The COVID-19 pandemic left many persons with disabilities and older adults without reliable transportation to access essential goods, medical care, and social engagements. Issues of social isolation for older adults were exacerbated with the emergence of COVID-19 because transportation service was reduced. TCRP Research Report 243: Transportation for People with Disabilities and Older Adults During COVID-19: Lessons for Emergency Response , a pre-publication report from TRB's Transit Cooperative Research...

Unemployment, low wages, poverty, and lack of affordable housing are the main drivers of an increasing homeless population throughout the U.S. in recent years. Transit agencies are being impacted by homelessness. While transit agencies cannot address the underlying causes of homelessness, there are opportunities to work with local partners to be a part of helping individuals in need, while providing a safe, reliable, and customer-friendly experience for all riders. TCRP Research Report 242: Homelessness:...

As of 2020, nearly 50 percent of the bus-operator workforce was over 55. Evidence indicates that many younger job seekers are often not aware of the potential career opportunities and employee benefits that are available at transit agencies. TCRP Research Report 240: Bus Operator Workforce Management: Practitioner’s Guide , from TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program, provides recommendations and resources enabling transit agencies to better assess, plan, and implement their operator workforce manage...

Virtual public engagement can be a more inclusive and equitable way to engage with communities, but it is important to consider the digital divide and use a variety of approaches and tools to reach all community members. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, transit agencies had limited virtual communication tools. However, the pandemic encouraged agencies to adopt new virtual strategies and practices. TCRP Research Report 241: Effective and Inclusive Virtual Public Engagement for Public Transit , a pre-public...

Transit agencies are increasingly offering an alternative service for their Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit riders. This service is typically an on-demand or same-day transportation option subsidized by a transit agency and is an alternative to the next-day service of ADA paratransit. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Research Report 239: Provision of Alternative Services by Transit Agencies: The Intersection of Regulation and Program details how alternative services p...

Recognizing the strong recent interest throughout the United States to consider and implement fare-free transit, decision-making tools are needed to help public transit practitioners evaluate fare-free transit. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's  TCRP Research Report 237: Fare-Free Transit Evaluation Framework  presents a framework that can be used by public transit practitioners to evaluate the potential benefits, costs, and trade-offs of implementing fare-free transit. Supplementa...

Ferry transportation services play an important role in regional transportation—providing additional transit capacity to transportation networks and serving as a lifeline for many geographically-isolated communities. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's  TCRP Research Report 238: Quantitative Procedures for Designing and Operating Ferry Services presents guidance for scheduled and fixed-route ferry transit services and facilities that serve passengers as well as passengers and vehicles. Gu...

Fare evasion is generally defined as a passenger using public transit without paying the required fare or possessing the required fare media or valid proof of fare payment. Fare evasion has significant implications for the financial sustainability of transit systems and must be replaced by another stable source of funding. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program  TCRP Research Report 234: Measuring and Managing Fare Evasion explores in detail the recent past and emerging future of fare enforcem...

With the proliferation of automatic vehicle location, automatic passenger counters, and automatic fare collection, transit agencies are collecting increasingly granular data on service performance, ridership, customer behavior, and financial recovery. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's  TCRP Research Report 235: Improving Access and Management of Public Transit ITS Data proposes a data structure for storing data from bus and rail intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Supplemental to ...

An overall objective of the transit community is to help develop an enhanced and more inclusive approach to public transportation planning and decision making. Public transportation planners have a critical role in addressing and correcting many of the problems caused by a 20th- and 21st-century transportation sector that severely impacted and, in some cases, destroyed Black communities in the building of today’s transportation systems and network. The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's  TCR...