California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This report, an interim deliverable for Task Order 5408: “Improving Mobility through Enhanced Transit Services”, reviews the literature on the background and current potential for transit-taxi services in the United States and abroad. It documents the early tasks of a project aimed at improving the mobility of people during off-peak, low demand times of the day through innovative and alternative public transport services. To identify optimal transit-taxi concepts, we have designed a classification system defined by combinations of three service design options–fixed route, fixed-route with deviation, or hybrid/feeder service – and three operational strategies – using in-house vehicles and labor, contracting out services, or relying on the private market to meet demand. We also conducted case studies investigating these various possibilities. The research shows that most combinations of these three transit-taxi service concepts and operational strategies have been implemented in actual nighttime transit-taxi service and are currently still in use. The literature clarifies that there is no “one size fits all” approach to planning or operating transit taxi service. The service design and operating strategy will depend greatly on the respective financial and regulatory environments, as well as, demographic and land-use characteristics. The research conducted thus far, in concert with forthcoming institutional interviews and modeling, will help determine a specific transit-taxi pilot project implementation in California.