Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration: Bay Area Rapid Transit Integrated Carpool to Transit Access Program Evaluation Report

Abstract

The Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration Program provides a venue through which integrated MOD concepts and solutions, supported through local partnerships, are demonstrated in real-world settings. For each of the 11 MOD Sandbox Demonstration projects, a MOD Sandbox Independent Evaluation was conducted that includes an analysis of project impacts from performance measures provided by the project partners and an assessment of the business models used. This document presents the Evaluation Report for the BART Integrated Carpool to Transit Access Program project. The project tested a number of hypotheses that explored the project impacts on carpooling, costs, enforcement, ridership, parking, and vehicle miles of travel (VMT). The evaluation generally found that the project increased overall carpooling to BART, commensurately increased the utilization of parking spaces by carpooling vehicles, and increased the number of people per vehicle parking at BART stations. The evaluation determined that the overall cost of enforcement per carpool space declined, primarily because spaces used for carpools increased without significantly increased enforcement burden. The evaluation did not have data available to determine whether illegal use of carpool spaces had changed significantly as a result of the project. On the related matter of enforcement, the evaluation did not have data to quantify changes in fraudulent use of carpool spaces and, instead, relied on discussions with enforcement staff, which suggested that fraudulent use had dropped as a result of the project. The evaluation did find that the project produced a wider distribution of arrival times to carpool spaces, which was an objective of BART, to permit greater flexibility of travel times in the morning for carpooling riders. The evaluation found that the project likely increased BART ridership, although not by margins large enough to be statistically noticeable within normal fluctuations of station ridership. Data were not available to determine whether this increase in ridership raised revenue that exceeded the costs of the project. However, users reported reduced personal transportation costs a result of the project. The project found that overall VMT very likely declined as result of the project due to the reduced driving alone to stations. Finally, expert interviews with project personnel produced lessons learned on implementation and policy that may inform similar projects in the future.