chairman Harold L. Michael, Vice Chairman W. N. Carey, Jr., Executive Director Executive Commbte Harvey Brooks, Chairman, Commission on Sociotechnical Systems, National Research Council (ex officio) Asaph H. Hall, Acting Federal Railroad Administrator (ex officio) Frank C.. Herringer, Urban Mass Transportation Administrator (ex officio) Henrik E. Stafseth, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (ex officio) Norbert T. Tiemann, Federal Highway Administrator (ex officio) William L. Garrison, Director, Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (ex officio, Past Chairman, 1973) Jay W. Brown, Director of Road Operations, Florida Department of Transportation (ex officio, Past Chairman, 1974) George H. Andrews, Director, Washington Department of Highways Manuel Carballo, Deputy Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Transportation L. S. Crane, Executive Vice President—Operations, Southern Railway System James M. Davey, Managing Director, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Louis J. Gambaccini, Vice President and General Manager, Port Authority Trans- Hudson Corporation Alfred Hedéfiné, Senior Vice President, Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas, Inc. Robert N. Hunter, Chief Engineer, Missouri State Highway Commission Scheffer Lang, Assistant to the President, Association of. American Railroads Benjamin Lax, Director, Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Daniel McFadden, Department.of Economics, University of California, Berkeley Harold L. Michael, School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University D. Grant Mickle, Highway Users Federation for Safety and Mobility James A. Moe, Executive Engineer, Hydro and Community Facilities Division, Bechtel, Inc. .. Milton Pikarsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Regional Transit Authority, Chicago J. Phillip Richley, Vice President— Transportation, Dalton, Dalton, Little and Newport Raymond T. Schüler, Commissioner, New, York State Department of Transportation William K. Smith, Vice President, General Mills, Inc. H. Stokes, Executive Director, American Public Transit Association Percy A. Wood, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, United Air Lines DEMAND-RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS & SERVICES Proceedings of the Fifth Annual International Confer- ence on Demand-Responsive Transportation Systems conducted by the Transportation Research Board on November 11-13, 1974, Oakland, California, and co- sponsored by the American Public Transit Association, California Department of Transportation, Alameda- Contra Costa Transit, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, Urban Mass Transportation Administration, and Technology Sharing Program of the U.S. Depart- mentof Transportation SPECIAL REPORT 154 Transportation Research Board National Research Council Washington, D.C., 1974 Special Report 154 The conference that is the subject of this report Price $7.40 was approved by the Governing Board of the National Edited for TRB by Mildred Clark Research Council acting in behalf of the National Academy of Sciences. Such approval reflects the Governing Board's judgment that the conference is of subject area national importance and appropriate with respect to 84 urban transportation systems both the purposes and resources of the National Re- search Council. The members of the committee selected to organize the conference and to supervise the preparation of this report were chosen for recognized scholarly compe- tence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. Responsibility for the selection of the participants in the conference and for any summaries oi recommen- dations in this report rests with that committee. The views expressed in individual papers and attributed to the authors of those papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the commit- tee, the Transportation Research Board, the National Transportation Research Board publications are Academy of Sciences, or the sponsors of the project. available by ordering directly from the Board. They Each report issuing from such a conference of the are also obtainable on a regular basis through organiza- National Research Council is reviewed by an indepen- tional or individual supporting membership in the dent group of qualified individuals according to pro- Board; members or library subscribers are eligible for cedures established and monitored by the Report Re- substantial discounts. For further information, write view Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. to the Transportation Research Board, National Academy Distribution of the report is approved by the President of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washing- of the Academy upon satisfactory completion of the ton, D.C. 20418. review process. