SR 11-28-2017 3C
City Council Report
City Council Meeting: November 28, 2017
Agenda Item: 3.C
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Edward King, Director, Big Blue Bus, Transit Planning & Performance
Subject: Award Contract for Dial-A-Ride Services
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Award RFP #106 to Lyft, a California-based transportation network company, for
Dial-A-Ride and optional related services;
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with Lyft, in
an amount not to exceed $600,000 for one year, with three additional one-year
renewal options in the amount of $600,000, on the same terms and conditions for
a total amount not to exceed $2,400,000 over a four-year period, with future year
funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Executive Summary
Santa Monica has long provided contracted Dial-A-Ride transit service for its senior and
disabled residents. Staff recommends the award of RFP #106 to Lyft, to provide
services for a rebranded Dial-A-Ride service and improve curb-to-curb transportation for
seniors and people with disabilities, as well as offer optional mobility services within the
City. During FY2016-17, Dial-A-Ride provided nearly 23,000 rides, averaging slightly
less than 100 rides each weekday over a 10-hour span. On average 2.3 passengers
were transported for each vehicle revenue hour of service provided. The award of the
RFP would enable the City to transport passengers anywhere within the City, including
limited service to select locations outside the City on designated days, mirroring the
currently available Dial-A-Ride (DAR) service.
Ambulatory certified DAR passengers will be transported in Lyft vehicles. To ensure
compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other relevant laws, non-
ambulatory, door through door, and cash-paying passengers will be transported in a
City-owned vehicle driven by a BBB Motor Coach Operator (MCO). In order to
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accommodate those DAR customers who do not use or prefer not to use a smartphone
or application, a call center will be established at BBB to receive calls to schedule and
dispatch trips.
The award of this RFP uses current technology to address multiple deficiencies in the
current service. Those deficiencies include lack of sufficient carrying capacity at peak
times, requirement for advance scheduling, limited payment options, and inefficient use
of resources that require a phone call for every reservation. It also enables the City to
exercise an option to create additional demand response service open to the public.
Lastly, it provides an option to utilize this service for transportation of MCOs to and from
buses in the field when Metro Expo service is not in operation.
This RFP and proposal were shared with both the Disabilities Commission and Senior
Commission via presentations at their regularly scheduled meetings. Feedback was
generally favorable, with Commissioners commenting on the need to solve long term
problems with the service.
The annual expenditure for this service is not to exceed $600,000 with three one-year
renewal options on the same terms and conditions. The total expenditure for the four-
year term is not to exceed $2,400,000.
Background
Big Blue Bus, working with the City’s Community and Cultural Services division,
provides overall management of Dial-A-Ride including quality control, auditing, and
contractor oversight. The City owns six wheelchair accessible vehicles that are leased
to the existing contractor MV Transit, providing the current service. The existing Dial-A-
Ride business model is a turnkey solution in which the contractor is responsible for the
operation of vehicles, all trip reservations, dispatching of vehicles, and providing vehicle
maintenance. The City has contracted for this service since 1983. Council most
recently approved a previous RFP award for Dial-A-Ride service on April 8, 2014, and
approvals previous to that are documented in staff reports heard at Council meetings on
February 22, 2011; March 25, 2008; April 24, 2007; and April 27, 2004.
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Santa Monica Dial-A-Ride is a curb-to-curb paratransit service offered to any Santa
Monica resident who is at least 60 years old or who has a disability and is at least 18
years old. Clients must be certified through WISE & Healthy Aging to use the service.
There are currently 3,200 clients with certification. Clients make phone reservations to
MV Transit for trips to and from any location within Santa Monica, for any purpose,
seven days a week. All reservations are made by telephone, and most are made one to
two days in advance of the trip. Vehicles are dispatched with a vehicle manifest (list of
trips to execute). Advance reservations are encouraged and may be made any time
from one to six days prior to the date of travel. Same day service can be provided if
space is available but few trips are accommodated same day due to system capacity
constraints. Clients requiring additional assistance can schedule a “door-through-door”
trip in which a WISE & Healthy Aging attendant assists clients with movement between
buildings and the vehicle.
