1. CUTRIC: Specialized and Conventional Transit Integration Project
Ontario Region

2. High Level Project Goals
Identify trips currently served by specialized transit that could be served by conventional transit
Identify opportunities where specialized transit can act as a feeder service to conventional transit for people with disabilities
Identify low-occupancy conventional transit routes that could be converted from fixed-route service to flex- route service (Belleville Transit only for current project)
High Level
Project
Goals

3. Integrating flexible and fixed schedules and fleets using technology

4. Background: Opportunities and Plans
In 2011, the national [Canadian] average cost per passenger for specialized transit services was $25.75, as compared to a cost per passenger of $3.31 for conventional transit in the same year” (CUTA, 2012).
Examples:
Wheel-Trans’ ten-year plan submitted to the TTC in 2016
Region of Peel’s report on the challenges faced by their accessible transit service TransHelp, from changes to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
Access-A-Ride for the MTA in New York City, started process recently to integrate paratransit with fixed transit:
“By applying new technological systems to a 26 year-old mandate, paratransit services can be made more efficient and provide a better customer experience. In New York City, these upgrades could save the agency up to $133 million per year. Improving mobility solutions for the elderly and disabled is possible, necessary and urgent”
Intelligent Paratransit Report MTA, 2016

5. Lessons learned from private non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) industry
Pantonium works with private NEMT operators across North America
Technology solution for NEMT must maximize efficiency of vehicles, handle mixed fleets and rider groups
System needs to adapt plans to changes constantly throughout day (high cancellation rates, “will calls”, on-demand riders)
Solution must be scalable, dispatch needs to occur autonomously, human intervention only for exception management

6. CUTRIC - Specialized and Conventional Transit Integration Project
Timeline (2 years)
Stage 1 - Assess existing demand, operations and client preferences (4 months)
Stage 2 - Initial deployment/data gathering (6 months)
Stage 3 - Develop alternative scenarios for integrating specialized transit with conventional transit and supporting policies (6 months)
Stage 4 - Integration pilot (6 months)
Stage 5 - Summary report (4 months)
ELIGIBLE TRANSHELP RIDERS
PUBLIC TRANSIT SCHEDULE (GTFS)
Trips uploaded to Pantonium
DYNAMIC ROUTE OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM
TRANSHELP FLEET (DYNAMIC)
PUBLIC TRANSIT FLEET (FIXED)
Coordinated pick up / drop offs

7. THE SOLUTION Riders need transportation
System communicates with vehicle based driver application
Riders order, pay for & monitor trips from their phones, online portal, or via call center
System dispatches & routes vehicles

8. Operational Example
606 Atwater to Square One on a Sunday Example. I live on Cawthra Rd. #8 does not run on sundays, looks like I have to walk to Hurontario which takes about 15 minutes. Now I am able bodied, and even I don’t like doing this, but imagine I have limited mobility… Now at this point I still want to go to the mall, I am eligible for TransHelp, I give them a call and they take me all the way to Square One. That probably cost TransHelp $30, but in reality I would be fine with taking the 19 to Square One, but I can’t walk it. In this case, the system would plan to pick me up at my house, and drop me off at the 19, it would consider when my appointment was and when the 19 would drop me off. On the return trip, it would consider when the 19 would drop me off at the closest bus stop and time a pickup from a TransHelp vehicle.
In this way you fill in the cracks of accessibility for conventional transit by utilizing the flexibility of paratransit empowered to reduce costs with technology.

9. Project Partners Benefits and Value
TransHelp: Integrate and coordinate specialized service with conventional transit in Peel to reduce trip costs, increase capacity
Pantonium: Deploy licenses for optimized routing and dispatching software and in-kind time for project management
CUTRIC: Provides access to provincial and federal funding
University of Toronto and OCADU: Research real-life applications of policy and technology to the challenges of public transit, which will be publishable, they will leverage the project funds with NSERC grants
Transit: Learn impacts of increased utilization of buses by disabled passengers, test actual impact during pilot, integrate first-last mile service into fixed route service

10. EXTRA SLIDES FOR REFERENCE

11. Two major North American systems, Toronto Transit Commission and Metropolitan Transit Agency (New York City’s transit provider) are also considering pilots for integrating their paratransit services.
Reference slides
“By applying new technological systems to a 26 year-old mandate, paratransit services can be made more efficient and provide a better customer experience. In New York City, these upgrades could save the agency up to $133 million per year. Improving mobility solutions for the elderly and disabled is possible, necessary and urgent”

12. Project Academic Team Breakdown
U of T Team One, Dr. Amer Shalaby: Provide a study to indicate metrics required to be tracked for all stages of the project; provide assistance in gathering data during all stages including feedback from drivers and riders as non-partisan stakeholder;  provide analysis means and methods to evaluate suitability for route integration for regional transportation providers.
U of T Team Two, Dr. Chris Beck and Dr. Dionne Aleman: Provide data models to be used for testing of on demand simulation; examine how schedules for flexible trips could be optimized to maximize transit agency efficiency; provide analysis of data for summary report.
OCADU Team, Dr. Steve Szigeti: Provide browser based visualisation overlays for Pantonium system based on user generated reports from data pulled out of system. Potential reports include: heat maps for rider demand, mapping and tracking routes driven, origins and destinations, on time and late comparisons, vehicle locations, other relevant operational statistics.