![](media/image1.wmf){width="0.45in" height="0.4465277777777778in"}

U.S. Department

of Transportation

**Federal Transit**

**Administration**

August 29, 2008

Mr. Stephen B. Kingsberry

Executive Director

Delaware Transit Corporation

900 Public Safety Boulevard

Dover, DE 19901-4503

Re: ADA Complementary Paratransit Compliance Review Final Report

Dear Mr. Kingsberry:

Thank you for your response dated April 4, 2008, to the Federal Transit
Administration's (FTA) letter and preliminary report of findings of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) Complementary Paratransit
compliance review conducted from May 15 to 18, 2007, of Delaware Transit
Corporation's (DART) ADA complementary paratransit service. Enclosed is
the Final Report that incorporates DART's official response by
attachment. As of the date of this letter the Final Report became a
public document and is subject to dissemination under the Freedom of
Information Act of 1974.

[]{.mark}

Enclosed with this letter is a progress table listing FTA's
understanding of the corrective actions either planned or taken by DART
in response to the preliminary findings contained in the draft report.
If you feel that our summarization of corrective actions is inconsistent
with your response, please inform us in writing as soon as possible.

Following most of the areas where findings were made, we have:

-   Identified responses that adequately address the finding

-   Requested documentation of results and outcomes

-   Requested DART to clarify specific corrective actions based on
    DART's response to the report findings

Please use the enclosed table as the format to report progress to FTA on
the corrective actions that DART has completed or intends to implement
as a result of our findings. Please identify each response by item
number (e.g., 1.1, etc.). The requested documentation, along with
updates on the status of implementation of proposed corrective actions,
should be provided in quarterly reports to FTA. Each report should
include the planned and actual completion date of the corrective action;
the current status and contact person information for each corrective
action; and specific reporting requests cited in this letter and on the
enclosed table. The first report will be due on October 15, 2008, and
should include data for the months of July through September 2008, and
any actions completed prior to that date that have not already been
addressed. Additional reports will be due by January 15, 2009, April 15,
2009, and each calendar quarter thereafter until FTA releases DART from
this reporting requirement.

We recognize the progress that you have made in responding to the
findings of the review as presented in your April 4, 2008 letter. In
addition to these efforts, we request that your first progress report
more fully respond to the following findings, which are also addressed
in the progress table.

1.  **Service Criteria**

    1\. [Finding]{.underline}: DART paratransit service is not provided
    during all days and times that DART fixed route service operates.
    Service hours for DART paratransit vary by county and by day of
    week. However, certain fixed routes start earlier than the
    paratransit service hours and others end later. Lack of ADA
    complementary paratransit service during the same days and hours of
    fixed route service fails to comply with the requirements of 49 CFR
    §37.131(a).

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

a\. Statewide -Review all existing routes to determine what services are
fixed route versus commuter route.

Additional reporting: Please report on progress in future Quarterly
Progress Reports.

b\. Resort - Working with Resort staff and Reservations for upcoming
season to ensure that customers are provided service within ¾ mile of
the fixed routes during all hours of operation.

Additional reporting: Please report on progress in future Quarterly
Progress Reports.

c\. Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided.

Additional reporting: Please report on progress in your next Quarterly
Progress Report. DART's Paratransit Service Plan is proposed as a
corrective action for several of the findings; therefore, please provide
specifics on how the Plan will address each finding.

**2. ADA Complementary Paratransit Eligibility**

2\. [Finding]{.underline}: DART grants conditional eligibility to some
individuals based on the purpose of the trip, such as work or dialysis.
Section 37.131(d) of the DOT ADA regulations states that service
restrictions or priorities must not be imposed on the basis of trip
purpose.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

a\. Refresher training for all eligibility staff. Written procedures
being developed to clearly identify appropriate use of Conditional
Eligibility.

Additional reporting: Please provide a copy of the written procedures
concerning conditional eligibility.

b\. Long Term -- Plan being developed to convert to a Trip-By-Trip
Methodology for Fixed Route.

Additional reporting: Please report on progress in future Quarterly
Progress Reports, including a brief summary of findings from your
research.

## **Trip Reservations and Scheduling**

[]{.mark}

7\. [Finding]{.underline}: During scheduling, if the estimated pickup
time is earlier than the time negotiated and scheduled with the
customer, the scheduler adjusts the scheduled time to match the
estimated arrival time. Rescheduling the trip without customer approval
can cause miscommunication and untimely trips. DART relies upon
communications between scheduler, reservationists, customer, dispatcher,
and operator to affirm that the time change is made correctly. If there
is miscommunication, the time the operator has on the manifest is the
time changed by the scheduler, not the time negotiated with the
customer. This procedure appears to be cumbersome and can contribute to
missed trips or untimely pickups.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

a\. Existing procedure for time changes is being reviewed.

**\***Step B below will minimize the need for time change.

b\. Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided.

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
report on progress in improving the scheduling procedure and
communication among responsible personnel. Please comment on how the new
Paratransit Service plan will help to address this finding.

**5. Service Performance**

[]{.mark}

1\. [Finding]{.underline}: DART's procedure of allowing 60 minutes of
travel time for all trips, combined with its pickup window of 0/+30
minutes, may result in late drop-offs or very early drop-offs.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
discuss how the finding regarding assumed travel time will be addressed
and whether estimated time based on straight line travel distance or
similar proxy will be used to make paratransit performance comparable to
fixed route travel time in DART's Paratransit Service Plan.

2\. [Finding]{.underline}: DART's travel time standard of 60 minutes per
county traveled may allow unreasonably long paratransit travel times for
short trips or for inter-county trips. The travel time standard may also
unfairly penalize DART for long inter-county trips.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided.

