heading to the San Francisco International airport via dial-a-ride vans. Why
arent' commercial shuttle vans available to reach other major destinations--like
a college campus, a sports stadium, or a suburban mail? Must the choices always
be limited either to driving or taking a fixed-route, fixed-schedule public bus? Is
it possible to transplant some features of successful paratransit services in the
developing world to American cities? In probing these questions, it quickly
became apparent that as a society, we in the United States have introduced public
policies and organized institutions in ways that form significant barriers to free-
enterprise paratransit. Heavy-handed regulations, public bus monopolies, and
the prevalence of free parking are examples. Yet, growing public concerns over
the sustainability of an auto-dominated urban transportation system, the influx of
immigrants who have experience riding paratransit in Latin America and Asia,
and trends toward in other public sectors have created a window of
opportunity for expanding paratransit options in the United States. The challenge
of growing a commercial paratransit sector in American cities is immense, but
not insurmountable. It is this challenge that gave birth to this book.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part studies the anatomy of the
paratransit industry, primarily in the United States but also abroad, examining its
service features, markets, and overall performance. Case studies from across the
United States and parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia are presented in this
pursuit. Part 2 of the book explores the regulatory and institutional environments
that have shaped America's fledgling paratransit sector in recent decades. How
public policies, from regulations controlling market entry to subsidy support of
public transportation, have affected paratransit's performance are probed. The
final part of the book looks to the future, exploring how advanced communica-
tions technologies and public policy reforms, like market-rate pricing, might
stimulate commercial paratransit services in the twenty-first century. A recom-
mended action agenda concludes the book.

I owe a debt of gratitude to many organizations and individuals who made
this book possible. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided fund-
ing to support many of the U.S. case studies presented in this volume. I particu-
larly thank Will Schroeer from EPA for his belief in this project and for his
critical but helpful advice along the way. The California Department of Trans-
portation and the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC), under
the Transit Research Program, also provided grant support for examining the
potential of smart paratransit. I particularly thank Melvin Webber, Director of
UCTC, for his encouragement to write this book, and his enlightened thinking
about the potential transferability of paratransit lessons from abroad to the United
State. A grant from the Pacific Rim Exchange Program of the University of
California helped support my field work on paratransit in Indonesia and other
parts of Asia. The Reason Foundation of Southern California, under the direc-
tion of Robert Poole, provided a small grant for studying the paratransit
regulatory environment of greater Los Angeles.

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