Transportation Planning for Access to Jobs

TRANSPORTATION PLANNING FOR ACCESS TO JOBS

Job Access and the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process in

Hartford, St. Louis, and Detroit

August 28, 1997

Melissa Laube
William Lyons
Philip vanderWilden

Prepared for:
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Transit Administration
Office of Planning
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Environment and Planning

Prepared by:
U.S. Department of Transportation
Research and Special Programs Administration
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Executive Summary

Introduction and Findings

Access to Jobs Planning Case Studies

Hartford, Connecticut

Local Conditions
Planning Process
Transportation Solutions
Conclusion

St. Louis, Missouri

Local Conditions
Planning Process
Transportation Solutions
Conclusion

Detroit, Michigan

Local Conditions
Planning Process
Transportation Solutions
Conclusion

Appendices

Appendix A: List of Local Contacts
Appendix B: Hartford Access to Jobs Proposal:Ridership and Cost Estimates Year 1 Year 2
Appendix C: SMART GIS Analysis of Transit Service
Versus Employment Location

Figures and Tables

Table 1: Key Findings from the Hartford Case Study
Figure 1: Map of the Hartford Metropolitan Area
Table 2: Key Findings from the St. Louis Case Study
Figure 2: Map of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area
Table 3: EWGCC Employment Transportation Initiatives
Table 4: Key Findings from the Detroit Case Study
Figure 3: Map of the Detroit Metropolitan Area

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report presents three case studies of innovative transportation planning efforts in metropolitan areas to improve access to jobs for current welfare recipients and other low income residents. These Access to Jobs case studies of the Hartford, St. Louis, and Detroit metropolitan areas have been undertaken for the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Office of Planning and the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Office of Environment and Planning by the U.S. Department of Transportation's (U.S. DOT) Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center).

Melissa Laube was the lead author and analyst for the Hartford and St. Louis studies, while Philip vanderWilden was the lead author/analyst for the Detroit study. William Lyons is the Volpe Center Project Manager for the Access to Jobs case studies. Overall guidance, including production of this report, was provided by Sean Libberton, FTA Office of Planning. Deborah Burns, FTA Office of Planning, is Program Manager for Volpe Center support. The assistance of local agency staff throughout these case studies is gratefully acknowledged. Valuable insights were also provided by FTA field staff, specifically Mary Beth Mello, FTA Region I, Doug Gerleman, FTA Region V, and Joan Roeseler, FTA Region VII.

Contacts at participating agencies are listed in Appendix A. Drafts of this report were provided to FTA, FHWA, and local agency staff for review and comment. The accuracy of the report is the responsibility of the authors.

Additional copies of these Access to Jobs case studies can be requested from the Volpe Center by fax at (617) 494-3260 or by E-mail at: vanderwild@volpe2.dot.gov. Questions regarding the USDOT/FTA's Access to Jobs initiative can be directed to Sean Libberton at (202) 366-0055 or by E-mail at sean.libberton@dot.gov. FTA's website can be reached at the following internet address: http://www.fta.dot.gov.

Executive Summary

Federal, state, and local welfare reform initiatives may require the planning and development of new and innovative public transportation services to ensure that former welfare recipients have the needed mobility to reach employment opportunities. This report documents job access planning activities undertaken in Hartford, Connecticut, St. Louis, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan. Each of the three case study areas has initiated significant planning efforts focused on developing transportation solutions which meet locally defined goals and objectives for welfare reform.

The experiences of each area offer a number of insights into how the metropolitan transportation planning process might be applied in developing solutions to employment access problems. While each area had particular variations in the organization and approach to planning for access to jobs, several general key findings have emerged. Specifically, the case studies suggest that:

• The metropolitan transportation planning process is an effective means for addressing access to jobs problems.
• Comprehensive planning for access to jobs requires an inclusive, collaborative coalition of diverse agencies and organizations to develop regional solutions.
• Planning for access to jobs goes beyond simply providing transportation to or from work.
• Individual transit agencies are successfully addressing welfare to work issues as part of their broader focus on service improvement and innovations.
• Fixed route bus and rail services, with modest adjustments, are expected to meet a substantial share of employment access needs.
• Technical analysis is critical to understanding the dimensions of employment access needs and addressing those needs effectively.

The report describes these findings in more detail, and summarizes the job access planning activities in each of the three metropolitan areas. Topics addressed include local conditions; the nature and magnitude of the job access problem; types and characteristics of existing and planned services; anticipated impact of proposed solutions; organizational roles and responsibilities; context of the planning effort within the metropolitan transportation planning process; resource constraints; and planning methods.

Introduction and Findings

Recent changes in welfare laws challenge society to offer viable employment opportunities that can replace the family income formerly supplied through public assistance. Meeting this challenge requires prospective employees to have access to available jobs. Over two-thirds of all jobs created in the largest metropolitan areas during the last two decades were in suburbs with poor or non-existent public transit service. From a practical perspective, these jobs are inaccessible for city residents who do not own their own vehicles.

While many metropolitan areas have previously considered "reverse commute" city-to-suburb travel issues, welfare reform instituted through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has intensified concerns about access to suburban jobs. Federal welfare reform replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), under which Federal block grants are distributed to states with eligible family assistance programs. The TANF program imposes a number of eligibility restrictions, including the limitation of most individual recipient benefits to a time period of 24 consecutive months and five years in total.

In recognition of the key role mobility will play in addressing work requirements resulting from Federal and state welfare reform initiatives, several areas are attempting to address jobs access issues facing former welfare recipients. A proposed U.S. DOT/FTA Access to Jobs program would provide a $600 million source of discretionary funding over 6 years to which states, localities, transit agencies, and social service agencies could apply for planning, capital and operational support of services that help welfare recipients reach employment opportunities. This report presents a series of case studies of planning efforts being undertaken in the Hartford, St. Louis, and Detroit metropolitan areas to improve access to jobs. The studies were conducted in May and June, 1997. These Access to Jobs case studies are intended to provide information that can be applied in other metropolitan areas seeking to develop effective solutions to the job access problem. Topics considered include local conditions; the nature and magnitude of the job access problem; types and characteristics of existing and planned services; anticipated impact of proposed solutions; organizational roles and responsibilities; context of the planning effort within the metropolitan transportation planning process; resource constraints; and planning methods.

Each of the three case study sites provides some distinct approaches to addressing transportation planning for access to jobs. Hartford demonstrates the importance of multi-agency cooperation as a means of identifying employment transportation problems, sharing data and other information to address these problems, and developing a package of appropriate strategies to support job access needs. St. Louis similarly relies on the participation of a broad range of social service agencies to develop creative transportation and employment solutions, and has been effective in accessing funding from a variety of sources outside of traditional state, local, and Federal transportation resources. Among other things, the experience in Detroit suggests that improving long term mobility for those most impacted by welfare reform can best be achieved through a broader focus on transit service innovation.

In all three areas the metropolitan transportation planning process plays a key role in facilitating a collaborative environment for the planning and development of job access strategies. City-to-suburb transportation problems require a regional approach to problem solving, and the involvement of the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) can be critical in forging a regional strategy to job access in support of welfare reform. Additionally, the inclusion of social service, human resource, and economic development agencies, along with the private sector, is consistent with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) emphasis on an inclusive planning process which ensures that transportation plans and projects are consistent with broader economic and social goals.

This report documents the access to job activities in each of the three areas, and discusses the contributions of the MPO, public transportation operators and other agencies and institutions in the planning and development of employment transportation strategies. The experiences of each area offer a number of insights into how the metropolitan transportation planning process might be applied in developing solutions to employment access problems. Based on these three experiences, several general key findings have emerged. Specific findings pertaining to each study area are provided in case studies contained in this report.

Finding 1: The metropolitan transportation planning process is an effective means for addressing access to jobs problems.

The case study areas are making initial efforts to use the cooperative technical planning process, as envisioned by ISTEA, to meet access to jobs requirements. These efforts are similar to those in areas around the country to apply the process in developing solutions to air pollution, traffic, and other regional transportation problems. This broad regional approach to access to jobs is in contrast to the traditional fragmented approach where there is little coordination between the social service agencies that perform job placement and the public transit operators and metropolitan planning organizations that operate and plan public transit.

The three areas share a regional approach to planning for access to jobs. The Hartford area approached the problem by forming a broad-based coalition that reached a consensus on priorities for operational improvements, a realistic budget, and a shared strategy for pursuing revenues. In Detroit, the Metropolitan Affairs Council (MAC), a regional coalition of business, labor and government, has been at the forefront of coordinating institutional efforts to develop a broad regional approach to transportation to jobs for low income residents. The St. Louis twenty year regional transportation plan, required by ISTEA, identified goals and objectives that are the foundation of the access to jobs effort, and launched the eight-year planning effort to link transportation and labor force development. As welfare reform increases demands for access to jobs, areas might consider how these efforts might be further integrated within the metropolitan transportation planning process.

