01139038

Component

Insufficient funds can destabilize essential mobility programs. They can also lead to resourceful alternatives. The creativity and determination of a diverse group of partners helped to fill the rural mobility gap that resulted when the Thurston region’s public transit agency had to reduce its service area. Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) re-convened a consortium of non-traditional transportation partners in 2002 to identify and address gaps in rural service created when Intercity Transit’s service boundaries were reduced, eliminating much of rural Thurston County. Working with social service providers, transportation agencies, tribal and local governments, and health care providers, TRPC helped develop and support several innovative transportation programs to not only backfill lost services but also grow and improve rural mobility. Rural Transportation for Seniors started as a partnership between TRPC, the Lewis-Thurston-Mason Area Agency on Aging, Senior Services for South Sound, the City of Tenino, and Intercity Transit to provide vehicles and volunteer drivers to serve seniors on priority trips. Rural & Tribal Transportation Program focuses on low-income riders and work-related transportation needs from the reservations and outlying areas of the community to urban employment centers in Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, Centralia, and Chehalis. Tribal Transportation Programs serve residents of the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation with on-demand and variable fixed-route transportation service to jobs and educational opportunities. Youth After-School Programs pay for transporting youth to after-school programs with the Boys and Girls Club, county parks and recreation, and Kid’s Place using Laidlaw School Transportation Services. Coordination of program times has enabled the various groups to share trips and reduce costs for everyone. While each of these services began as individual efforts, a further coordination effort was implemented in 2005 to combine the various programs into a single rural and tribal transportation program. A single contracted provider, centralized dispatch and other efficiency measures increased productivity, lowered costs, and increased service for all the programs. This presentation examines these programs in terms of the constraints and opportunities they presented to TRPC and its partners. It will highlight outcomes and measures of success, lessons learned between program concept and implementation, and considerations for successful program development in any community. It will also describe how these programs and the partnerships that created them provided the foundation for TRPC’s Regional Coordinated Public Transit and Human Services Transportation Plan.

01138544

English

11p

2008

11th National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities

CD-ROM

Maps (1) ; References (4)

Coordination; Indian reservations; Mobility; Public transit; Regional government; Rural areas; Transportation planning; Tribal government

Thurston Regional Planning Council (Washington)

Thurston County (Washington)

Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB

Aug 24 2009 1:38PM