Ride in Kane Paratransit Service Kane County

Ride in Kane was established in 2008 through the efforts of the Kane County Paratransit Coordinating Counsel (KCPCC) to coordinate many existing dial a rides and local services operating independently throughout the county. KCPCC was created by the Kane County Board to bring all partners together to provide services to Kane County residents: The program is a partnership of: Kane County – Provides sponsor subsidy The Association for Individual Development - grantee of FTA funds Local sponsors- Provides local match for services Pace – Local service provider

The program uses small buses, minivans and taxis to provide access to daily needs, especially medical, work and human services. 24 hours a day days a year Ride in Kane provides curb to curb service to locations throughout Kane County and surrounding areas. The service is for eligible registered riders based upon local sponsor and funding source requirements and are limited to Seniors over age 65 and persons with disabilities.

Our sponsors are large and small communities, townships and social service agencies located throughout the County:

Authorized trip types, locations and total number of trips per client are set by individual sponsors. Clients pay a cash fare of $4.00 per trip for a trip up to 10 miles in length, $1.50 a mile over 10 miles. Right now Ride in Kane has approximately 6,000 registered clients, with about 1,000 of those using the service each month, and currently provides about 9,000 trips per month throughout Kane County. 50% of trips are work related 27% are medical appointments or dialysis 14% are social or senior services 6% are personal care or shopping

Current Federal funding requires a 50% local match. The program totals $4.6million for 2014 with $2.3 each in Federal/local funds. Current trip costs: average total cost Per Trip - $25.50 average Sponsor cost Per Trip - $12.50 average Federal cost Per Trip - $13.00

Since 2008, demand grew to a point where funds are not able to keep up. Some sponsors restricted rides in an effort to control costs, and a program-wide fare increase of $1.00 per trip was effective 1/1/14. Both measures worked to reduce the ridership, but sponsors knew a long term solution was needed.

To develop a plan to manage demand along with shrinking resources, Kane County applied for a RTA Community Planning Grant. The award of grant assistance from the RTA allowed Ride in Kane to contract with a consultant to study the program. Over the past year, our consultants have led the sponsors on a study of the existing conditions and provided us with implementation strategies and a sponsor toolkit.

The study developed strategies for performance measures and standards to use to compare operations between time periods and to other operators in the region. Performance measures include cost per trip, trips per hour, on time, no-show and late cancellations, complaints and trip length. Standard setting - Information sharing and communication to partners and clients. Improvements to reporting procedures, data collection and reporting mechanisms will help all sponsors to gauge their performance to plan for the future. The Sponsor Toolkit was developed to allow sponsors to choose among an agreed upon set of tools to manage their program. Topics include trip pooling, trip scheduling, trip restrictions, website management, and no-show policy enforcement. The study report and supporting documents were approved on September 1, 2015 by the Sponsor Committee.

Ride in Kane has a website which is a resource for riders and sponsors. New information is posted to keep the public up to date on the program.

The Ride in Kane program will be a partner in the RTA study to determine long term financial sustainability for paratransit operations in the Chicago Metro Region. We hope to develop a plan to keep these services running for years to come. Contact information: Jennifer Becker Mobility Manager Kane County Division of Transportation (630) Thanks!!!