Finding 2: Comprehensive planning for Access to Jobs requires an inclusive, collaborative coalition of diverse agencies and organizations to develop regional solutions.

The participation of diverse agencies and organizations provides a full range of experience, data, and resources to address planning for access to jobs. Public and private transportation providers, transportation planning agencies, private businesses, and numerous social service agencies that work directly with the affected communities each have unique and vital insights into the complex challenge of moving people from welfare to work. Bringing diverse agencies into a collaborative process not only capitalizes on all available resources, but also can be critical to developing a shared regional commitment to and responsibility for addressing the challenge, building political and grass roots support for proposed solutions, and bringing agencies together that can translate planning into real services. Furthermore, the participation of social service agencies has expanded the range of funding sources that can be applied to addressing jobs access needs.

The organizational approach to forming a coalition can take many different forms depending upon the local situation. In St. Louis and Hartford, the MPO has provided leadership in building a partnership of public agencies, civic organizations, and the business community to address the access to jobs issue. In Detroit, a non-traditional transportation organization such as MAC can facilitate an entrepreneurial approach to planning and project implementation. Regardless of which model is followed, the goal is to create a broad-based coalition of agencies for cooperative planning efforts.

Finding 3: Planning for Access to Jobs goes beyond simply providing transportation to or from work.

The role that transportation can play in welfare reform and access to jobs is important but limited. Planning for access to jobs must address equally important issues such as the availability of job training, the development of job skills, and the location and availability of child care and other critical amenities. Transportation plays a crucial role in linking these elements together which is key to enabling former welfare recipients to successfully secure and retain employment. In each study, transportation is not approached as an isolated issue. A broader system view is essential, as is the involvement of diverse agencies and organizations. Planning for transportation is viewed in connection with job search, skill development, family, and community needs. In Detroit, state social service agency surveys of financial aid recipients reveal that while transportation can be a major stumbling block, not only to employment but to other services including day care, health care and shopping, the availability of these other amenities is equally important. In Hartford and St. Louis, the formation of broad coalitions of diverse agencies acknowledges the need to take a holistic approach to this complex problem. Explicit recognition of the linkages between transportation, job training, community development and land use is being discussed and developed through the planning process and coalition building and will require long-term commitments and partnerships.

Finding 4: Individual transit agencies are successfully addressing welfare to work issues as part of their broader focus on service improvement and innovations.

Transit agencies in the study areas are applying their knowledge of the transit market with a practical approach to problem solving in addressing access to jobs. Underlying this approach are two general principles: any transit innovation or improvement will only succeed if it provides a quality service; and, agencies must support increasing access to jobs by improving transportation that serves the public at large. Transit agencies are designing services to be more accessible and responsive through adjustments to existing services, integration of smaller vehicles into their fleets, automated scheduling and dispatch systems, and reorienting traditional line-haul services.

In Detroit, the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) has developed innovative outreach programs to solicit input from employers as to how to better serve high job growth locations with enhanced transit services. In Hartford, collaboration between the transit agency, employers, and the MPO has helped to identify practical, low cost solutions focusing on the extension or alteration of existing transit services to meet the needs of employees and employers. In St. Louis, where access to jobs has been integrated into the MPO-led long range transportation planning process, integration of transportation with work-force and community development issues has been identified as a key element in the design of any new service. Transit agency planners from each of the case study areas echoed the common theme that service enhancements must make transit services attractive and responsive to all users or the support for financing new and improved measures will not materialize.

Finding 5: Fixed route bus and rail services, with modest adjustments, are expected to meet a substantial share of employment access needs.

Extensions of selected existing bus routes and expansion of the hours of bus service are prominent elements of the job access strategies planned in the case study cities. In St. Louis, stipends for use of buses and light rail services are another important feature of job access programs. Fixed route transit services are projected to provide needed access to the major sources of potential employment in the case study metropolitan areas. In Hartford, technical analysis by the MPO has shown that regular bus routes serve most areas of concentrated employment. While paratransit and vanpooling are viewed as supporting elements in the three regions' job access strategies, fixed route services, modified in some cases to provide improved distribution to employment sites, are anticipated to play a dominant role in meeting the needs of the target market.

While higher rates of economic growth have occured in suburban areas as a result of trends toward decentralization of employment nationwide, a large job market remains in most central cities, even those, like St. Louis, that have experienced significant economic decline. Planners in St. Louis have found that for many mothers living in the central city, working at locations in relatively close proximity to their residences is more realistic than commuting long distances to the suburbs, because of the need to attend to multiple family responsibilities, including pick-up and drop-off of children at child care facilities and school. Investment in urban transportation services that support community and economic development may in many cases be a more cost-effective and practical approach to meeting the needs of low-income workers than creating special dedicated services for long distance commutes to widely dispersed locations.

The size of a metropolitan area is an important factor affecting the feasibility of reverse commuting. In a medium-size metropolitan area like Hartford, for example, a jobs strategy relying on suburban employment may be more viable than in larger cities, where travel times between central cities and the suburbs are longer. Airports are a prime source of jobs in many metropolitan areas and have received focused attention as part of jobs access planning in Hartford. Another important consideration is the relative quality of employment opportunities at different locations. Planners in St. Louis have adopted a dual strategy of pursuing employment opportunities in both the city and the suburbs. The suburban component of this strategy involves the explicit targeting of individual employers that provide "living wages" and good benefits, because the conditions of employment at many potential jobs would not justify long city-to-suburb commutes. Thus, as commuting distances and costs increase, so does the need to target new transportation services at employment centers offering relatively good wages, benefits, and working conditions. Moreover, the emphasis on placing prospective employees in good jobs increases the importance of linking transportation with employment support services, such as training and counseling, to prepare workers with needed basic skills to qualify for targeted jobs.

Finding 6: Technical analysis is critical to understanding the dimensions of employment access needs and addressing those needs effectively.

Defining the market for access to jobs services requires identifying the locations of areas with a significant pool of residents needing employment and matching these to transit routes and to locations that can be expected to provide employment opportunities. MPOs typically have most of the necessary data and technical capabilities for providing this analysis, and may find that supplementary data collection and use of such tools as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and enhanced travel forecasting models can facilitate detailed analysis and help to tailor solutions to well-defined needs. For example, GIS can serve as a tool for organizing and presenting detailed information on the characteristics of employment at locations throughout the metropolitan area, which can be helpful in targeting city-to-suburb transportation services to locations where good jobs are available for former welfare recipients and other low income workers. Hartford demonstrates how available data and shared technical judgment can be used to initiate an access to jobs proposal. In the longer term, this informal type of analysis can be supported with GIS and other technical tools, as resources permit.

In Detroit, technologies are perceived as having the potential to provide new options for improving transit service. Automated vehicle location technology and automated scheduling and dispatch systems are being implemented to provide more flexible and responsive transit services that may play a role in addressing job access needs.

Access to Jobs Planning Case Studies

Hartford, Connecticut

Local Conditions

The Hartford metropolitan area includes the City of Hartford and 28 surrounding communities. These communities cover approximately 500 square miles and have a combined population of about 700,000. A map of the Hartford region is provided by Figure 1. The City of Hartford has experienced significant losses of population and employment to suburban areas over the last several decades. Since 1992, the City of Hartford has lost 8.6% of its civilian labor force, and its 1995 unemployment rate of 11.0% was the state's highest.

Transportation System

Interstate highways I-84 and I-91 cross at the eastern edge of the Hartford downtown area. The dominant public transit modes in the region are fixed route buses operating over regular city streets and express buses linking suburban communities with downtown Hartford. The primary provider of these services is Connecticut Transit (CT Transit), which operates 186 peak hour buses on 34 local and express bus routes under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT). ConnDOT owns and administers transit services in Hartford and seven other Connecticut cities, and subsidizes 22 additional systems. The State of Connecticut's per capita funding of transit is among the highest of all the states, according to ConnDOT. Paratransit services in the region consist primarily of local dial-a-ride vans provided under the jurisdiction of individual municipalities and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regional service operated by the Greater Hartford Transit District (GHTD), under contract to ConnDOT. The GHTD fleet consists of 48 minibuses and vans.

A rail transitway project has been proposed in the travel corridor defined by a former rail right-of-way through northwest Hartford. The region currently has two high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane facilities, one on I-84 east of Hartford and the other on I-91 north of Hartford. The Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG), which is the MPO for the Hartford metropolitan area, has recommended the extension of the I-84 HOV lane into downtown Hartford and is studying proposals for new HOV lanes in two other corridors.