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA International Conference on Demand-Responsive Transportation Systems, 5th, Oakland, Calif., 1974. Demand-respon sive transportation systems & services. (Special report—Transportation Research Board; 154) I. Personal rapid transit—Congresses. 2. Local transit—Congresses. I. National Research Council. Transportation Research Board. II. American Public Transit Association. Ill. Title. IV. Series: National Research Council. Transportation Research Board. Special report—Transportation Research Board; 154. HE305.155 1974 388.4'132 75-19123 ISBN 0-309-02382-3 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Daniel Roos 1 STATE OF THE ART OF DEMAND- RES PONSIVE TRANSPORTATION Robert P. Aex 3 E. W. Ziegler 5 Charles Boynton 7 PLANNING FOR NEW AND INTEGRATED DEMAND-RESPONSIVE SYSTEMS Katherine O'Leary 14 R. J. Wilson and Anthony U. Simpson 20 George Gray 27 Loren A. Ball 32 IMPLEMENTATION AND OPERATION OF NEW DEMAND-RESPONSIVE SERVICES David R. Shilling 33 Roy G. Helsing 39 Marcel Zobrak 41 George Gray 42 Claude J. Klug 42 John H. Davidson 43 Discussion 44 IMPLEMENTATION AND OPERATION OF INTEGRATED TRANSIT SERVICES Gordon J. Fielding and Susan B. Grant 48 Nigel H. M. Wilson and B. Trevor Higonnet 55 TRANSPORTATION FOR THE ELDERLY AND THE HANDICAPPED D. P. Garner 61 J. Leonard Lovdahl 66 EQUIPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF DEMAND-RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS Hector Chaput 69 George W. Heinle 75 Robert P. Aex 77 John B. Schnell 78 John H. Davidson 79 Discussion 81 TAXIS AND OTHER PRIVATE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES Kenneth W. Heathington 84 Charles Boynton 86 Robert Samuels 87 Donald G. Greyshock 91 Ronald F. Kirby 92 Stanley Hirsch 98 Discussion S 99 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN DEMAND-RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION John H. Davidson 103 Nigel H. M. Wilson 104 Roy E. Murphy and John N. Siersema 109 George E. Mouchahoir 113 MARKETING AND PROMOTION OF DEMAND-RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION George E. Mouchahoir 122 James E. Reading 131 Warren H. Frank 132 HowardW. Gates 136 EVALUATING DEMAND-RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS Nigel H. M. Wilson 142 Jerry D. Ward 146 Panel Discussion 153 General Discussion 156 POLITICAL AND PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES RELATEDS TO DEMAND-RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION Walter M. Ingalls 160 Kenneth Orski 162 165 Robert H. McManus S PARTICIPANTS AND SPONSORING COMMITTEE 170 INTRODUCTION Daniel Roos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chairman of the Committee on Urban Transport Service Innovations (Para transit) During the past 4 years, the demand-responsive transportation (DRT) concept has evolved from an experimental to a production stage. C. Kenneth Orski, associate ad- ministrator of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, stated in his keynote address at the conference, "The utility of demand-responsive transportation requires no further proof. More than 50 DRT systems in some 22 states testify to the popularity of the concept." To reflect this acceptance, UMTA has recently made its first capital grants for DRT systems. In light of these developments, this conference did not focus on concepts and sys- tems that already had been tested. Rather, it was oriented toward a number of signifi- cant issues that are still unresolved and will impact the future of demand-responsive transportation. These issues include the following. Integrated service. Most of the implemented demand-responsive systems are in small- and medium-scale cities that have few or no fixed-route bus systems. The role of demand-responsive service in larger metropolitan areas that have significant fixed-route service is still unresolved. In particular, the issue of how demand- responsive and fixed-route services are integrated is of utmost importance. A num- ber of difficult areawide approaches are currently being implemented in Ann Arbor, Rochester, Orange County, Santa Clara County, Regina, and Toronto. Service for the elderly and handicapped. The door-to-door service aspect of demand-responsive transportation provides unique opportunities to offer service for the elderly and handicapped. However, should that service be combined with more general demand-responsive service or should it be provided as a special service? What special design features must be included in vehicles to serve these groups? Role of automation. All of the demand-responsive systems implemented to date have used manual dispatching techniques. The new areawide systems will use a number of different automated dispatching approaches. Considerable debate exists as to what the role of computers should be and whether dispatching should be computer aided or