County Working To Revive On-Demand Paratransit Taxis

A rider boards a paratransit van on N. 10th Street. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

County officials are working to bring back same-day, on-demand transportation services for residents with disabilities, but this time for everyone.

In September, the county ended the program, often referred to as the paratransit taxi service. The program differed from the larger paratransit service, Transit Plus, which uses vans and requires riders to schedule rides at least a day in advance.

In 2022, transportation officials announced that funding constraints and new federal regulations would force the county to end its paratransit taxi program. The taxi program used a private contractor, American United Taxi, which did not use wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and it did not randomly drug test its drivers, both of which have become federal regulations since the last time the county contracted for the service.

Given the county’s fiscal challenges, it did not have the funding to bring the program in line with these rules from the Federal Transportation Administration.

Without wheelchair-accessible vehicles, the service was never available to all of the county’s disabled residents. The Paratransit Taxi Task Force, which first met in spring, has begun working on a potential replacement for the former taxi service. This time around, officials are prioritizing a service that can be used by all county residents with disabilities, not just those who are ambulatory.

“If it’s not open to everyone, then it’s not a service that we at Milwaukee County can push forward,” said Donna Brown-Martin, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation, at a meeting of the task force Thursday.

In the 2024 county budget, the Milwaukee County Board earmarked approximately $1.5 million for a new same-day, on-demand paratransit service after hearing from constituents that they used to rely on the taxis for emergency trips or others that could not be scheduled ahead of time. The county’s regular paratransit van service requires riders to schedule well in advance, and has been criticized for regularly being late.

“[County Executive David Crowley] is determined that this task force continues until we come up with solutions that we can return back to the full committee and the board and his administration,” Brown-Martin said. “So he wants us to do it right.”

The task force reviewed new research by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) that looked at peer transit systems around the county and developed a range of high-level concepts for a future on-demand paratransit program.

This included models that provide vouchers for taxis and rideshare, on-demand services operated by transit systems and nonprofit on-demand paratransit services.

The voucher models, which provide riders with a voucher that can be used for same-day rides from an array of companies, typically allows for an exemption to the FTA’s mandatory drug testing, said Jennifer Sarnecki, a SEWRPC transportation planner. But that will be difficult for the county, “Because we don’t have enough taxi service here,” said Brown-Martin.

The next step for the task force will be to evaluate what kind of model can be developed in Milwaukee, given funding restraints, existing service providers and the regulatory environment.

Former Taxi Provider Back In Play?

The former taxi services provider, American United Taxicab Services, was recently acquired by WHC Worldwide, which does business in North America as zTrip.

Paul Sanfellipo, general manager for American United, told the task force, “the resources that they’re going to bring and funding that they’re putting behind our company is really exciting for the region.”

Specifically, Sanfellipo said the company plans to operate a wheelchair-based, on-demand service.