Transportation Alternatives specializes in the design of conventional and unique forms of fixed route and demand-responsive transportation systems for both full size and smaller vehicles, including route and point deviation, dial-a-ride and other paratransit, shuttle, timed-transfer, commuter express, pupil transportation (including special education), feeder/distributor, downtown circulator and other services. TA's particular expertise lies in the design of services integrating multiple operating functions (e.g., feeder service and local circulation) and which integrate the needs of special ridership groups (elderly, physically and developmentally challenged individuals and schoolchildren) with the general public. Examples of selected systems designed by TA include:
See also Principles of System Design and Principles of Paratransit Design.
In 1983, TA designed a timed transfer "pulse" fixed route transit system for the City of Carson, California. The system's six routes interfaced simultaneously every 30 minutes at the City's centrally-located South Bay Pavilion. All routes operated in a single direction, placing most trip generators on the curb-side of the buses, thereby minimizing street crossings and maximizing safety. Routes were designed to provide maximum coverage to neighborhoods, employment centers and major trip generators while also interfacing at multiple locations with regional fixed route services operating within the City. As a result, the system maximized the provision of both local circulation service and feeder/distributor service to other transit systems.
Ridership on this system was already dominated by schoolchildren when, in 1991, the Los Angeles Unified School District curtailed "general education" school bus service. In response, TA redesigned the Circuit into an eight-route variation which served every elementary, junior high and high school and interfaced, in both directions, with the newly-established Del Amo Metrorail Blue Line station as well as 13 other fixed route transit lines from four municipal service providers. (See Map and Schedule Design.) Based largely on European models, TA modified not the one-directional looped route structure so that all school interfacing occurred on the curb-side of the street, as well as made scores of other route design and stop location modifications. Coverage was expanded such that most of the community's residences and more than 6,000 businesses lay within walking distance of one of the almost 300 stops. Bi-directional service between the system's center and the Blue Line light rail station required 10 minutes of travel time, before or after which transfers to other Circuit routes was nearly simultaneous. TA also identified key elements of the vehicle specifications to integrate an array of school bus features into the 35-foot transit buses purchased for deployment. (For more detail, see section below: Integrated Transit and Pupil Transportation Services.)
TA designed a local circulator/feeder route deviation shuttle service for the area surrounding the Lakewood Metrorail Green Line station in central Los Angeles County. The system operates on 30-minute headways in both directions. During peak periods the system provides fixed route service to commuters accessing the Metrorail system and regional bus services (as well as provides local service). During the off-peak period, the system deviates from its alignment to provide door-to-door service throughout a corridor adjacent to the route, broadening its capability as a neighborhood circulator service.
TA designed a 70-vehicle demand-responsive service for PTS Transportation's provision of daily door-to-door service to 1,100 physically and developmentally disabled clients of the North Los Angeles County Regional Center. (See Operations and Operating Assistance.) This system, involving service to and from more than 30 special program facilities throughout Los Angeles County's San Fernando Valley and Antelope Valleys, operated on a primarily subscription basis. The system's fixed schedules were modified continuously in response to new and deleted clients, client- and program-related locational changes, scheduling deviations, and day-to-day contingencies and emergencies, as well as to accommodate immediate-response insertions. Vehicles were dispatched from three operating divisions while scheduling, planning and administrative functions were consolidated at a centrally-located facility in the San Fernando Valley. Clientele included infants, young children and adults, including more than 100 wheelchair occupants and many individuals with autism and other severe developmental disabilities. The fleet included a mix of standard and extended lift- and non-lift-equipped vans and minibuses. Operating from 1983 through 1992, the system's computer-aided dispatching, integrated client entry and performance analysis and scores of other TA-designed programs made this system one of the nation's first "Smart Shuttle" transportation systems. TA's design also extended to changing the spatial and temporal parameters of all destinations: TA developed policies for the client Regional Center to optimize transportation performance and minimize cost, and established the starting times (while leaving program durations untouched) for all programs served by the system.
TA also conducted a design study of the variable fixed schedule subscription service provided under contract to the East Los Angeles Retarded Citizens Association (ELARCA). The study resulted in the redesign of many routes, and their reassignment to more cost-effective service providers.
TA designed and/or redesigned several of Los Angeles County's most sophisticated paratransit systems for elderly and physically challenged individuals, including the City of Los Angeles' VALTRANS program (in the San Fernando Valley), Pasadena Dial-A-Ride, Santa Monica Dial-A-Ride, and Pomona Valley Get About (Pomona, San Dimas, Claremont and LaVerne). Several of these systems involved multi-modal "brokerage" structures typical of systems structured to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act long before the ADA's passage. Included among these features was the use of taxicabs to supplement dedicated vehicle demand and improve dedicated vehicle performance, centralized trip reservations, trip sorting rather than confirmation/denial or "negotiating" procedures, computer-aided performance analysis, use of a specially designed handbook for management and operating personnel, and the assignment of each trip type to its most productive pre-scheduling format. TA also prepared RFPs and operating agreements for these services, all of which were contracted out to private operating companies.
In response to the curtailment of general education pupil transportation services by the Los Angeles Unified School District, TA completely redesigned the Carson Circuit Transit System to accommodate the needs of high school, junior high school and elementary school students while integrating them into a general public fixed route transit system. The system which resulted--an eight-route timed transfer system with 40-minute cycle times--was designed to also accommodate the needs of other transit users, particularly commuters. The design of this combination local circulator/feeder system--which interfaces with the Del Amo Metrorail Blue Line light rail station and 13 municipal bus lines from four different operating agencies at literally hundreds of intersecting transfer points--has a plethora of unique features and characteristics, many of which are common to European transit systems:
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 Planning, Analyses and Studies