Traveler response to innovative personalized demand-responsive transit in the San Francisco Bay Area

Urban sprawl makes conventional transit less competitive and points to the need for more innovative and flexible demand-responsive transit systems in the future. To increase their efficiency, such systems can take advantage of the emerging advanced public transportation systems technologies, e.g., vehicle location and information systems. However, little is known about how consumers might respond to such systems and what they desire. This paper explores the demand for a consumer-oriented Personalized Demand-Responsive Transit (PDRT) service in the San Francisco Bay Area. Such a system could provide services to the traveling public for journeys to work and to nonwork destinations. Results from six focus group meetings and a computer-assisted telephone survey of commuters and noncommuters are reported. While about 60% of those surveyed were willing to consider PDRT as an option, about 12% reported that they were "very likely" to use PDRT (N=1,000). Many were willing to pay for the service and valued highly the flexibility in scheduling the service. Spatial analysis of the survey responses suggests localities where a PDRT may be field-tested.