High-Tech Solution Delivers Regional Mobility Breakthrough for Elderly, Disabled Residents

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 29, 2005 -- Elderly and disabled Bay Area residents who rely on paratransit services to get from place to place can now travel more easily throughout the nine-county region, thanks to a coordinated effort by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), nearly two dozen transit operators and a pair of local technology firms. With this month's addition of Benicia Transit, 18 Bay Area paratransit operators are now using MTC's Regional Eligibility Database, which is part of the Commission's continuing effort to use high technology to improve the efficiency of the Bay Area transportation network. The database allows passengers who establish with one transit agency their eligibility for paratransit services as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to simultaneously qualify for van or taxi services provided by any of the other participating operators.

"The Regional Eligibility Database makes travel easier for paratransit passengers and transit operators alike," explained project manager Connie Soper of MTC. "Using common eligibility criteria, each operator certifies applicants in its service area, and then puts that information into the database. The nearly 97,000 passengers who are included in the database can then use paratransit regionwide because their certification status is recognized by all the operators."

Bay Area paratransit operators carry an average of about 11,000 passengers each day. Three operators -- San Francisco Muni, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)'s Outreach service and the East Bay Paratransit Consortium formed by BART and AC Transit -- account for about 75 percent of all Bay Area paratransit trips. The remainder is split among 15 other Bay Area transit agencies.

Working out integration issues between the Regional Eligibility Database and the paratransit operators' own databases required months of special programming. Burlingame-based Quartet Systems Inc. designed and built the software, and provides technical support for users. Desktop Anywhere LLC, which is headquartered in Corte Madera, provides secure remote computer access to the centralized database for users from each of the 18 participating paratransit providers. This eliminates the need for users to change their computers' internal systems.

MTC used State Transit Assistance (STA) funds to cover the roughly $125,000 cost of developing the Regional Eligibility Database. MTC is the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area's transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency.

    Bay Area Paratransit - Regional Eligibility Database Participants

  County                Operator (Sponsoring Agencies)
  Alameda               East Bay Paratransit Consortium (AC Transit,
                        BART)(1)
                        Union City Paratransit (Union City Transit)
                        WHEELS Dial-A-Ride (Livermore Amador Valley Transit
                        Authority)
  Contra Costa          East Bay Partatransit Consortium (AC Transit,
                        BART)(1)
                        County Connection LINK (Central Contra Costa
                        Transit Authority)
                        Tri Delta Transit (Eastern Contra Costa Transit
                        Authority)
                        WestCAT (Western Contra Costa Transit Authority)
  Marin                 Whistlestop Wheels (Marin Co. Transit District,
                        Golden Gate Transit)
  Napa                  VINE Go (Napa County Transportation Planning
                        Agency)
  San Francisco         Muni
  San Mateo             SamTrans Redi-Wheels (San Mateo Co. Transit
                        District)
  Santa Clara County    OUTREACH (Santa Clara Valley Transportation
                        Authority)
  Solano County         Benicia Dial-A-Ride (Benicia Transit)
                        Fairfield-Suisun Transit DART (Fairfield-Suisun
                        Transit)
                        Vacaville City Coach
                        Vallejo Run About (Vallejo Transit)
  Sonoma                Petaluma Transit
                        Sonoma County Paratransit (Sonoma County Transit)
                        Volunteer Wheels (Santa Rosa CityBus)

(1) The East Bay Paratransit Consortium service area includes the Alameda and Contra Costa County communities served by AC Transit, as well as the City and County of San Francisco for trips to/from the East Bay.