Provision Of Transition Services Research Articles

Neoliberalism and the splintering of city-regionalism: the case of Denver’s regional transit agency in times of COVID-19 urban austerity

ABSTRACT Public transit service provision is fraught with contradictions and tensions, which today tend to converge around the city-regional scale of planning and governance. The promise of public transit is to promote economic development and improve regional accessibility, mobility, equity, and sustainability. However, these priorities can often conflict with each other, resulting in the splintering of the corresponding city-regional planning and governance structures set up to finance and deliver major transit infrastructure projects. Drawing upon a case study of transit-led city-regionalism in Denver, Colorado, USA, this article explores how the tensions and contradictions embedded within regional public transit service planning are exposed and exacerbated during times of financial austerity, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how the neoliberal goals of promoting transit-oriented redevelopment in Denver alongside expanding service to Denver’s wealthier suburbs clash with the pandemic-induced expediency of targeting transit service for front-line workers and transit-dependent populations in core urban neighborhoods. The article demonstrates that in times of COVID-19-induced urban austerity the entrepreneurial city-regional approach to infrastructure provision originally developed for the FasTracks expansion program is increasingly at odds with regional objectives to use mass transit to foster equity and transport justice.

Experience of pediatric to adult transition in immunology services: patient experience questionnaire and micro-costing analysis.

The effective transition from pediatric to adult care for individuals with chronic medical conditions should address the medical, psychosocial and educational needs of the cohort. The views and experiences of service users and their families are an integral component of service development. This study sought to evaluate the current provision of transition services from pediatric immunology services to adult immunology services for patients with a diagnosis of an inborn error of immunity at St. James's Hospital, Dublin. We gathered patient perspectives on the experience of the transition process using a structured survey. In addition, we adopted a micro-costing technique to estimate the cost of implementing the current standard of care for these patients. Results of a micro-costing analysis suggest that the most significant component of cost in assessing these patients is on laboratory investigation, an area where there is likely significant duplication between pediatric and adult care. Perspectives from patients suggested that the transition period went well for the majority of the cohort and that they felt ready to move to adult services, but the transition was not without complications in areas such as self-advocacy and medication management. The transition process may benefit from enhanced communication and collaboration between pediatric and adult services.

Travel behaviour differences among people with disabilities: A cluster analysis of accessible taxi users before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

IntroductionPeople with disabilities (PWD) represent the largest minority group in Canada. Many municipalities have implemented paratransit services and subsidized accessible taxi services to provide affordable and equitable transport choices for PWD. However, few scholars have examined who is using these services and how they use them, making it challenging to assess the social impacts of paratransit projects. This study helps to address this knowledge gap through its examination of the differences in travel behaviour among PWD who use accessible taxi services in Toronto, Canada. Specifically, our study engages four research questions: (1) who are accessible taxi service users? (2) how are individuals using accessible taxi services? (3) are there different groups of users based on their travel behaviour? and, (4) how has travel behaviour changed in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic? MethodsThis article employs a cluster analysis to categorize users based on their travel habits and patterns and examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their travel behaviour. Study data includes approximately one million trips made by 40,000 users between June 2018 and June 2021. ResultsThe study identifies five distinct user profiles among accessible taxi users. During the pandemic, there was a significant decrease in the number of PWD using accessible taxi services, particularly for occasional users. Conversely, the percentage of users who made health-related trips increased. Additionally, the findings suggest that PWD who continued or started using accessible taxi services during the pandemic are more likely to be among the most socially disadvantaged groups. ConclusionsThis study can help transit service providers and policymakers better understand the different types of paratransit users and improve services. Additionally, the findings contribute to the existing literature on addressing transport-related social exclusion in Toronto, which is largely focused on population groups with low-income and affordability issues, and not disability.

Two-side pricing in the content distributed network under traffic dynamics

The content distributed networks (CDNs) have been extending their market coverage on the conventional Internet environment by providing better quality of service (QoS) to the consumers. We consider the CDN as an economic player that competes with transit service provider (TSP), and model it as a platform that mediates content providers (CPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) that make an independent decision on their participation to the CDN. Given the information about CPs and ISPs, the CDN can maximize its revenue by optimizing the prices at the both sides. This problem can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem. However, all possible combinations of participating CPs and ISPs should be considered, which require intensive computation, in particular, under CP dynamics where CPs arrive and depart the market over time. In this work, we develop a low-complexity pricing scheme that aims to find close-to-optimal prices.

