San Jose, California, United States
Reaching Out with ITS
Summary Information
This article described the experience of the paratransit transportation broker Outreach program after implementation of several ITS improvements in San Jose, California. Improvements included a digital geographic database, an Automatic Vehicle Location system on a portion of the vehicles under contract to Outreach, and an automatic scheduling and routing system. Outreach benefited from increased ridership, better on-time performance, and a $500,000 reduction in operating costs during the first year of system operations.
A paratransit driver interviewed in the article indicated satisfaction with the system. In particular, she cited its usefulness in settling driver-passenger disputes concerning on-time performance, and added the AVL system can keep in contact the main control center for added security.