The New Orleans Regional Planning Commission (NORPC) in collaboration with the Regional Transportation Authority (NORTA) and Jefferson Transit (JP Transit), has retained Texas A&M Transportation Institute to perform a detailed assessment of NORTA’s Lift service and JP Transit’s MITS service, these two agencies’ ADA paratransit services. The primary goal of this nine-month study is to develop recommendations for improving the delivery of paratransit within the context of the New Links network redesign. New Links has been the RPC’s planning project to re-imagine how public transit connects Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes.
New Orleans Paratransit Study
Project Advisory Committee and PAC Meetings
A Project Advisory Committee (PAC) has been developed to guide the study team. The role of the PAC will be to review the study team’s findings and assist in the prioritization of improvements to the paratransit services. The PAC is made up of representatives from NORPC, NORTA and JP Transit as well as various community stakeholders who provide services to individuals who use paratransit services. The PAC will have at least four meetings to review the progress of the paratransit study.
Upcoming PAC meetings are scheduled for:
- July 13, 2022, at NORPC
- September 2022 (date and location TBD)
- November 2022 (date and location TBD)
Stakeholder Interview, Rider Focus Groups, and Open Houses
The study team will also conduct several stakeholder interviews and four rider focus groups. The primary objective of these interviews and meetings will be to gather stakeholder/rider input on the strengths and shortcoming of each service. The plan for the rider focus groups is to conduct two each in the Lift and MITS service areas. Later in the project, the study team will also conduct two open houses where the study team will present its recommendations. Input from the Open Houses will be used to further shape the recommendations.
Stakeholder Interviews will commence in July and continue through August), to be scheduled.
The rider focus groups will take place in August, the exact locations and dates/times to be determined.
The open houses will take place in November, the locations and day and times to be determined.
Upcoming Activities
Agency Visits: June 13-15, 2022
Paratransit Study Project Schedule (revised as of May 11)
March 2022 | April 2022 | May 2022 | June 2022 | July 2022 | August 2022 | September 2022 | October 2022 | November 2022 | December 2022 | ||
Task 1 | Project Management | KO | M | M | M | M | |||||
Task 2 | Data Collection | ||||||||||
Task 3 | Outreach | ||||||||||
Task 4 | Service Profile | TM | |||||||||
Task 5 | Existing Coalitions | TM | |||||||||
Task 6 | Develop / Evaluate Strategies | TM | |||||||||
Task 7 | Recommendations | SR | |||||||||
Task 8 | Final Deliverable | DFR / FR |
M = PAC Meetings
TM = Tech Memo
SR = Summary Report
DFR = Draft Final Report
FR = Final Report
We Want To Hear From You
For additional information, contact Adam Tatar at [email protected] or 504-483-8510