Taxing Uber

Ride-hailing applications create new challenges for governments providing transit services, but also create new opportunities to raise tax revenue. To shed light on the effect of taxing or subsidizing ride-hailing services, we extend a pseudo-monocentric city model to include multiple endogenously chosen transportation modes, including ride-hailing applications and endogenous car ownership. We show that most tax and spending programs that cities have currently adopted mildly increase public transit usage. However, the model predicts more significant increases in public transit ridership when ride-hailing applications are subsidized as a “last-mile” provider. Our model indicates that whether ride-hailing services and public transit are substitutes or complements is a policy choice.

A vocational rehabilitation partnership to provide transition services to young adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities: The cognitive skills enhancement program.

There is an urgent need for services that support a successful transition to postsecondary education and employment for young adults with neurodevelopmental and cognitive disabilities (e.g. autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, traumatic brain injury). The purpose of this expository article is to describe the Cognitive Skills Enhancement Program (CSEP), a comprehensive clinical program designed for young adults with neurodevelopmental and cognitive disabilities transitioning to postsecondary education. CSEP was developed through a community-academic partnership between a university and a state vocational rehabilitation program. Young adult participants complete programming that addresses four primary clinical targets: (1) emotion regulation, (2) social skills, (3) work readiness, and (4) community participation with the overall goal to increase awareness and promote successful employment outcomes while they transition to post-secondary education. To date, CSEP has supported 18 years of sustained programming and clinical services to 621 young adults with neurodevelopmental and cognitive disabilities. This partnership model allows for flexible responses to participant needs, implementation barriers, and advances in evidence-based practices. CSEP meets the needs of diverse stakeholders (e.g. state vocational rehabilitation, postsecondary training facilities, participants, universities) while providing high-quality and sustainable programming. Future directions include examining the clinical efficacy of current CSEP programming.

The promise of co-design for improving transit service for older immigrants: Development of a co-design framework for Hamilton, Ontario

Although co-design is extensively used in education, organizational, and healthcare design, it has rarely been used in public transportation decision-making. Typically, transport service users’ involvement is practiced in the form of public hearings or consultations rather than their direct involvement in the design process. Based on the review of relevant literature on co-design and transportation of immigrants and older adults, this study discusses the promise of co-design for transit service improvement in a developed country context. The study developed a co-design framework to be applied to create a plan for improving transit services for older immigrants in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The framework suggests conducting co-design studies by independent investigators instead of service providers to reduce possible biases in the methodology design and decision-making process. Co-design guidelines and principles were developed to address the needs of older immigrants, with the framework addressing their lived experiences, enhancing public engagement, and developing compassionate partnerships among stakeholders. The entire process will allow transit service providers and other community partners to engage with, get insights from, and learn about the impact of their services on older immigrants’ mobility needs. This final output includes a transit service improvement plan, through which the transit service provider can deliver and implement feasible and functional solutions that meet older immigrants’ expectations and improve their transit use experiences.

Identification and Classification of Bus and Subway Passenger Travel Patterns in Beijing Using Transit Smart Card Data

Urban public transit has been rapidly developed in recent years. However, given increases in travel volume, the level of service still needs to be improved to meet the satisfaction of passengers. Transit service providers and researchers have focused on improving transit devices, but the service level of public transit has not yet been effectively improved, so more and more research is interested in analyzing the travel patterns of passengers. Compared with traditional survey methods, smart card collection systems—which can collect spatial-temporal information about passengers’ trips—are convenient for the study of bus and subway passengers’ travel patterns. However, the data provided by smart cards have not yet been fully explored. Therefore, this paper proposed a multistep methodology to gather information on the travel patterns of bus and subway passengers in Beijing, China. We conducted statistical analyses and used an unsupervised clustering method to study and classify passengers based on travel patterns. Four groups have been identified: standard commuters, flexible commuters, and two types of low-frequency passengers. Then, a comprehensive analysis was conducted. We also discussed the changes of passengers’ travel time consumption before and after the implementation of customized bus for high-frequency passengers. The analyses indicated that passengers’ travel patterns can provide useful information for transit service providers and can help improve the level of service of urban public transit by promoting the promulgation of local public transport policies and the implementation of customized services.