Welfare Reform

Connecticut has adopted welfare legislation of its own that went into effect in January 1996. The provisions of this legislation are similar to those of the Federal law, including a requirement that cash assistance for most recipients be limited to a period of 21 months or less. In effect, the State legislation allowed the State's Department of Social Services (DSS) to anticipate and prepare for

Table 1: Key Findings from the Hartford Case Study

Figure 1. Map of the Hartford Metropolitan Area

changes in Federal welfare laws. The DSS has replaced its former welfare program with a Jobs First initiative that implements work requirements for recipients and provides for some job search supervision, assistance and skills training, but minimal additional funds for child care and transportation.

According to DSS data, there currently are more than 15,000 people in the Greater Hartford area receiving cash assistance under the Jobs First program, now supported by Federal TANF funds. DSS expects 3,500 of these current welfare recipients to find work in the next year. Approximately 2,900 recipients of General Assistance in the Hartford area are also subject to cutbacks in state-funded benefits. Based on these figures, CRCOG has estimated that 5,700 current recipients of TANF or General Assistance payments will find jobs, and that at least two-thirds, or 3,800, will need public transportation.

Planning Process

Planning for employment transportation services in Hartford has required the development of both a broad-based, multi-agency partnership and a consensually agreed upon methodological approach to identify the location of both targeted populations and promising employment centers, as well as determine mobility investment needs.

Planning Partnerships

In May 1997, Hartford was in an initial phase of addressing the need for improved access to employment. Planning activities consisted of coalition building, problem definition, identification of feasible strategies, and the pursuit of funds for strategy implementation. CRCOG has organized a regional task force, named the Welfare to Work Transportation Access Work Group, to perform these functions. The Work Group was convened in November 1996 and consists of the following members: CRCOG, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA, an association of private sector businesses), ConnDOT, CT Transit, the Capital Region Workforce Development Board, DSS, the Community Renewal Team (CRT, a private community action agency working under contract to DSS), the Connecticut Department of Labor, the City of Hartford, GHTD, and the Greater Hartford Rideshare Company.

CRCOG's involvement in seeking solutions to the job access needs of welfare recipients originated in response to a resolution by the City of Hartford and a request by the CRT. The CRCOG executive board, composed of mayors and selectmen from member jurisdictions, gave the proposed initiative strong support. In the past, attempts by CRCOG and other metropolitan transportation agencies to address reverse commute issues have met with meager success, but welfare reform at both the Federal and state levels has helped support to coalesce. Widespread consensus had developed among local officials within CRCOG and other public agencies that adequate access to jobs represents a major issue and shared responsibility for the region.

CRCOG works on a broad range of regional concerns in addition to transportation, including public safety, housing, and land use. The absence of county-level government in Connecticut increases the importance of inter-jurisdictional coordination. CRCOG's efforts in coordinating the Work Group initiative benefited from its long standing experience in working with local officials. CRCOG's previously established role in providing a forum to address issues of regional significance served as a precedent in "bringing to the table" a diverse array of institutional interests. CRCOG is one of the founding members of the Capitol Regional Partnership, which was formed in 1995 by six Hartford regional agencies to work collaboratively in solving problems and identifying opportunities to improve life in Greater Hartford. According to CRCOG staff, ISTEA also has been critical in maintaining and strengthening the influence of the cooperative metropolitan transportation planning process. The role of the MPO and its process in deciding how transportation funds are distributed has been especially important in providing the motivation needed to bring local officials together to discuss regional transportation priorities.

While the foundation for intergovernmental cooperation had been established through the workings of the metropolitan planning process and the Capitol Regional Partnership, the staff of CRCOG and other Work Group member organizations concur that the shared view of the need to support welfare reform has been the major impetus propelling their collaboration on job access concerns. ConnDOT's responsibilities for transit, paratransit, and ridesharing through existing contracts with CT Transit, GHTD, and the Greater Hartford Rideshare Company may be an important factor in promoting State involvement in the Work Group's efforts, as is the importance and visibility of welfare reform as a Connecticut State initiative.

Another critical aspect of the collaboration that takes place through the Work Group is the linking of job placement with the development of transportation services. CRT, CBIA, CRCOG, and other member organizations contribute critical information on the location of specific employment opportunities, and ConnDOT, CT Transit, and GHTD provide complementary information on transit service. The Work Group is able to merge this information in targeting job placement and transit improvements in specific geographic areas. CRT is also responsible under its contract with DSS for providing critical job preparation and support services to welfare clients seeking work. Therefore, joint efforts of the Work Group can focus on the provision of transportation services. Citizen's groups are not as yet represented in the Work Group, which meets approximately once a month, although meetings have been open to the public and CRCOG staff have stated that they consider public involvement to be a necessity. CRCOG expects to develop an outreach effort for access to job planning in the future.

Planning Methods

CRCOG has prepared a preliminary origin and destination analysis on the spatial distribution of low income households and employment opportunities that is used by the Work Group to identify locations where improved transportation access is needed. This preliminary work has involved gathering information from members of the Work Group and more formal sources, such as the 1990 Census, on the location of areas with high unemployment and the number of jobs that can be expected to be available at employment sites throughout the region. This information was plotted geographically in relation to existing bus routes to identify locations that warrant improved public transit access. Six categories of job sites were defined that could be significant sources of jobs for low income workers:

• hospitals, convalescence centers and other health care facilities
• hotels and motels
• major retail concentrations
• major grocery stores
• industrial/manufacturing
• universities and colleges

Twelve key employment locations were identified, including downtown Hartford, the Berlin Turnpike, Bradley International Airport, three regional shopping malls, three neighboring universities, the Foxwoods and Mohegan Casinos, and an industrial park. Based on the geographic plotting, most of these sites were judged to be adequately served by the fixed route bus system during the daytime. This finding suggested that adjustments of existing service to extend operating hours and provide a guaranteed ride home would be an economical, cost-effective means to address the needs of many workers, including former welfare clients.

Ridership estimates for proposed new services are the product of the informed judgment of ConnDOT planners, who take into account several factors that define the expected market in progressively finer detail:

• size of the total market of welfare recipients and others with low incomes;
• share of the total market within a given geographic area;
• share of the market within the service area of a particular route;
• share of the market likely to use public transportation.

According to the 1990 Census, nearly 80% of people living in Hartford census tracts with the highest concentration of public assistance recipients do not have regular access to a private vehicle. A recent consumer research report done for CT Transit similarly found that about two-thirds of the people in the agency's service area do not have regular access to a vehicle. The Work Group therefore assumed that two-thirds of those who successfully move from welfare to work over the next two years will need some form of public transportation to reach their jobs. Based upon DSS projections for successful job placements --- and assuming that one-half of employable General Assistance clients find work --- 5,700 current TANF and General Assistance recipients are expected to become employed within two years. Therefore, 3,800 people will need public transportation.

CRCOG further anticipates ridership for proposed new services of 877 daily passengers in the first year of operation and 1631 daily passengers in the second year, which will accommodate a significant percentage of former public assistance recipients projected to find jobs. Most of the projected increase between the first and second years reflects an expected increase in the number of successful job placements as benefit limits take effect and welfare to work efforts have had more time to produce results. Enhancements of fixed route bus service to meet job access needs are expected to account for over 80% of total new ridership, with investments in vanpooling and dial-a-ride services accounting for the remainder of trips.

Members of the Work Group have expressed satisfaction with the technical analysis provided by CRCOG, noting that the level of detail and degree of accuracy are appropriate for service planning. The technical information compiled by CRCOG has proved to be of central importance to the Work Group's planning efforts. CRCOG staff are considering the development of more sophisticated analysis techniques, however, including applications of GIS, to provide a greater level of confidence regarding the accuracy of technical information used in job access planning.

Planning and Funding Issues

In the view of ConnDOT service planners, a limitation of the planning process is its confinement to the boundaries of the CRCOG planning area. The Work Group normally focuses on services that do not cross CRCOG boundaries. ConnDOT's involvement as the owner of the region's transit, paratransit, and ridesharing services has provided the basis for looking beyond these limits, however, and as a result, the Work Group is considering services to a major casino at a considerable distance from the Hartford metropolitan area.

The commitment to improving access to jobs by CRCOG, ConnDOT, and other transportation agencies did not emanate directly from the formal process of developing the regional Transportation Plan, which was approved in September 1994. While the Plan does cite the critical nature of transit systems in meeting "the . . . needs of the Region's transit dependent population" and mentions the need to provide public transit service to "employment centers not currently served," it does not identify improving employment access for low income residents as a specific goal or objective. CRCOG staff plan to include access to jobs as an objective in the next update of the Plan. Funding for continuing planning efforts will be included in the next Unified Planning Work Program. According to CRCOG staff, the extent of commitment to address job access on a longer-term basis through the metropolitan transportation planning process depends on the availability of Federal, state, local, and private sector funding for implementation of recommended improvements.

