37.133 Subscription Service.
(a) This part does not prohibit the use of subscription service by public
entities as part of a complementary paratransit system, subject to the limitations
in this section.
(b) Subscription service may not absorb more than fifty percent of the number
of trips available at a given time of day, unless there is excess non-subscription
capacity.
As part of its paratransit service, an entity may include a subscription
service component. However, at any given time of day, this component
may not absorb more than 50 percent of available capacity on the total system.
For example, if, at 8 a.m., the system can provide 400 trips, no more than
200 of these can be subscription trips. The one exception to this rule would
occur in a situation in which there is excess non-subscription capacity available.
For example, if over a long enough period of time to establish a pattern,
there were only 150 non-subscription trips requested at 8 a.m., the provider
could begin to provide 250 subscription trips at that time. Subsequently,
if non-subscription demand increased over a period of time, such that the
50 trips were needed to satisfy a regular non-subscription demand at that
time, and overall system capacity had not increased, the 50 trips would have
to be returned to the non-subscription category. During times of high
subscription demand, entities could use the trip time negotiation discretion
of §37.131(c)(2) to shift some trips to other times.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Part, the entity may
establish waiting lists or other capacity constraints and trip purpose restrictions
or priorities for participation in the subscription service only.
Because subscription service is a limited subcomponent of paratransit
service, the rule permits restrictions to be imposed on its use that could
not be imposed elsewhere. There may be a waiting list for provision
of subscription service or the use of other capacity constraints. Also,
there may be restrictions or priorities based on trip purpose. For
example, subscription service during peak work trip times could be limited
to work trips. We emphasize that these limitations apply only to subscription
service. It is acceptable for a provider to put a person on a waiting
list for access to subscription service at 8 a.m. for work trips; the same
person could not be wait-listed for access to paratransit service in general.