Shaping the New Future of Paratransit: An Agenda for Research and Practice

Abstract

The TRB-sponsored international paratransit conference Shaping the New Future of Paratransit, held in Monterey, California, in October 2014, represented the first gathering of the international paratransit community in conference format since 1997. The conference itself drew a cross section of operators, technology providers, policy makers, and researchers from around the world. The presentations from the conference were organized around a number of themes that, when brought together, represented a substantial manifesto for the flexible and demand-responsive transport community. This paper looks at a number of these themes and provides an analysis to highlight the key points and common strands of experiences with paratransit worldwide.