Services to Prepare Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities for the Transition from School to Adult Life

Transitioning to adult life is considered one of the most critical phases in the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). While studies have been published pertaining to the provision of transition services for students with IDD in some developed countries, such as the United States of America, little research has been carried out in this area in Saudi Arabia. This research gap is consistent with the lack of evidence-based services in Saudi Arabia to assist students with IDD in preparing for and transitioning to adult life. This study describes the provision of services supporting the transition for secondary students with IDD in Saudi Arabia, using the Taxonomy for Transition Programming developed by Kohler (1996) as a framework. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with eight special education teachers working with students with IDD. The results reveal four main findings: (a) the lack of transition services, (b) insufficient teacher preparation in transition services, (c) poor family-school relationships, and (d) teacher willingness to use the Taxonomy for transition programming with students. The study concludes with a discussion of the research limitations and recommendations. KEYWORDS Intellectual disability, autism, transition services, transition programs, Kohler taxonomy, Saudi Arabia

Initial observations of medically complex young adults transitioning to adult care: Revealing data regarding mental health, nutrition, and transition preparedness

BackgroundApproximately one million adolescents with medical complexity transition into adult healthcare each year. Pediatric and adult providers alike have identified several barriers to transition, including insufficient knowledge of community resources, a lack of reimbursement for providing transition services, and an overall shortage of medical providers. Because of these barriers, the healthcare needs and challenges of this population have been understudied. The purpose of this article is to describe findings regarding nutrition, mental health, transition readiness, and caregiver burnout in a patient population of medically complex young adults in the interdisciplinary STEP clinic in the state of Alabama. Through the establishment of streamlined transition programs such as STEP, providers can address the unique health care needs of this patient population, with particular emphasis on optimizing mental health and nutrition. MethodsAll patients seen at the STEP clinic from September 2020 to August 2021 (n = 169) were evaluated through pertinent validated assessments of transition readiness (TRAQ), and/or caregiver burden (ZBI), and/or mental health (PHQ9, GAD7). Additional variables collected from patient charts include age, race, diagnosis, primary insurance type, equipment dependence, and body mass index (BMI). ResultsThe average TRAQ score of patients included in this study is 3.57 ± 1.11. A TRAQ score of below 4.0 suggests that the patient is not yet ready to transition from pediatric to adult care. The average ZBI score of caregivers is 20.97 ± 12.59, which indicates mild to moderate caregiver burden. 33% of patients were found to have moderate to severe anxiety, and 28% were found to have moderate to severe depression. Only 3.6% of patients seen at the STEP clinic have a BMI within normal limits. 113 of our patients have ongoing use of medical technology, and 49% are wheelchair users. ConclusionsThe need for organized transition care for medically complex young adults is apparent and growing. This patient population faces unique challenges in navigating the adult healthcare system, and patients are often unprepared for the transition. It is crucial that multidisciplinary clinics in which mental health and nutrition are addressed become accessible to all patients within this high-risk population.

The Concept of a Regional Maintenance Center

Key contributors to address maintenance concerns for rural transit systems are an aging fleet, poor maintenance practices, and a lack of technical expertise. This lack of local maintenance expertise is especially severe in rural areas. This paper examines the general requirements and maintenance service approach for a Regional Maintenance Center model in rural transportation systems. Among other findings of this study, it was determined that Regional Maintenance Centers, with a training center for mechanics and drivers, could improve vehicle reliability, increase vehicle longevity, and improve service to transit clientele. Also determined was that a generalized “one-size-fits-all” regional maintenance program could actually be counter-productive. Regional Maintenance Centers must be designed and located so potential use by rural transit service providers is maximized in order to provide superior serviceability and quality customer service.

Vulnerability and coping strategies: The experience of public transit users in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The exacerbated mobility challenges in many developing cities poses great challenges to planners and policy makers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the vulnerability, exposure of public transit users to travel difficulties and their coping strategies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Vulnerability can be defined as exposure to harm and increased risk. Public transit users are generally more vulnerable to physical attack than private car users. The study used primary data which were collected through a survey distributed to 457 respondents. Convenience sampling technique was used to reach respondents. The study used proportions, percentages and cross-tabulation of key variables and binary logistic regression to analyze vulnerability and coping strategies of transit users. The result revealed that coping strategy use is higher among long distance travelers, middle income groups (regular commuters) and females than other groups. Hence, the research emphasis the need to improve the current state of public transit service provision in the city.

