MCIL Releases a Customer Survey of MATAplus

The Memphis Center for Independent Living has completed a customer survey of the Memphis paratransit service, MATAplus that shows discrepancy in on-time performance. The survey followed the public transportation service for people with disabilities for three weeks and detailed reservations, pickup times and overall performance.

MATAplus is a shared-ride paratransit service designed to supplement regular transit services for persons with disabilities who are unable to use mainline bus service because of a disability. MATAplus is required by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act to provide similar service to people with disabilities that have barriers to using the fixed-route or mainline bus system.

The advantage of the customer survey is that it accurately projects the user perspectives. MCIL choose to produce a customer survey because the information from the Memphis Area Transit Authority did not match the experience of the paratransit system riders. Likewise, the riders reported widely different experiences.

The survey notes that MATA does not provide complete information on the transit company's website and does not provide necessary information in an accessible format to customers. Blind MATAplus riders have only outdated information on paper and paratransit applications are not provided in an accessible format.

The survey also finds that riders do not make complaints and do not believe that MATA is responsive when they do complain. The survey appears to show that satisfaction with MATAplus service is not rigidly correlated with on-time performance. The survey found that when riders identified that the bus was not on-time, they still often reported overall satisfaction with MATAplus service. Similarly, not being able to make the first reservation that a patron requested did not tend to cause riders to be dissatisfied with the paratransit service. 

Read the Survey at: https://t.co/Vs25V66YqX