The principal product of the Work Group's effort has been a proposal incorporating a set of recommended transportation improvements, which it has submitted for funding to the State legislature. Securing sufficient resources is an immediate goal of the Work Group. Budget constraints pose a potentially severe limitation on the implementation of transportation services included in the Work Group's proposal, which will require $2.1 million in funding. DSS recently contracted with CRCOG to provide $300,000 in seed funding to implement the proposal. The Work Group is seeking the remainder of the necessary funds from the State legislature, with CRCOG serving as the grantee. Anticipated state-level savings in welfare outlays would provide the source of funds.

The Work Group has not identified an alternative source of funding to be tapped if the legislature does not approve the proposal. Staff of CRCOG and ConnDOT have noted the severity of current transportation agency budget constraints. Connecticut currently funds all of its highway and transit programs with motor vehicle user fees, including a 39-cent tax on gasoline -- the highest in the nation. This funding is programmed to be reduced, however, under the newly-adopted two-year State budget. In considering other transportation funding sources, planners have expressed doubt that significant funds could be obtained from existing Federal aid programs, i.e., the Surface Transportation Program, the Congestion Management and Air Quality Program, or the FTA Formula Apportionment, due to intense competition for these funds.

The proposal does not provide for performance monitoring, although CRCOG staff acknowledge its importance and plan to develop a performance monitoring strategy when the proposal is funded and implemented.

Transportation Solutions

A basic premise underlying the job access initiative of CRCOG and the Work Group as a whole is that most job creation is in the suburbs. Current transit services provide high quality access to downtown job opportunities. A number of existing regular bus routes in the Hartford metropolitan area also accommodate employees traveling to dispersed places of employment.

Pilot Project Proposal

As a result of the Work Group's efforts, several initiatives have recently been undertaken to improve access to jobs in suburban locations. CT Transit has extended the hours of operation of two bus routes connecting the downtown area to shopping malls. Formerly, buses on these routes would depart from the malls before 10:00 PM and therefore were not available to accommodate trips back to the city by many mall employees. Because the malls are viewed as a significant source of jobs for low-wage workers, the extension of bus operating hours was implemented as a means of creating new opportunities for former welfare recipients. Another recent development was the implementation of a special service provided by GHTD to transport Hartford residents to a training program near Bristol, a distance of about 18 miles. This service was funded for a limited duration as a demonstration by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, a member of the Work Group.

As noted previously, the major focus of the Work Group's efforts has been the development of its proposal for future transportation improvements. The proposal covers a period of two years and emphasizes enhancements of fixed route bus operations to serve new destinations over extended hours. Enhancements of fixed route bus service include:

• expansion of existing routes to new destinations farther from downtown Hartford on the Berlin Turnpike, a high-growth commercial corridor to the south of downtown Hartford;
• expansion of fixed route bus services between Hartford and Bradley International Airport, which is a major employment center;
• extension of operating hours on week nights and weekends along the Berlin Turnpike and to two major regional shopping malls.

New dial-a-ride service, vanpooling, and guaranteed ride home taxi service are recommended to accommodate trips beyond the fixed route bus service area or regular transit operating hours. Specifically, GHTD's dial-a-ride services have sufficient capacity to accommodate new riders during evening shift hours, while the Rideshare Company will purchase up to ten new vans to provide shared transportation to as many as 80 former welfare clients. Details of the Hartford proposal are presented in Appendix B.

According to estimates calculated by the Volpe Center using cost data presented in the Work Group's proposal, total cost per passenger in the first year will be about $6 for fixed route service enhancements, $10 for dial-a-ride (although GHTD believes that a more accurate cost for this service is $16 per trip), $4.50 for vanpools, and $50 for guaranteed ride home by taxi (only 5 users per day are expected to need a guaranteed ride home). In the second year, total cost per passenger is expected to decline to about $3 per trip for the fixed route service, as ridership builds, while per passenger costs for other services are expected to remain the same as in the first year. Fares or revenues per passenger are assumed to be $2 daily on dial-a-ride and vanpool services, while the fare structure for the bus system as a whole is anticipated to apply to fixed route bus service enhancements, with a maximum fare of $1 per trip or $2 per day. Based on these revenue assumptions, net cost per passenger during the first year is estimated to be $4 for fixed route service, $8 for dial-a-ride, and $2.50 for vanpools (driver is unpaid). In the second year of operation, net cost per passenger is estimated to decline to about $2.30 for fixed route service, while net costs for the other services remain unchanged from the first year.

GHTD has further noted that there are other providers operating at very small capacities that may provide some innovative transportation services for welfare to work trips. For example, taxicab permits could be issued to former welfare clients who, as a condition of being granted a permit, could transport passengers to and form work and have use of the cab during other times to earn a living. In addition, most communities in the region operate elderly and disabled transportation services using buses owned by GHTD. In instances where jobs become available in these areas, these services may operate as feeders to the fixed route system during limited time periods.

Next Steps and Issues

In developing an initial two-year program of proposed improvements, the Work Group sought solutions that could be implemented quickly and at relatively low cost, and which could at the same time produce significant benefits. Members of the Work Group have referred to this planning strategy as "picking the fruit from the low branch of the tree." A possible next step would involve development of route deviation options in conjunction with regular fixed route service, augmenting regular routes to offer improved distribution services. While planners view vanpooling as an important component of the job access program, they also foresee a number of potential problems that will constrain the use of vanpools to a segment of the target market. Chief among these limitations are a lack of skilled, licensed drivers and employee work schedule conflicts.

ConnDOT/CT Transit is developing a long-range plan that would reconfigure its fixed route bus system, shifting focus from the central city to a broader network providing better service to suburban areas. This system would incorporate mini-hubs connected to each other by mainline routes, and to local employment centers by feeder/distributor services. The reason for reconfiguration of the bus system would be to better reflect prevalent dispersed patterns of travel, including commuting by many categories of workers. Welfare reform supports this impetus.

The Work Group is currently considering the integration of GHTD's paratransit service with job access transportation in instances where all other less expensive services have been exhausted. GHTD has been working for the past several years to incorporate the paratransit needs of several agencies into a regional paratransit consortium. While there have been some logistical problems and differences in policies and operation, GHTD believes that these have generally been resolved and do not present an impediment to the incorporation of new job access riders into its existing paratransit services.

Planners at CRCOG and ConnDOT expect that the types of service needed, route configurations, and areas to be served are likely to change over time. They note that many users of reverse commute transit services could be temporary, purchasing their own private vehicles after they have earned enough income at their jobs. They view flexibility and adaptability in service planning as being essential to respond to shifting needs.

Conclusion

The Welfare to Work Transportation Access Work Group in Hartford is pursuing a practical approach to meeting the region's need for improved access to employment opportunities. As a short-term planning strategy, the Work Group is attempting to implement logical, incremental service improvements that address specific needs or deficiencies. In a short time period, the Work Group has implemented extensions of transit service hours and has assembled a proposed package of priority improvements. It expects ridership for these improvements of over 1600 passengers daily in the second year following implementation. This level of anticipated ridership will account for a significant share of the current recipients of public assistance expected to find jobs and require transit service.

Analysis conducted by CRCOG suggests that many workplaces that could provide substantial numbers of jobs to the target market are in fact well served by existing bus routes. The proposed additions to current service may be sufficient, therefore, to meet most of the need for improved job access. The Work Group's proposal includes a mix of transportation services including dial-a-ride, vanpooling, and guaranteed ride home programs, but relies to a great extent on modest adjustments of schedules and routes of existing fixed route bus services. Planners at CRCOG and ConnDOT emphasize the need for flexibility in service planning to accommodate rapidly changing needs. They have anticipated, for example, that many commuters to suburban workplaces may purchase their own vehicles when they have earned enough income at their jobs. Longer term changes in the bus route network contemplated by ConnDOT may eventually eliminate the need for special services targeted at low income workers.

As the MPO, CRCOG serves as a forum for intergovernmental cooperation in the metropolitan planning process, establishing a precedent for its leadership in organizing the Work Group. The mix of workforce development and transportation planning expertise represented in the Work Group is fundamental to the development of services needed to transport former welfare recipients to jobs. The broad institutional participation provided through the Group has allowed a strong political coalition to form in support of proposed service improvements. Active involvement of ConnDOT is an important factor contributing to the effectiveness of the Work Group, both in terms of ConnDOT's role as the primary public transit provider in the metropolitan area, and also because of its responsiveness to State policies.

The technical analysis provided to the Work Group by CRCOG is informal, but well-regarded by other participating organizations. Estimates of future ridership for proposed services are the product of informed judgment and may be inaccurate. Therefore, refinement of the methods used in estimating ridership may be helpful to support continuing planning efforts. Performance monitoring will be crucial to assess the value of improvements if the Work Group's proposal is funded and implemented.