Innovative Public-Private Partnership Models for Road Pricing/BRT Initiatives

This article presents alternative concepts for serving commuter travel demand in major metropolitan areas with a system of priced expressways integrated with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and presents potential new models for setting up public-private partnerships (PPP) to finance, implement, and operate the system. These new models may make possible the self-financing of new BRT services and facilitate efficient provision of multimodal transportation services. The PPP model for expressway operation uses shadow tolls to compensate private partners, while at the same time charging motorists market-based tolls to ensure free-flowing traffic conditions and to provide a fast, reliable running way for BRT. Revenues from tolls charged to users may be used to pay contractual obligations to private partners for highway operations, toll collection, and BRT services. To encourage efficient and effective provision of transit, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV, and park-and-ride/pool services, private partners may be compensated for provision of transit services and HOV promotion using shadow fee payments based on the number of commuters served.

Exploring Transit’s Contribution to Livability in Rural Communities: Case Studies of the North Dakota Cities of Valley City and Dickinson

This paper investigates the nexus of transit and rural livability as demonstrated by case studies in the North Dakota communities of Valley City and Dickinson. While there are many factors that influence the livability of a rural community, transit is believed to be an important contributor. For each of the two North Dakota communities considered, public/resident surveys, local transit rider surveys, and stakeholder interviews were conducted to understand differing opinions on livability and how transit contributes to livability.In both Valley City and Dickinson, surveys of residents showed that they believe affordable housing, low crime, quality healthcare, overall cost of living, quality public schools, and available jobs are the most important factors contributing to the livability of a small community. While transit was not among the top factors, survey respondents expressed considerable support for providing transit services and funding transit through various sources. Residents in both cities expressed the opinion that transit should be provided in their community as a transportation option for seniors, people with disabilities, those who choose not to drive, and those who cannot afford to drive. Transit riders in both cities indicated that transit is important to their quality of life, and stakeholders from both communities expressed the sentiment that transit is a critical lifeline for people who are elderly and/or have a disability, individuals with no vehicle, and those who cannot drive.

Evaluating service performance of public bus transit service: a case study of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT To determine the operators’ strengths and shortcomings in the delivery of transit service, it is crucial to evaluate bus transit service performance from the viewpoint of the consumer. This study highlights the priority features that demand immediate attention in service supply and assesses users’ levels of satisfaction. A questionnaire was used to gather information from 500 respondents, and models for Factor Analysis, Customer Satisfaction Index and Importance Performance Analysis were used to assess the data. According to the results, clients were quietly satisfied with the service they received in 55% of cases. It suggests that the city’s transit system needs immediate attention if it wants to increase passenger satisfaction ratings above the existing level. Nine service quality attributes were identified by IPA’s analysis as belonging to quadrant one, which is a quadrant with high importance but low performance. As a result, the study recommends transit service providers, local governments, and other interested parties concentrate and allocate their resources on enhancing transit services that emphasize the qualities found in the first quadrant.

Transitions Theatre: An Arts-Informed Interprofessional Education Workshop.

IntroductionTransition from pediatric to adult care has significant implications for health outcomes in youth with special health care needs. To optimally support the transition, health care and social service providers must work collaboratively with youth and families in service planning, implementation, and evaluation. Based on interviews with 15 youth and their families, we developed an arts-informed interprofessional education activity titled Transitions Theatre using the method of readers’ theater.MethodsThree educators with lived experience (one former pediatric rehabilitation client and two parents of youth with special health care needs) and three academic/clinical educators codesigned the transitions. We conducted four online workshops (14–20 participants each).ResultsA total of 67 people participated: 59 students from 11 health disciplines and seven postlicensure clinicians and one trainee from five disciplines (e.g., occupational therapy, life skills coaching, early childhood education). Twenty-six participants answered both pre- and postworkshop surveys and reported a positive shift in their understanding of client and family perspectives, their roles in transition support, and other providers’ roles in transition support. After the workshop, learners felt more confident with transition support and interprofessional collaboration. The perspectives of the educators with lived experience aligned with the theater scripts and enhanced learners’ empathetic engagement with the topic.DiscussionThe evidence-based teaching approach of readers’ theater and our coteaching model offered learners a unique opportunity to learn about the challenges clients and their families face at the time of transition to adulthood and identify their role in an interprofessional transition support.