On designated days and times, trips serve eight medical and shopping destinations
outside of Santa Monica. Evening service to any location within the City is provided on
City Council meeting dates and monthly shopping excursions are also offered. Trips
operate Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.,
and Sunday 8:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
There are no modifications proposed to the current DAR rules governing customer
fares, PCA fares, or policies that regulate the service. The fare is $0.50 per one-way
trip. Personal care attendants may accompany clients for a $0.25 fare. Payment can be
made in advance by personal check; otherwise, cash fares must be paid when boarding
the vehicle. Trips cancelled with less than two hours’ notice can be subject to a “no-
show” fee of $5.00. In addition to passenger fares, the program is funded by Proposition
A Local Return Transportation funds. The door-through-door program is funded by a
Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) 5317 New Freedom federal grant.
WISE & Healthy Aging, a nonprofit organization working to promote and improve the
well-being of seniors, promotes the service, processes client registration forms, and
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conducts monthly orientation programs for new Dial-A-Ride clients. WISE & Healthy
Aging also provides attendants to assist clients with movement between buildings and
the vehicle on the designated door through door trips. Attendants will carry shopping
bags and accompany customers through medical centers to reach their appointments.
Discussion
The intent of the current Dial-A-Ride service model is that clients are grouped in
vehicles to gain efficiencies. However, with diverse origins and destinations, and a
limited pool of riders, it is difficult to serve more than one client at a time while
maintaining reasonable travel times and avoiding large out of direction movements.
During FY2016-17, Dial-A-Ride provided nearly 23,000 rides, averaging slightly less
than 100 rides each weekday over a 10-hour span. On average 2.3 passengers were
transported for each vehicle revenue hour of service provided. The average vehicle
occupancy on any single trip was 1.1 passengers, and the average trip cost per
passenger was $20.26. The total annual cost for this service was approximately
$450,000. Approximately 90 percent of rides given were to ambulatory passengers who
did not require a wheelchair ramp or lift in order to ride the service. This performance
was consistent with that of prior years.
Dial-A-Ride encounters defined periods of oversubscription, between 9:00 a.m. and
12 p.m. on weekdays, when demand overwhelms the supply of rides. This situation is
common knowledge among riders, and riders report being turned away for trips at those
times on a routine basis. When oversubscribed, the clients who do get a reservation
face longer wait times for vehicles, more out of direction travel, and decreased
reliability. Conversely, periods of undersubscription occur in the midday and late
afternoon. When undersubscribed, the vehicles are accruing the same operating costs
while providing few rides to clients, causing inefficiencies.
Changes in the Transportation Marketplace
Innovations in the provision of transportation services in the open market caused City
staff to consider fundamental changes in the service design. The development of
smartphone apps and computerized reservations has created an opportunity for
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reduced call center costs. Automated algorithm-driven dispatching has eliminated the
need for advanced reservations and allowed for real time service delivery. The flexible
fleets of transportation network companies, or TNCs (the official reference to companies
such as Lyft or Uber) have increased efficiencies as fleets can be quickly increased and
decreased to meet wavering demand.
Nationally, demand response systems like Dial-A-Ride have been finding efficiencies by
working with TNCs whose resources are in high demand in the morning and evening
rush hours and less in demand during the middle of the day when seniors are most
interested in transportation.
City staff research found that there were a number of organizations that offer customer-
centric, operationally efficient technology advancements to operate demand response
services like Dial-A-Ride, reliably and at lower costs than the current contract. A
change to a more flexible model was envisioned to provide a more customer-centric
option for clients and provide cost savings to the City, which in turn would be reinvested
to provide more service during periods of over subscription. Lastly, due to the
widespread abandonment of dial phones, the name Dial-A-Ride was judged to no
longer capture the spirt of the intended service, and so a decision was made to rebrand
the service as part of this RFP process.
Developing the Request for Proposal
Staff worked with stakeholders at Community and Cultural Services and WISE &
Healthy Aging to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) that capitalized on those
external capabilities. Input from those agencies was focused on ensuring that the
requested service would maintain key elements of the Dial-A-Ride program, with an
added intention of correcting existing problems and inefficiencies.
Staff analyzed the current trip patterns of Dial-A-Ride customers including wheelchair
activity, vehicle occupancy, and utilization rates for service to destinations outside of
Santa Monica in an effort to better understand the needs of Dial-A-Ride riders. Staff
also reviewed best practices at other transit authorities, including the Pinellas Suncoast
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Transit pilot, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority’s efforts to integrate TNCss
into senior disabled transportation, the experience at Tampa’s HART system, Chicago’s
RTA, and the successful rollout of senior/disabled demand response services using
TNC vehicles at Boston MBTA.