Funding may prove to be a critical issue if the legislature does not approve the Work Group's current proposal. Alternative financing strategies have not been developed to allow for this contingency or for longer-term needs extending beyond the two-year time frame of the proposal. Prospects for funding through existing Federal programs or transit agency budgets are poor, according to CRCOG and ConnDOT staff. These potential sources may warrant further consideration, however. To secure funding through existing Federal transportation programs, trade-offs between job access improvements and alternative transportation investments would need to be considered through the metropolitan planning process.

St. Louis, Missouri

Local Conditions

The 4,500 square mile St. Louis metropolitan area includes the City of St. Louis and seven surrounding counties. A map of the St. Louis region is provided in Figure 2. The population of the area was about 2.4 million in 1990, stabilizing in the 1980s following a decade in which the region experienced a net 2.4 percent population loss. Over the 40-year period beginning in 1950, the City of St. Louis lost more than half its population, while population in outlying suburban areas multiplied several times over. Over 90 percent of all net job growth between 1970 and 1990 was outside the boundaries of the City of St. Louis, and fewer than one quarter of the region's jobs were located in the central city in 1990. Nearly 50 percent of the households living in poverty within the region are city residents. Nevertheless, despite the trend toward decentralization of economic growth, in 1990 there were approximately 1.9 jobs in the city for every employed city resident.

Between 1989 and 1994, employment throughout the St. Louis region grew at the rate of 4 percent per year. Most of this growth was in the service sector. Manufacturing industries experienced a substantial loss of jobs during this time period. The average unemployment rate in the metropolitan area was 5.7 percent from 1991 through 1995.

Transportation System

As a result of its location on the Mississippi River, St. Louis has long been a transportation hub. The roadway system is one of the most extensive in the nation. Interstate highways 55, 70, 44, and 64 converge in the region's core and I-270/I-244 form a circumferential beltway around the city. The principal public transit services are a regional bus system and the 18-mile MetroLink light rail line. MetroLink provides fast trunk-route service in the region's core, complemented by a system of feeder bus routes and park-and-ride lots. Although the regional bus system is extensive, ridership has declined by more than half over the last several decades and service has been substantially reduced. More than 80 agencies in the St. Louis region provide some form of paratransit service, most of it operated with vans and mini-buses. The majority of paratransit services are operated independently of each other, without pooling of vehicle fleets, drivers, or administrative functions.

Welfare Reform

Welfare reform legislation was adopted by the State of Missouri in 1994. The initiative included provisions similar to those incorporated into Federal legislation, including time limits, work requirements, and sanctions for non-compliance. An innovative feature of Missouri's welfare reform program is its wage supplementation provision, which allows for the conversion of some

Table 2: Key Findings from the St. Louis Case Study

Figure 2. Map of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area

recipient benefits to provide a share of employee wages in private sector jobs. The Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) also administers a FUTURES program in conjunction with welfare reform activities that provides for skills training, adult basic education, and job search assistance. A Family Investment Trust created by executive order in 1993 serves as the vehicle for five state agencies, including the DSS and the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, to work collaboratively with communities and the private sector to improve the delivery of public services, including workforce preparation and child care. Caring Communities programs have been established in St. Louis and other areas throughout the state to implement the objectives of the Trust.

There currently are 45,270 households receiving TANF benefits in the eight-county St. Louis metropolitan area. Within a smaller geographic area confined to the northern portion of the City of St. Louis and the northeast portion of adjacent St. Louis County, approximately 10,000 households receive TANF payments. This section of St. Louis is the area for which the St. Louis East-West Gateway Coordinating Council (EWGCC, the region's MPO) is developing initiatives intended to provide welfare recipients and other low income residents with improved access to jobs.

Planning Process

The foundation for the St. Louis access to jobs effort is provided in Transportation Redefined, the metropolitan area Transportation Plan adopted by the EWGCC in September 1994. Transportation Redefined identifies a customer focus and establishes an integral link between transportation and social and economic objectives. One of the key mobility objectives identified is to improve accessibility to jobs and services by all transportation modes. In addition, a commitment is established to improve mobility for persons who have not been served well by the existing transportation system. The goals and objectives identified in the Transportation Plan reflect principles incorporated in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA).

In response to these principles, EWGCC launched an eight-year planning effort linking transportation and labor force development. Now beginning its third year, this effort involves the design and implementation of experimental projects that expand employment opportunities for metropolitan area residents.

A Broad Mission, and a Reliance on Partners

Program areas for which EWGCC has planning responsibilities include community resources, in addition to transportation. Community resources planning has ranged into the job placement, training, and support activities that are required in conjunction with job access transportation services.

EWGCC has provided leadership in building a partnership of public agencies, civic organizations, and the business community to collaboratively work on improving employment opportunities in St. Louis. A broad consortium of sixteen agencies and private organizations serves as a governing board for EWGCC's labor force initiatives. Membership on the Board ranges from the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis to the Greater St. Louis Economic Development Council to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. EWGCC took the initiative in organizing the Board, requesting participation by prospective members that could have an impact on access to employment. The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department (MHTD) is not a member of the Board nor an active participant in the jobs access planning process. However, MHTD does work closely with EWGCC in the development of the region's transportation program through the Transportation Plan and the Transportation Improvement Program.

The Board plays an active role in guiding the jobs access initiatives managed by EWGCC, working collaboratively on concept development, project design, and fund raising. The frequency of Board meetings varies according to need. Recently, the intensive activity involved in the start-up of EWGCC's Bridges to Work project has required monthly meetings, although less frequent meetings on a quarterly schedule are expected in the future. Major sources of private funding that have been secured through the activities of the Board include the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the United Way of Greater St. Louis. In addition to the projects that include a specific transportation service component, EWGCC is working on two other workforce development projects that focus on job recruitment, placement, and training. Another project involves development of an economic development plan for the MetroLink transportation corridor.

Entrepreneurship

The Board has succeeded in attracting substantial amounts of funding from state agencies such as the DSS and the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED). For example, the EWGCC has accessed $500,000 in DED funding for a Center for Mobility to Work pilot project intended to identify and broker training and employment opportunities along the MetroLink light rail corridor. In addition, HUD's Bridges to Work Program and the Anne E. Casey Foundation have provided grants to support other Board initiatives. In the case of both grants, EWGCC and its partner agencies were awarded funding through a competitive process, following an invitation from the sponsoring organizations to submit grant applications. St. Louis was included on a short list of candidate Bridges to Work metropolitan areas on the basis of an earlier study by Public/Private Ventures, a non-profit research and program development organization, which documented the extent to which development patterns had separated urban core neighborhoods from rapidly expanding job opportunities in the suburbs. The Bridges to Work grant from HUD provides $1.5 million, or 73 percent, of the Bridges to Work total cost of $2.1 million. A description of the EWGCC's Bridges to Work and Center for Mobility to Work projects is provided in the following section.

The grant from the Casey Foundation supports collaborative efforts on several job initiatives. The total cost of all the jobs programs being coordinated by EWGCC is $4.3 million, 60 percent of which is provided by State human service agencies. Costs vary significantly among the various programs, ranging from $1200 to $5500 per job placement, depending on the nature and extent of service provided.

A Participatory Approach

A major focus of the St. Louis jobs access planning effort is community participation. A corollary principle is customer focus, which requires responsiveness to job-seekers' needs and involvement of job-seekers and employers in decision-making. EWGCC and its partner organizations have conducted an extensive public involvement effort in conjunction with the development of jobs programs. In the case of Bridges to Work, EWGCC contracted with the Urban League to conduct focus groups with participants in existing jobs programs for the purpose of identifying barriers to employment. A Community Advisory Council has been organized for the Center for Mobility to Work, advising the governing board and providing a direct channel of communication with affected communities. In support of the other jobs initiatives managed by EWGCC, the Urban League has organized community meetings and administered surveys with the residents of urban neighborhoods to identify community needs and priorities.

Private businesses play an important role in the design and implementation of access to jobs initiatives, both through representation by business associations on the governing board and as individual customers for job access services. For example, all of the businesses that are potential Bridges to Work employers have been consulted by EWGCC and have signed agreements as program participants. In targeting job placement and training programs, EWGCC conducts interviews with employers to determine occupational requirements, wages, and benefits.

The participatory approach followed in developing EWGCC's labor force initiatives is consistent with ISTEA's emphasis on public involvement. The application of principles providing for an inclusive and collaborative process has proved over the last several years to pose significant challenges. Substantial time and effort have been expended on addressing an initial lack of community interest, changes in elected political leadership, resource constraints, and the need to develop effective channels of communication among transportation agencies, employers, and agencies and organizations with responsibilities for job training, placement, and support. The projects emerging through the planning process are at an initial stage of implementation, for which it is too soon to observe measurable results.