Promoting Successful Transitions in High School Students With Emotional Disturbance in Saudi Arabia: Educators’ Voices

Providing transition planning and services to students with emotional disturbance (ED) can enhance their success in postsecondary education, employment, and independent living. This qualitative study explores how special educators in Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), perceive the necessity of promoting transition services for high school students with ED and developing important aspects to implement these services. Study participants were ten special educators majoring in ED who were purposefully sampled from a special education graduate program. The results indicate that all study participants believe there is a need to promote transition services in Saudi schools to support students with ED. The results also highlight four fundamental foundations that educators want to develop to promote the implementation of transition services in Saudi schools: the regulation of special education, transition assessment tools, transition teamwork, and teacher professional development programs in transition. Recommendations for future research are discussed as well.

Key Aspects for IT-Services Integration in Urban Transit Service of Medium-Sized Cities: A Qualitative Exploratory Study in Colombia

In the last ten years, approximately, urban transit systems of Latin American capital cities have evolved significantly. Colombia, specifically, has concentrated this development in its capital cities, consolidated through digital transformation programs in the transportation sector. However, the same phenomenon does not occur in medium-sized cities for different reasons that are important to analyze. This paper presents an exploratory qualitative study involving eight medium-sized cities in the implementation phase of their strategic urban transit systems. Three main aspects that drive this study were identified: technologies and their cost, functional requirements to implement information technology services in transit systems, and economy and administration associated with this type of implementation. Based on this, a semi-structured interview data collection instrument was designed, with the participation of 15 officials distributed in the eight target cities, and one expert from an intelligent transportation system in a capital city. With the information collected, an exploratory analysis was made contrasting the responses given by each interviewee. The most relevant results show that the interviewees prioritize technologies based on open standards to provide information to users; that the northern medium-sized cities of the country do not have strategies that regularize and motivate the use of public transportation; instead, the southern medium-sized cities of the country consider the use of transportation to be necessary. Finally, it was concluded that the information technology services to be included in the provision of transit services should promote these cities’ cultural and economic growth.

Influences on transit ridership and transit accessibility in US urban areas

The success of transit systems, traditionally gauged through ridership metrics, must also be assessed via transit accessibility because accessibility to destinations indicates the quality of service that transit provides. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we explain transit accessibility and transit ridership in 2017 for 50 large urbanized areas in the United States as dual outcomes dependent upon population size, urban form, and transit service provision. Also, we examine transit accessibility as a factor that influences transit ridership. We find that transit service provision strongly influences both transit ridership per capita and job accessibility provided by transit. Further, we find that transit accessibility, in turn, offers a moderate boost to transit ridership. Population density results in higher transit accessibility directly by making destinations easier to reach and indirectly by increasing the amount of transit services provided. Other built environment and transit service variables were examined but did not improve the models’ explanatory power. Disaggregating the effects of fixed-guideway (i.e., rail) and non-fixed guideway transit (i.e., buses in mixed traffic), we find that fixed-guideway transit has a more substantial effect on transit accessibility, while non-fixed guideway transit has a larger effect on transit ridership per vehicle mile.

Eliminating barriers to nighttime activity participation: the case of on-demand transit in Belleville, Canada.

Demand-responsive technologies are rapidly changing the transportation landscape. The City of Belleville, Ontario has recently replaced its evening and nighttime fixed route bus service with an on-demand transit (ODT) service. Preliminary reports have found a 300% increase in nighttime bus ridership since the implementation of this service, yet to fully understand the social return on the investment in on-demand services, we must also quantify whether and for whom these new services have enabled time savings and increased levels of activity participation. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether riders are satisfied with the service, and whether satisfaction levels have an impact on activity participation. As such, this study explores the determinants of activity participation of ODT users using a custom ridership survey instrument. We collect information on travel experience, satisfaction, and perceived changes in activity participation due to ODT. We then performed a factor analysis and estimated structural equation models to identify the relationships between aspects of the ODT service and activity participation. Our results show that reliability and service quality are the most important aspects of the ODT services in terms of positively influencing activity participation, and that shorter wait times, are most likely to lead to an increase in activity participation. Our findings further suggest that Belleville can eliminate barriers to nighttime activity participation by providing reliable and affordable ODT service, and that ODT can be an effective solution to provide transit services for transport-poor in low demand areas or during low demand periods of the day. Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11116-021-10215-2.