Given that most transportation network companies do not adequately meet the needs of
non-ambulatory riders, the RFP sought proposals that test and refine operating and
business models that could seamlessly integrate City-owned dedicated vehicles for non-
ambulatory and cash clients with transportation network vehicles that could provide the
bulk of ambulatory trips.
The request for proposal sought to enhance the service by:
Removing the necessity for advance reservation;
Providing a new service option that achieved a comparable or better level of
service while being less expensive to operate;
Offering substantially more capacity for the same costs through increased
efficiency;
Offering new amenities including a phone app for on-demand trip requests,
vehicle tracking, and alternative payment options;
Improving quality of life for customers with broader and more convenient access
to jobs, medical appointments, social endeavors, and education by removing
vehicle availability constraints throughout the day, especially at times of peak
demand, and by minimizing out of direction travel.
The RFP sought a proposal that featured the following programmatic differences from
the existing service:
Accept credit or debit card through a mobile phone app-based reservation
process, in addition to accepting cash and checks.
Accept trips to the eight currently allowed destinations outside of Santa Monica at
any time during service hours rather than only at designated days and times
during the week.
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Eliminate the need for advance reservations.
Retire or repurpose four of the six City-owned vehicles that provide service and
provide the bulk of trips with non-city-owned vehicles contained in a flexible,
multi-purpose fleet.
Provide a call center for riders who preferred that method of communication.
Provide scheduling and dispatching service for up to two City-owned vehicles
driven by City staff to provide wheelchair, door through door, and cash fare trips.
The RFP did not intend to alter the client intake process, currently conducted by WISE
& Healthy Aging, nor does it suggest changes to fares, hours of service, or days of
week of service.
Rebranding
The rebranding exercise chose the name MODE for the rebranded Dial-A-Ride service,
which is an acronym for “Mobility On Demand Everyday.” The decision to change the
Dial-A-Ride name is directly related to technology shifts in the area of mobility.
Partnering with Lyft will enable customers to use their smartphones to request service
and dialing a phone number will no longer be a prerequisite for participation. (However,
the ability to dial in for service will still be available for customers who do not possess a
smartphone.) With that change in mind, Big Blue Bus sought to rename the program to
reflect the new service model.
MODE was a result of internal brainstorming sessions amongst the Community and
Government Engagement staff seeking to meld the industry term, Mobility on Demand,
with an easy-to-remember acronym that clearly conveyed the idea of mobility and
movement. Since the service is offered seven days a week, staff highlighted this
important feature, hence the name Mobility on Demand Everyday. Staff also considered
a second option (Freedom and Mobility Lifts You or FAMLY) and presented both options
to the Disabilities Commission during their November 6th meeting. When polled, eight of
the ten commissioners preferred MODE. Additionally, Big Blue Bus staff presented both
options to the Commission for the Senior Community during their November 15th
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meeting. When polled, five of the seven Commissioners preferred MODE. Based on
direct stakeholder feedback, Big Blue Bus will rebrand the program MODE.
Big Blue Bus staff is currently developing a marketing and outreach plan to reintroduce
the new service to existing customers and develop marketing materials to educate
potential new customers. Big Blue Bus staff will develop the plan in partnership with
Community and Cultural Affairs and Human Services divisions as well as WISE and
Healthy Aging. The elements of the plan will include a soft launch in February 2018
where all 3,500 existing clients will be contacted via mail and given options for re-
enrollment during the transition. There will be three rounds of notification letters to
enrollees from early February through early March. Additionally, in-person workshops
will be held at both the Ken Edwards Center and the Disability Community Resource
Center to train customers on how to register and use the Lyft app. Staff will develop
additional outreach materials, including a program brochure, a new program webpage,
newsletters and posters, amongst other tactics to generate awareness and adoption of
new service model.
RFP Optional Services
Given the likelihood that the successful bidder would have capabilities that could be
useful regarding other needs, the RFP also sought the possibility of exercising two
options.
Option 1 – Open to the Public Demand Response Service
The first option is the ability to provide demand response service that is open to the
public rather than to only a certified clientele.