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
discuss how travel time assumptions for short trips and time estimates
for inter-county trips will be addressed in DART's Paratransit Service
Plan.

3\. [Finding]{.underline}: DART dispatchers do not use the Trapeze
software to "perform" trips. They rely on periodic updates from the
operators to know when pickups and drop-offs occur. This limits
dispatchers' ability to estimate the real-time schedule adherence of the
vehicles.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Radio, CAD/AVL RFP going out in 2009

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
discuss how the use of new radio, CAD/AVL, and Trapeze 7.0 will be used
to allow dispatcher to estimate real-time schedule adherence in the
context of DART's Paratransit Service Plan. Will Trapeze be used to
"perform" trips in progress?

6\. [Finding]{.underline}: Five of the nine operators interviewed did
not know the correct pickup window.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

The pickup window is defined in the Operator Training Manual.

\[See Attachment 4.5.6 for details\]

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report please
report on monitoring efforts to confirm that operators understand the
pickup window concept and use it properly in practice.

10\. [Finding]{.underline}: Using the available data for the five-day
sample period, the review team calculated DART's performance for on-time
drop-offs at 75 percent. This is close to the monthly on-time drop-off
performance reported by DART for July 2006 to February 2007.
Furthermore, the sample data showed that 10 percent of drop-offs were
more than 20 minutes late, with seven percent more than 30 minutes late.
This poor performance for drop-offs could be considered as a substantial
portion of significantly late drop-offs.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
report on how DART's Paratransit Service Plan will address and improve
on-time performance for trips with requested drop-off times.

13\. [Finding]{.underline}: When the actual travel times of 44 long ADA
paratransit trips (those with travel times of 2 hours or more) provided
between March 19 and March 23 were compared with the estimated travel
times for comparable fixed route trips, those DART ADA paratransit
travel times were longer than comparable fixed route travel times by an
average of 47 minutes. The average paratransit travel time was 141
minutes, while the average fixed route travel time was 94 minutes for
long trips. Travel times on ADA paratransit trips exceeded the
comparable fixed route travel time by an average of 20 minutes in Kent
County, 36 minutes in Sussex County, and 52 minutes in New Castle
County.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided.

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
discuss how the Paratransit Service Plan will affect trip time compared
to fixed route trip times for long trips, particularly in Kent, Sussex,
and New Castle counties.

14\. [Finding]{.underline}: DART does not directly track the total
travel time for paratransit trips that require transfers. DART tracks
each leg of such paratransit trips separately and does not track time
spent waiting for transfer vehicles. Consequently, DART has no means of
identifying trips with transfers that are longer than travel on fixed
route, for instance because the paratransit uses a less direct route
than the fixed route or because DART has not accounted for wait times at
the transfer point.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

GoLink Connector Trips terminated based on internal reviews and in
working with the EDTAC.

Clarification of Corrective Action: Please clarify whether the
termination of GoLink means that there are no longer any paratransit
transfer trips (the finding concerned transfer waiting times not being
included in travel time comparison with fixed route service).

15\. [Finding]{.underline}: Over half of the long paratransit trips
analyzed had travel times that exceeded the comparable fixed route
travel time by more than 60 minutes; however, these trips made up less
than .5 percent of all the ADA paratransit trips provided in the sample
week. It is possible, however, that a significant number of additional
trips were substantially longer than comparable trips on the fixed
route, since this analysis only looked to trips that were over 120
minutes. Many trips that are less than 120 minutes, but more than 60
minutes, could be substantially longer than comparable fixed route
trips, particularly in the absence of detailed monitoring of such trips
by DART.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided.

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
report on how DART's Paratransit Service Plan will address and monitor
comparability of paratransit travel times (particularly for long trips)
with the corresponding fixed route service.

16\. [Finding]{.underline}: A number of facility addresses appeared
several times on the list of long paratransit trips, which could be
resulting in repeated long travel times for some ADA riders.

4/4/08 Corrective Action Proposed by DART:

Develop plan to identify ADA Paratransit Service from other services
provided.

Additional reporting: In your next Quarterly Progress Report, please
report on how DART's Paratransit Service Plan will address the issue of
travel time to facilities which appear repeatedly on the list of the
longest paratransit trips.

17\. [Finding]{.underline}: During the sample week, 13 percent of trips
provided in Kent County exceeded the DART maximum travel time standard
of 60 minutes. In New Castle County, nearly 10 percent of trips exceeded
the applicable DART maximum travel time standard of 60 minutes. In
Sussex County, less than 1 percent of trips exceeded the DART maximum
travel time standard of 2 hours.

Response requested: In your next Quarterly Progress Report please report
on how DART's Paratransit Service Plan will address travel time in Kent
and New Castle Counties.

We appreciate the cooperation and assistance that you and your staff
have provided us during this review. If you have any questions about
this matter, please contact Jonathan Klein, the program manager for this
review, at (202) 366-0809 or at his e-mail address:
*jonathan.klein@dot.gov.* You can also contact Betty Jackson at
[*betty.jackson@dot.gov*](mailto:betty.jackson@dot.gov) for an
electronic version of the reporting chart.

It would also be very helpful to us if you would provide a copy of all
correspondence to this office to Deborah Haines, the FTA Region III
Civil Rights Officer, at: *deborah.haines@dot.gov*. Thank you for your
continued cooperation.

Sincerely,

Cheryl L. Hershey

Director

Office of Civil Rights

Enclosures

cc: Letitia Thompson, FTA Region III Administrator

Deborah Haines, FTA Region III Civil Rights Officer

Michael McCollum, FTA Region III Director of Program Management &
Oversight