SWUTC Research Project Description
Title of Project: Performance Analysis of the “Zoning” Strategies for ADA Paratransit Services
Project Number: 169114
Principal Investigator:
Luca Quadrifoglio
(979) 458-4171
P.I. Affiliation: Texas A&M University
l-quadrifoglio@ttimail.tamu.edu
Project Monitor:
Mary Ann Dendor
Manager Contracts
METRO
1900 Main, P.O. Box 61429
Houston, TX 77208-1429
Tel 713-750-4271; Fax 713-652-8924
MD04@ridemetro.org
Project Status: Active
Date Started: 9/1/08
Estimation Completion Date: 8/31/09
Estimated Cost - Current Fiscal: $40,000
Estimated Cost - Total Planned: $40,000
Project Summary:
Project Abstract:
Several metropolitan ADA paratransit services use “zoning” as a strategy for an easier management of their operations. “Zoning” is the practice of decentralizing operations by dividing the whole service area in zones. Each zone is generally independently managed and operated and may have its own reservations, scheduling, dispatch and trip providers. It is still not very clear what are the effects of the “zoning” strategies on the productivity and efficiency of the overall service, in terms of management and operating costs and level of service provided to customers. It would be desirable to evaluate, quantify and categorize these effects for different “zoning” practices adopted by paratransit services, in order to understand and make better decisions in selecting the correct zoning strategy to be adopted (if any), depending on the circumstances.
Project Objectives:
The objective of this research is to study the impact of different “zoning” practices adopted by paratransit agencies, quantifying their benefit and costs and identifying what circumstances would justify their use. We will provide recommendations and guidelines to decision makers to help in the design of the organizational structure of paratransit agencies with the aim to minimize the overall operating costs, thus improving the service productivity. We will also provide the trade off between total cost and level of service at different “degrees” of the zoning practice.
Direct and long term effects of this project would include increasing the performance of paratransit services, with the ultimate goal of improving the overall level of service for customers and the efficiency of the service itself, in terms of reduced costs.
Task Descriptions:
Task 1.
Review of the current practices adopted by paratransit agencies concerning the decentralized vs. centralized control strategy and perform an extensive literature review.
Task 2.
Identify the general costs structure associated with the management of paratransit service providers and particularly the relationships between the cost and the size of the service area, with ultimate goal of identifying a management cost for each zone.
Task 3.
Develop a simulation model and perform simulation analyses to analyze the “zoning” effect on the operating and management costs for different demand distribution and size of service area. Also, analyze the possibly significant impact of different scheduling practices on the overall performance, within the “zoning” scenarios.
Task 4.
Perform extensive sensitivity analyses to embrace a wide variety of scenarios. With the goal of minimizing the overall cost, identify break even points in terms of demand distribution, size of service areas, typology of customers and possibly other variables, which would represent switching points between a centralized and a decentralized (“zoning”) control strategy.
Task 5.
Conduct a case study by collecting representative actual demand data from paratransit agencies (likely Houston METRO).
Index Terms:
Paratransit services, Americans with Disabilities Act, Zoning, Strategic planning, Level of service, Research projects