Abstract:
Travel training provides a promising approach for moving persons from paratransit
to fixed-route transportation services. This study identifies current funding trends and
discusses the volume and diversity of services within the travel training instruction
field. Measuring the emergence of this field focused on four properties of systems:
intention, boundary, resources, and exchange. We used these properties to facilitate
sharing of information and learning among the participating organizations. Initial
findings indicated that older, established programs tended to be larger and moved
more persons to fixed routes, while programs that employed their own staff rather
than contracting out staff produced more outputs per staff person. We conclude that
the diversity of the field’s innovators have strengthened the problem-solving capacity.
Based on the findings, a preliminary research and evaluation agenda is proposed.