Planning Methods

EWGCC conducts detailed economic market studies to target workforce development efforts at industries and areas that provide good prospects for employment growth. This work involves collecting and analyzing data on regional economic growth by industry sector, occupation, and location. To complement this information, EWGCC also performs wide-ranging analysis of community or "customer" needs, documenting such variables as numbers of households receiving TANF assistance, unemployment rates, availability of support and transit services, and private vehicle ownership. Together, the market and community studies help to identify areas with a strong potential for providing new jobs and areas where there is a significant pool of residents needing employment.

Sources of data used by the EWGCC include Dun and Bradstreet Marketplace, the Census Transportation Planning Package, and the Department of Labor. Dun and Bradstreet provides employment data used to establish the number of jobs in different economic sectors by location. The Census Transportation Planning Package helps to identify areas where transit dependence is high as a result of low vehicle ownership rates and low income levels. Department of Labor data provides information on growth by occupational category, which serves a basis for developing workforce preparation and placement programs.

Supplementing these published sources is information collected by "shoe leather," i.e., personal contact with local businesses and such organizations as the St. Louis County Economic Council. The net result is that EWGCC has a good understanding of both ends of the labor force equation -- supply and demand -- and can tailor marketing efforts, training programs, and transportation services to meet well-defined needs. According to staff members of other agencies participating in job access planning, the analysis generated by EWGCC has been helpful in guiding program development. Bi-State works cooperatively with EWGCC on forecasting ridership for transit services, but also has its own independent forecasting capabilities, which it uses in many service planning applications.

An extensive performance monitoring effort is planned as part of all EWGCC jobs programs, representing a critical element in the next phase of the planning process. Success in achieving numerical targets for job placements will serve as a key performance measure. In addition, information on a wide array of demographic factors and travel characteristics of participants will be collected and analyzed over time to determine changes in such variables as employment status, wage levels, accumulation of assets, vehicle ownership, travel expenses, number of trips per day, and trip chaining patterns. The Corporation for Enterprise Development, a private non-profit agency that addresses issues of economic competitiveness, is developing a methodology for use by EWGCC in calculating return on investment for the jobs programs. EWGCC expects to demonstrate a positive return as a result of the greater efficiency created through improved coordination of service planning and delivery.

Transportation Solutions

The access to jobs effort in St. Louis incorporates a dual strategy with respect to the location of job markets and the development of transportation linkages. Recognizing the dominant trend of decentralized employment growth, the Bridges to Work program focuses on establishing viable transportation connections between urban neighborhoods and suburban areas. At the same time, EWGCC and its partner agencies perceive that there is substantial additional potential to provide jobs for low-income workers at businesses within the city. The Center for Mobility to Work project, therefore, targets unemployed and underemployed populations and employment sites proximate to existing public transportation services. Consequently, current jobs access programs in the St. Louis area address both suburban and urban job markets, as described below; a summary of program goals and objectives is provided by Table 3.

Bridges to Work

The St. Louis Bridges to Work program is a Federally-funded 4-year demonstration that will compare a study population of approximately 400 participants with a control group of equal size. The program, which is intended to overcome obstacles to suburban employment by low-income residents of urban neighborhoods, combines job placement and support services, such as counseling and child care, with transportation. Bridges to Work is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and is administered jointly by HUD and Public Private Ventures. St. Louis is one of five metropolitan areas that have been selected as a Bridges to Work demonstration site. Transportation is provided only to designated employers who are participating in the program and with which EWGCC has arranged job placements. The target for the first 20 months of operations is to place 425 participants in jobs.

The transportation component of the current Bridges to Work project focuses on providing access for low-income inner city residents to participating employers in the Chesterfield and Chesterfield Valley areas in the western part of St. Louis County, about 20 miles from the City of St. Louis. The County airport in Chesterfield has been a catalyst for rapid economic growth in manufacturing and communications industries, and the area is the site of a major hospital and hotel/convention center complex. Transportation improvements implemented through the program include:

• extensions of major bus routes operated by Bi-State to serve additional employment sites and provide longer hours of service to accommodate work shifts ending at 10:00 PM
• planned circulator van service operated by the regional chapter of the American Red Cross to and from express bus stops.

Bi-State's route enhancements have improved access to three different concentrations of employment in Chesterfield/Chesterfield Valley. According to Bi-State staff, these bus service

Table 3
EWGCC Employment Transportation Initiatives

improvements resulted from direct coordination between Bi-State and the Chamber of Commerce, although this bilateral collaboration has proceeded as part of the broader Bridges to Work planning effort. If there is evidence of sufficient ridership, Bi-State plans to implement additional route extensions to serve additional employment sites.

To supplement this service, the Red Cross will operate a neighborhood-based circulator service under contract to EWGCC. The service will provide feeder service connecting several pick-up/drop-off areas with several Bi-State express bus routes. The vans will pick up riders early in the morning at designated locations, such as well-lighted commercial areas and MetroLink stations that also are transfer points for express bus service. The operation will be reversed at night. Subsidies will be provided to participants for use on the express bus segment of their work trips in the initial months following their entry into the program. EWGCC has signed an agreement with Bi-State under which Bi-State will administer a program with private taxicab owners to provide a guaranteed ride home outside the scheduled operation of the shuttle.

Center for Mobility to Work

The Center for Mobility to Work will provide a transit subsidy to participants for use on the MetroLink light rail line or connecting express routes. It is the goal of the project to provide job seekers with employment placements in the MetroLink corridor, which has over 10,000 businesses and more than 240,000 employees. The large concentration of jobs and excellent public transit access, both by light rail and integrated bus service, favor the corridor as a logical source of employment for city residents. The Center, which is just beginning operations, will provide training, career planning and counseling, and job placement along with transit subsidies.

A four-week work-readiness program is provided as part of the Center for Mobility to Work. The target for the first year is to place 75 program participants in jobs. Transit subsidies, which have been authorized by the State legislature for the first year of the program, will start at 100 percent and decrease to zero over a period of two to three months.

As a general principle, EWGCC supports increasing access to employment opportunities by improving transportation that serves the public at large, rather than creating special services for a targeted market, such as welfare recipients. Several projects that are underway, including the Center, therefore include subsidies or stipends that participants can use on the regional public transit system, rather than special services. EWGCC's approach is to utilize a wide range of mobility and accessibility strategies, including extensions of bus routes, the implementation of neighborhood shuttle service, and the encouragement of "transit oriented development" which provides an alternative to the decentralization of employment opportunities. The Center for Mobility to Work, for example, aims to take advantage of the nearly quarter-million jobs located along the MetroLink light rail corridor, thus providing shorter trips for mothers with children while at the same time taking full advantage of existing transportation resources. This approach reflects the experience of EWGCC and its partner agencies in working with urban communities, which has shown that commuting to work at widely dispersed suburban locations may not be realistic for many mothers living in the center city, as a result of their need to attend to a variety of family responsibilities, such as drop-off/pick-up at child care facilities.

Several additional initiatives complement and support the objectives of the Center for Mobility to Work. The Transportation Corridor for Economic Renewal (TRACER) project will provide a strategic capital improvement plan for transit stations in the MetroLink corridor. The extension of the MetroLink in Illinois, which has recently received FTA funding, will further strengthen the role of the corridor as a focus for economic development.

Additional Programs

EWGCC is also leading an initiative called Business Service Opportunities that will provide training, transportation, and work support services for residents of three transitional or supported housing programs. The program prepares participants for clerical jobs. Vans owned by private sector businesses and the housing programs will provide transportation. The initial goal of the project is to train and place 30 participants in jobs. EWGCC is conducting the project in cooperation with Adecco Temporary Services, Monsanto Corporation, the DSS, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

None of the job access projects has involved coordination or pooling of existing paratransit services. EWGCC is working in partnership with human service agencies and private organizations on a Medicaid paratransit service, but this is a separate effort from the job-related initiatives. The Medicaid transportation project may consider coordinating employee and patient transportation for the single medical facility involved.

Conclusion

The St. Louis metropolitan area has developed a comprehensive and inclusive approach to jobs access planning that does not attempt a "quick fix" of complex problems. The planning process is instead oriented to the development of carefully constructed pilot programs that hold the promise of yielding widespread and substantial benefits to individual participants, communities, and society as a whole, when the lessons derived through these pilots are eventually applied on a broader scale. While the planning process for jobs access began several years ago, transportation service improvements have only recently been put in place --- as in the case of extensions to regular bus route service --- or are still in the process of being implemented.

