Transportation Alternatives has conducted a wide range of studies and planning projects for Federal, State, regional, county and local governments, and private research, financial and operating companies and organizations. Summaries of selected studies are presented below.

For the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and its Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now Federal Transit Administration), TA conducted a comprehensive analysis of 30 paratransit systems in 18 U.S. cities to identify the principles which govern performance and establish a logic sequence for decision-making in the system design process. This effort led to USDOT's publication of a three-volume manual on planning and system design authored by TA President Ned Einstein covering a vast array of paratransit planning, system design, management, evaluation and operating topics (see Principles of Paratransit Design). (Prior to TA's formation, TA President Ned Einstein conducted a survey of the impacts of the half-fare provision for the Elderly on transit revenue, and prepared the Summary of the National Survey of the Transportation Handicapped submitted to Congress.)

TA performed detailed transit needs studies, and prepared formal transportation plans, for five Los Angeles County communities: Beverly Hills, South Pasadena, Whittier, Carson and Redondo Beach. Developed largely to guide the cities' expenditure of Proposition A Local Return Funds (from the County's first half-cent sales tax for public transportation), these studies typically included the establishment of formal goals and objectives, review of existing secondary documentation (including previous plans and studies), evaluation of Census data, projection of levels of transit and paratransit demand, identification of unmet demand, development and evaluation of service alternatives, and recommendations for addressing unmet transportation needs. Several Plans contained preliminary system designs for services to address the needs identified.

TA conducted six major studies related to the coordination and/or consolidation of paratransit services:

• Orange County, California. For the Orange County Transportation Commission (now consolidated into the Orange County Transit Authority) and as a subcontractor to DAVE Transportation, TA evaluated a number of options for coordinating and/or consolidating the scores of separate social service agency-operated paratransit systems operating independently within the County. The study resulted in the formation of a countywide Consolidated Transportation Service Area (CTSA) encompassing more than 45 social service agency paratransit systems.

• West Side Consolidation Study. For the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (currently LA County Metropolitan Transit Authority), TA conducted a study of the feasibility of coordinating and/or consolidating the special paratransit services operated by municipalities and social service agencies in the City of Los Angeles' West Side, Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills and unincorporated areas of the County adjacent to them. While no significant coordination or consolidation resulted immediately from the study, these communities' intercity paratransit services were eventually consolidated into a countywide "Metro Access" system operated by independent contractors serving the LACMTA.

• Consolidation of the VALTRANS and NLACRC Systems. In response to the coordination and/or consolidation of social service paratransit services mandated by California Assembly Bill AB 120, TA designed the consolidation of the City of Los Angeles' VALTRANS program (for elderly and disabled individuals) with a separate program for developmentally disabled clients of the North Los Angeles County Regional Center (NLACRC) operating in the same service area (L.A.'s San Fernando Valley). These two systems were effectively consolidated under a brokerage program supervised by TA-owned operating company PTS Transportation.

• Consolidation of all ELARCA Paratransit Services. TA examined the feasibility, and determined the service provision costs, of consolidating the complete array of separate transportation services provided to clients of the East Los Angeles Retarded Citizens Association (ELARCA) into the service structure of the Agency's primary service provider, the East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU). While total consolidation was not effected, a large portion of service was reallocated to a consolidated TELACU operation.

• Consolidation of all NLACRC Paratransit Services. As the technical consultant to PTS Transportation during the latter's nine years of service to NLACRC, TA directed the eventual consolidation of all paratransit services into the PTS Transportation structure. The comprehensive consolidation effort included revisions in program start times, locational changes in program sites, and TA's development of a range of cost-saving policies related to program attendance, ridership guidelines, storage area decentralization and other service parameters--resulting in an average vehicle deployment of nine hours a day (for a split-shift operation!), a reduction in deadhead time to less than 20 percent, ninety-nine percent on-time performance, and the saving of millions of dollars in operating costs over the Company's contract period (1983-1992).

• Integration of Pupil Transportation and other Services As a subcontractor to Cambridge-based Multisystems, TA examined the 12-County consolidation of public transportation services in the Florida panhandle.

TA conducted the first two comparative cost studies of privatization versus public sector transit operation in Los Angeles County's South Bay and Pomona Valley, respectively. The latter study resulted, years later, in the County transit agency's replacement of fixed route transit with demand-responsive services and, subsequently, with additional fixed route services provided by Foothill Transit, a subregional lead agency which contracts with private transportation providers for its service. Both studies found that private companies could provide equivalent service at less than one fourth the current subsidies required by the incumbent public sector transit agency, SCRTD (now the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority).

Upon the request of L'association Internationale pour le Securite du Transport des Jeunnes (A.I.S.T.), TA conducted a comprehensive literature search, and prepared a detailed analysis, of the feasibility of installing seat belts in U.S.-manufactured school buses. The analysis revealed more than 40 reasons why such installation was infeasible--including the fact that doing so while respecting the seat spacing requirements associated with such an approach would lead to a literal doubling of both the U.S. fleet (from 400,000 to 800,000 buses) and operating personnel (since a monitor would be needed to enforce seat belt usage). A Summary of this report was published in School Transportation News ("Why Seat Belts Should Not Be Installed on Large School Buses: A Summary Report" (May, 1999): 18, 19). The full report was published on STN's website (see STNonline.com/Occupant Restraints/Seat Belt Table of Contents/Why Not).

Prior to his formation of Transportation Alternatives, TA President Ned Einstein conducted a number of significant studies for the U.S. Department of Transportation and other government agencies. These included:

• Preparation of the Summary Report of the National Survey of the Transportation Handicapped submitted to the U.S. Congress (1977)
• Development of a Work Program for the Illinois Department of Transportation's Department of Policy and Planning (for Linton and Company)
• Identification of Barriers to the Diffusion of Information in the Transit Industry (for the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, currently the Federal Transit Administration)
• Development of the proposal for (and Acting Directorship of) the UMTA-sponsored National Conference on Transit Performance (September, 1977, Norfolk, VA) and editing of the Conference Proceedings
• Authorship of USDOT-published information bulletin on Transit Productivity (for Public Technology, Inc.)
• Authorship of USDOT-published information bulletin on Alternative Work Schedules (for Public Technology, Inc.)
• Editing of USDOT-published manual on Priority Treatment of High Occupancy Vehicles (for Public Technology, Inc.)

See also:

^{Principles of System Design
Principles of Paratransit Design
Coordination and Consolidation
Map and Schedule Design
Operations and Operating Assistance
Performance Analysis and Evaluation
Transportation System Design}