The first iteration of this optional service is intended to replace the taxi-provided Blue at
Night (B@N) service. BBB currently operates this service that provides “first mile/last
mile” on-demand service between the 17th Street/SMC Metro Rail Station and any point
within the City of Santa Monica on Friday and Saturday evenings when the BBB fixed-
route system runs less frequently or is shut down for the night. Current B@N hours are
8:00 p.m. until the last train of the night at approximately 2:20 a.m. Service is provided
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by a consortium of taxi companies and is offered to the public with on-demand ride
requests made through a dedicated phone line. The current service model has had low
utilization and poor customer interaction. Customers currently pay fares to the driver
with cash or credit card. The average cost per ride has been $6.55 with $3.55 of each
fare being paid by BBB for the taxi-provided service.
Under this proposal, Lyft service would replace the taxi-provided Blue at Night service.
Additionally, in order to increase the attractiveness of this service, Big Blue Bus
recommends expanding the usability of Blue at Night by providing service to all three
Santa Monica Expo Light Rail Stations. Due to the poor customer experience reported
on the taxi-provided service, staff has issued a purchase order in the amount of $5,000
to Lyft to provide stopgap service for Blue at Night until the Council decision is final and
the contract executed. This purchase order is effective from November 17, 2017 to
March 17, 2018. The average cost per ride and cost to BBB will be consistent with the
pricing of the taxi-provided service.
Average utilization of the existing taxi based service for Blue at Night has been less
than four rides per weekend. The service was created in response to public comment
prior to Expo opening requesting a connection for Santa Monica residents who want to
use Expo to attend weekend events in downtown Los Angeles. It is unclear whether the
low ridership is due to the challenges that the taxi model created, or if the demand for
this service never materialized. The new Lyft based service is being launched to test
whether an easy to use service generates more interest. Given the low and quite
possibly fluctuating demand, a “non-dedicated” fleet of vehicles is seen as more efficient
than a dedicated BBB vehicle for this service.
Big Blue Bus will explore other ways to utilize this contract option for open to the public
demand response service including expansion of the span of Blue at Night service
hours or days of week. Big Blue Bus is also exploring other open to the public zones, or
the possibility of utilizing senior/disabled vehicles for open to the public services during
periods of low demand.
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Option 2 – Motor Coach Operator Transportation
The second option in the RFP is for Motor Coach Operator (MCO) transportation. BBB
currently retains six City-owned sedans for use by MCOs for transportation. These
vehicles may at some point in the future be retired, and replaced by Lyft rides under this
contract if cost benefit analysis shows it to be more efficient.
BBB schedules MCOs to relieve other MCOs at the end of their shift or for lunch breaks
within the line. The majority of our reliefs are scheduled to occur within walking
distance of the yard or close to an Expo or bus connection, allowing the MCOs to take
the train or bus. During the weekends when there is limited Expo and bus service or if a
MCO is required for city business within their work run, a car is used by the operator to
meet and relieve the MCO in service. The MCOs also require cars during the driver
work bid process three times a year and in emergencies. The six City-owned sedans
retained for use by MCOs for relief service are approaching retirement and are idle
much of the time. As a result, staff requested a bid option for MCO reliefs. This option
will not be exercised at this time. Staff is planning to conduct a full cost benefit analysis
within the next year to compare our current business model of using city-owned vehicles
for relief service to using Lyft.
Vendor Selection
In accordance with City of Santa Monica code section 2.24.072, on February 8, 2017,
the City published Notices Inviting proposals to provide Dial-A-Ride services to provide
curb-to-curb transportation for seniors and people with disabilities who live in the City,
as well as an option for open to the public demand response service, and another
option for motor coach operator transportation.
The RFP was posted on the City's online bidding site, and notices were advertised in
the Santa Monica Daily Press in accordance with City Charter and Municipal Code
2.24.100(a). 143 vendors were notified, of which 50 vendors downloaded the RFP. Six
Proposals were received and publicly opened on June 5, 2017.
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Proposals were evaluated based on the criteria in SMMC 2.24.073. Specific categories
included the following:
Vendor’s ability to successfully perform the services requested
Vendor’s operational and technical experience
Quality control of both a technical and operational nature
Price and the ability to control costs
Stability and references
Value added, including the ability to provide insight and information regarding
industry best practices
The willingness of vendors to employ employees of the prior vendor
Presentations and demonstrations of their products.