The planning process led by EWGCC emphasizes the integration of transportation within a broader context of essential employment and family support services, including job placement and training and child care. Consistency with sound community development, land use, and environmental policies is another key factor guiding the development of potential solutions. This approach is founded in the goals and objectives of the regional Transportation Plan. Community participation also is regarded as being essential to the planning process. The emphasis on community-based planning is not unique to EWGCC, but reflects a perspective shared by DSS and other state agencies working in partnership with EWGCC. The St. Louis experience to date suggests that considerable time and effort are required to conduct an inclusive, participatory planning process, but that a more complete understanding of problems and needs develops as a result, producing innovative and promising solutions tailored to local conditions.

The Center for Mobility to Work represents one such possible solution. The Center concept recognizes that urban corridors with excellent transportation services may provide a major source of employment for low income workers, including those leaving the welfare rolls. While improving access to dispersed suburban jobs is likely to be a component of a successful jobs program, a high concentration of employment within the city may remain in metropolitan areas, --- even in areas such as St. Louis, where there has been a major erosion of the employment base in the urban core. An urban corridor with convenient walking, light rail, and/or bus access may be more viable than widely scattered suburban locales as a source of employment for many inner city residents, due to shorter commuting times. Planners in St. Louis have found that a substantial share of employment in the health care industry, for example, is on existing bus routes. The analytical base provided by EWGCC has provided the capability to recognize these types of opportunities and to develop effective strategies to realize their full potential.

Another important feature of the planning process is the involvement of individual businesses. Businesses serve not only as a source of information on employment opportunities, but as partners in the development and implementation of solutions. EWGCC planners have found that small businesses can be a major source of employment for former welfare recipients when incentives, such as wage supplementation and placement programs provided through DSS, EWGCC, and other public agencies, are available. Large businesses also play a significant role in the St. Louis jobs access effort, with Monsanto providing transportation services and several job placements as part of a pilot employment preparation and support project.

EWGCC has been successful in attracting significant support from private foundations and philanthropic organizations. Expansion of any of the current pilot programs to serve large numbers of participants would require substantial additional funding, supplemented with private support on a much larger scale than in the past. The logical source for some of this funding would be the State human services and economic development agencies, because of the emphasis on workforce development. EWGCC expects that the benefits realized by participating employers will encourage more businesses to provide financial support in return for labor recruitment, training, counseling, and transportation services. Significant funding from existing transportation programs is unlikely, due to severe budget constraints, which have already forced metropolitan area transportation agencies to scale back planned transportation system improvements. Increased coordination with the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department will be necessary, however, if funding is sought from Federal or state transportation programs through the metropolitan planning process.

Detroit, Michigan

Local Conditions

The Detroit metropolitan area comprises the City of Detroit and the tri-county area including Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland Counties. A map of the Detroit region is provided in Figure 3. In 1995, the tri-county population was estimated at 3.9 million, with the City of Detroit accounting for 990,407. Detroit is one of the most economically disadvantaged major cities in the country, with one third of its population living below the poverty level. Detroit is also one of six urban areas nationwide originally designated as a Federal Empowerment Zone. The Empowerment Zone program is designed to stimulate the creation of new jobs, particularly for the disadvantaged and long-term unemployed, and to promote revitalization of economically distressed areas through grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and special tax benefits. The Detroit Empowerment Zone encompasses an area of 6.8 square miles with a population of 101,279, where unemployment is approximately 29% and the poverty rate is 47%.

Over the last several decades, Detroit has experienced significant losses in population and employment to the suburban areas within the tri-county area. This decline is projected to continue, with Detroit's population estimated to decrease by 15% and employment by 12% by 2020. The largest employment declines to date have been in manufacturing and the finance, insurance and real estate sectors. Suburban employment centers including Dearborn, Troy, Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Livonia and Southfield have experienced rapid growth in employment over the past few decades. During the 1980's, almost 100 percent of the net job growth in the metropolitan area was in the suburbs outside of Detroit. While population and employment in Detroit are projected to decline between 1995 and 2020, the tri-county metropolitan area is expected to see a 7% increase in population --- to 4.2 million --- and a 10% increase in employment, by 2020.

Transportation System

Detroit is the birthplace of the automobile and still takes pride in being known as the "car capital of the world." As such, the metropolitan area is well served by numerous interstates and state highway routes but has not historically been transit-oriented. Two major transit agencies provide bus services in the Detroit metropolitan area, although their services are not integrated. The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) provides service in the City of Detroit (with a few suburban routes), while the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) provides primarily suburb-to-suburb and some peak hour services between the suburbs and central city. There is no urban passenger rail system in the Detroit metropolitan area.

Table 4: Key Findings from Detroit Case Study

Figure 3. Map of the Detroit Metropolitan Area

Currently, DDOT, an operating department of the City of Detroit, serves the City of Detroit and 43 suburban communities with 56 bus routes, with a focus on the City service area. DDOT's fleet of 560 buses includes 29 medium duty shuttle buses, 35 paratransit vehicles, and 9 antique trolley cars. DDOT carries over 150,000 passengers daily (which represents approximately 43 million annual unlinked passenger trips), covering more than 158 million annual passenger miles. The p.m. peak requirement is for 436 buses, which includes 23 medium duty shuttle size buses for routes with lower than average passenger traffic. Most service routes operate until approximately 1:00 A.M. with 14 routes operating 24 hours daily. Thirty-five paratransit vehicles are also operated under the Detroit Metrolift. DDOT does not have a designated source of funding, instead they have historically relied on significant funding from the City of Detroit general fund to support public transit. In 1997, the main funding sources for operations of DDOT are as follows: City general fund (38.5%), State of Michigan Operating Assistance (35.5%), farebox revenue (20.6%) and Federal assistance (4.8%).

In the mid-1980's, SMART's system was oriented to serving the downtown Detroit area. Since that time, however, the downtown Detroit area has seen a decline from approximately 120,000 workers to 65,000 workers today. According to SMART officials, SMART's service orientation did not reflect changing trends and by 1993 they were faced with having to change or go bankrupt. Prior to 1993, SMART had only large buses, ran complicated routes, had minimum service to job-growth areas, and little community involvement in service planning. Backed by their Board of Directors, they re-oriented their service through four key changes:

• Changed its fleet mix to more flexible small buses and vans.
• Simplified routes, located transit centers at malls and customer friendly areas.
• Added new service from suburb to suburb areas, particularly focusing on high growth areas.
• Provided funding to local communities to provide some local service and coordinated that service with SMART routes and service.

While SMART did not abandon its radial orientation, today only 30% of its service is focused on Detroit bound traffic and 70% is focused on suburb to suburb routes.

Even with two major transit providers, the metropolitan area is underserved by public transit, with Detroit ranking 18th out of the top 20 urbanized areas in vehicle miles of transit service per capita and 19th in the amount of local funding provided for transit. This lack of transit service is most severe in Detroit's suburbs where many of the new job opportunities are located. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that one third of all families in the city of Detroit do not own a car, while up to one half of all families in Detroit's Empowerment Zone do not own a car. The result is a large population of poor and chronically jobless with limited access to the growing suburban job market and economy. According to planning and transit agency staff, economic growth in the suburbs has created a demand for low-wage, entry level employees, and this demand has been a driving force behind local transit agencies focusing on providing new transportation services. Yet while employers are increasing their demand for employees, local transit and planning agency staff reported that their experience reveals that employers are reluctant to commit to funding transportation services because they view transportation as a public issue and one a motivated job seeker can overcome.

Welfare Reform

In June of 1992, the State of Michigan implemented extensive welfare reform initiatives that anticipated many of the Federal changes instituted through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Michigan's comprehensive welfare reform plan, To Strengthen Michigan Families (TSMF), included the implementation of stringent work requirements. According to the State's Family Independence Agency (FIA-formerly the Department of Social Services), since TSMF was implemented, more than 118,000 Family Independence Program (FIP) cases have been closed. In addition, the caseload has dropped to the lowest level in 20 years and it continues to drop each month. FIP is Michigan's program under the Federal TANF program.

TSMF reforms provide a link to employment through job training and placement. Furthermore, the State has recognized that removing obstacles to employment such as transportation and child care are critical to enable welfare recipients to secure employment. FIA staff are working with State and local departments of transportation and the Michigan Jobs Commission (MJC) to overcome these barriers to employment. There currently are 80,636 households receiving FIP benefits within the tri-county area, and 68,814 cases in Wayne County alone.

Project Zero is a TSMF initiative being undertaken in six project sites throughout the State. The Project is designed to reduce the number of FIP households without earned income to zero at those sites. The Romulus and Tireman sites are located in Wayne County and as of mid-1997 have 1,379 and 2,052 FIP cases, respectively . The Warren/Conner area on Detroit's east side, where many of the initiatives being undertaken by the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (MAC), as described later, has 2,278 FIP cases.