Staff created a selection committee of eight members. The committee included staff
from Community and Cultural Services (Administration and Human Services Division)
and Big Blue Bus (multiple divisions). The committee elected to invite five of the six
vendors to give presentations to the rating committee, and all vendors accepted the
invitation. Subsequent to the final presentation, raters met, completed evaluations on all
vendors, and selected Lyft as the winning vendor. In discussion, raters noted that Lyft
provided an inexpensive and sophisticated technological solution. Through the addition
of a call center experienced with senior and disabled populations, Lyft would supply the
extra level of care needed for Santa Monica’s most vulnerable residents. Additionally,
Lyft was able to supply software to manage reservation and dispatch services for the
City-owned vehicles that will provide wheelchair accessible trips.
While other vendors were able to provide similar services, none offered the combination
of low cost, experience, and high functionality that Lyft offered. The rating committee
discussed the opportunity to provide more service that a lowered cost per trip provides,
and saw this as a key attribute of the Lyft proposal. Lyft offers an innovative approach to
providing Dial-A-Ride services for Big Blue Bus, mirroring what they are already
providing in Boston, Massachusetts, and is able to meet all of the City requirements in
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addition to being the best bidder. Based on these criteria, Lyft is recommended for this
contract award.
Staff’s recommendation for the Lyft award and new program design was presented to
the Disabilities Commission on November 6th. Feedback from the Commission was
generally favorable and supportive of the new model. The recommendation for award
and new program design was also presented to the Commission for the Senior
Community on November 15th. Commissioners unanimously passed a motion to
endorse the program concept and the award to Lyft.
The Lyft Solution
The Lyft proposed solution satisfies all critical elements of the RFP. Additionally, due to
the large size of Lyft and its experience in this area, the proposal offers flexibility and
capacity to refine the service that was not present in other proposals.
The Lyft proposal provides the following desired system attributes:
A flexible fleet allowing for more than the currently provided six vehicles during
peak demand for service, and fewer vehicles during periods of low demand.
App-based ride booking and online booking in addition to the currently available
ability to reserve rides by phone.
The ability to call rides on demand to avoid the necessity of advance reservation
for most customers.
Elimination of the current, time-consuming practice of providing paper daily
passenger manifests.
Experience in demand response services for elderly and disabled populations.
A Critical Response team that responds to trust and safety urgent customer
contacts within one hour, and answers 90% of calls to the Critical Response
telephone line within 40 seconds.
The ability to ban drivers from performing service for the City of Santa Monica
when rides are booked through the call center, and the automatic prevention of a
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passenger and driver being paired again after either rated a previous trip
together a three out of five or lower.
Annual vehicle inspections and criminal background checks on all drivers.
The ability to restrict subsidized trips to certain zones, places, times of day and
days per week.
The ability to provide electronic dispatching capability and real time navigation to
a Big Blue Bus operator driving a City-owned vehicle for the purposes of
providing non-ambulatory rides, door through door rides, or cash rides.
The ability to provide the optional open to the public demand response service.
The ability to provide the optional motor coach operator transportation service.
A substantive and detailed launch plan that includes passenger outreach, as well
as an early transition to certain customers who utilize the current DAR service
regularly.
Under this proposal, ambulatory passengers will be transported in Lyft vehicles. Non-
ambulatory and door through door passengers will be transported in a City-owned
vehicle driven by a BBB Motor Coach Operator (MCO) employee and dispatched by
BBB staff using software provided by Lyft. A BBB call center will receive calls from
those who need non-ambulatory service, door through door service, or who prefer not
use smart phones/applications. Cash will be accepted on the City-owned vehicle for
those without credit cards or TAP cards.
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
The contract to be awarded to Lyft is for an amount not to exceed $2,400,000. Funds in
the amount of $600,000 are available in the Big Blue Bus’ FY 2017-18 Operating
Budget in account number 41603.55501B. Future year funding is contingent on Council
budget approval.
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Prepared By: Timothy McCormick, Transit Planning and Performance Manager
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Lyft Cost Proposal
B. Lyft Oaks Initiative
C. Award Bid #2870 and Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Contract for Dial-
A-Ride Paratransit Service
D. Extension of Dial-A-Ride Paratransit Contract
E. Second Extension of Dial-A-Ride Paratransit Contract
F. Contract for Dial-A-Ride Paratransit Service
G. Extension of Dial-a-Ride Agreement
H. Dial-A-Ride Services
I. Dial-A-Ride Services Agreement
REFERENCE –
CONTRACT NO. 10585
(CCS)