Planning Process

In the Hartford and St. Louis areas, task forces and work groups have been formed to bring various agencies together to address the access to jobs/ welfare to work issue. While there are joint efforts underway to bring various agencies in Detroit together, to date it is individual agencies which have taken the lead in planning for and addressing this issue. This is due in part to there being two separate major public transit operators whose services are not integrated.

Background

In 1967, State Public Act 204 designated the Southeast Michigan Transit Authority (SEMTA) as the regional authority for purposes of receiving state and federal transit funds. Although SEMTA was directed under the Act to purchase local public transit providers, no funding source was provided and DDOT did not agree to sell to SEMTA until a guaranteed funding mechanism was in place to provide for local city service, which has not occurred to this day. In 1988, State Public Act 204 was amended to designate the Regional Transit Coordinating Council (RTCC) as the recipient of state and federal transit funds. The Mayor of Detroit sits on the RTCC along with the county executives of Wayne, Macomb and Oakland Counties, and all Council actions require unanimous consent. According to local officials, the differing priorities of the central city and suburban officials has been a stumbling block to creating a unified regional transportation system.

The metropolitan area continues to be served by two separate providers, DDOT and SMART. Furthermore, there are approximately 350 separate, special purpose transportation service providers (i.e., welfare, elderly, health care, etc.) in the area. These smaller service providers are often restricted by legislation or their oversight agencies to serving only their immediate clientele. The lack of greater coordination between DDOT, SMART, and smaller providers is particularly important with regard to access to jobs. In Detroit, the chronically jobless reside predominantly in the central city but require access to suburban jobs. According to a recent DDOT traveler survey, 52 percent of their passengers are transit dependent with no vehicles in the household, and 52 percent did not posses a valid drivers license. As a result, the potential traveler is often required to transfer between two or more separate transportation providers to complete their travel.

Institutional Roles

The lack of integration has created opportunities for other agencies to play an innovative role in developing institutional partnerships and to serve as a catalyst for building consensus for a regional approach to the access to jobs issue. One such agency is the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (MAC), a regional coalition of business, labor and government formed in 1958 to address public policy issues affecting the economic vitality of the region. MAC is a private non-profit civic organization that is housed within the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), the Detroit area MPO. MAC works closely with SEMCOG on transportation issues affecting the chronically jobless in Detroit's inner city. MAC's Partnership for Economic Independence program (PEI), a demonstration project on Detroit's eastside working with 200 chronically jobless families to end welfare dependency and overcome barriers to employment, has a particular focus on assuring adequate and reliable transportation to provide access to employment as well as other needed services.

Applying its regional perspective, MAC, in cooperation with the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce, recently sponsored the development of the Transit Choice proposal, which is a new vision for restructuring transit service in Greater Detroit. The Transit Choice vision calls for improving access to a future unified regional transportation system through the development of more community based services, the implementation of technological solutions, and a phased approach to merging DDOT and SMART services. Key elements called for in the plan include new flexible short-trip community based transit, and Community and Regional Transfer Centers located at major transfer points and developed with amenities like convenience stores and child care centers to accommodate multi-purpose trips. DDOT recently applied to the FTA to fund four Transfer Centers which would provide a location to link feeder routes to major fixed routes in an effort to improve access within their system. Transit Choice provides a valuable and challenging point of reference for the future. However, RTCC, DDOT and SMART have yet to make a commitment to move towards Transit Choice's vision of a unified regional transit system. SEMCOG's 2020 long-range regional transportation plan (RTP), on the other hand, explicitly supports moving forward with Transit Choice.

While MAC is at the forefront of researching and planning for improving access to jobs, SEMCOG has played a key role in attempting to integrate data and information between the major transit operators. Due to limited resources within both SMART and DDOT, SEMCOG has helped to provide some of the long-range planning functions for both the transit agencies. In 1990, SEMCOG put together a plan with three steps for integrating regional transit planning including information referral, centralized scheduling, and brokering of services to local communities. Working through SEMCOG's Transit Working Group -- which includes staff from SEMCOG, DDOT, SMART, Ann Arbor Transit Authority (AATA), and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) -- SEMCOG has been instrumental in coordinating the use of the same GIS platform, TRAPEZE, to analyze the metropolitan service area. TRAPEZE software includes transit scheduling, automated vehicle location, GIS, and customer information capabilities. SEMCOG will provide baseline data from TIGER files which will be used by both agencies, while each agency will incorporate its own transit routing information to be shared between DDOT and SMART. This will enable each agency to perform local and regional analysis of their systems. This coordination can be a key element in successfully integrating transportation service between employment locations and areas where low income individuals reside.

SEMCOG released a draft of their 2020 RTP in March of 1997. The RTP addresses the continuing trend of suburban fringe growth and recognizes the resulting mismatch between jobs which need filling and the location of the people who might fill them. One RTP goal is to provide accessibility and mobility for all people and goods, but the requirements for access to jobs and welfare to work issues are not quantified and are not used as specific criteria applied to the project selection and decision-making processes. However, the MPO planning process is playing an important role in helping to identify and fund services that address the access to work issue. Funding flexibility introduced by ISTEA has enabled SEMCOG to program approximately $1.5 million in Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds to DDOT for the purchase of small buses. Future plans call for DDOT to receive Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) funds through the MPO planning process for the purchase of 10-12 medium size and small vans that will be used primarily for improved access to jobs and elderly transport.

Local agency planners from the transit agencies, MAC, and SEMCOG recognize that access to jobs can be addressed in the transportation planning process, but the primary focus of the process has traditionally been to address mobility and not the implementation of social policy. The officials agreed that the planning process and its constituent member agencies can have an important impact on addressing the issue through the development of goals, objectives and evaluation criteria within the planning process. However, MAC staff members who have extensive experience working with organizations within Detroit's Empowerment Zone pointed out that transportation is only one element in the transition of people from welfare to work; consequently, while the planning process can have an impact, solutions must be community-based, and not "top-down" dictated solutions.

Emerging Partnerships

Despite the segregation of regional transit services, community transportation partnerships are emerging. A leading example of an innovative, multi-agency, and community-oriented approach is the Community Based Mobility Strategy (CBMS) Task Force, formed as part of the Detroit Empowerment Zone Plan and composed of more than 50 community-based organizations and transportation providers from throughout the Empowerment Zone. MAC and DDOT are guiding this planning effort to coordinate existing transportation services in a cost-effective manner to provide Empowerment Zone residents with access to transportation, and, ultimately, to employment opportunities. The most immediate need identified by the Task Force was for an Automated Scheduling Dispatch System (ASDS) to coordinate transportation resources such that transportation would be provided in an efficient manner by the closest and most logical provider. The CBMS selection committee chose a consultant to design the system and identified the Detroit Assisted Transportation Coalition (DATC), through its fiduciary agent the Community Resource and Assistance Center (CRAC), as the lead agency. The cost to implement the ASDS is described under the MAC initiative EZ Ride in the Transportation Services section.

The DATC is a coalition of five community based organizations that provide transportation within the Empowerment Zone: CRAC, Council of Actions United for Service Efforts (CAUSE), Brightmoor Community Center, Delray United Action Council, and Latino Family Services. CRAC has been providing demand response transportation services to its low-income and mobility-impaired clients since 1979, and is the largest service provider in DATC with 8 vehicle. CAUSE operates 4 vehicles on the Empowerment Zone's west side for seniors and disabled, while the remaining three DATC members each operate a single vehicle. CRAC provides approximately 135 trips per day, and the other DATC members collectively provide approximately 265 trips per day. It is anticipated that the ASDS will facilitate the coordination of the DATC services with the paratransit operations of SMART and DDOT.

At the transit agency level, both DDOT and SMART staff pointed out that they are incorporating welfare to work planning issues as part of their broader focus on service improvement and innovation. Both agencies recognize that transit services must be market driven, flexible, and responsive to changing customer needs. Serving welfare recipients who are transitioning to work is part of that changing need; DDOT and SMART are focusing on making transit services more accessible through a combination of smaller vehicles, automated scheduling and dispatch, and re-orienting traditional line-haul services. However, according to transit agency staff, service enhancements must make transit attractive and responsive to all users or the support for financing new and improved measures will not materialize.

Planning Services

In adopting a more market oriented approach, both DDOT and SMART are working with local chambers of commerce and community organizations to identify and address employer and community transportation needs. In response to input from riders and employers, SMART has changed the schedule times of trips, altered routes, and designed specialized services to better serve riders who depend on its services. They have also proactively worked with customers to meet their needs by providing the following services:

• Employer/Employee Analysis - using GIS, SMART has been able to provide information to local communities and employers on the impact of potential route modifications or new transit services on jobs. Using employment data provided by a private firm at an annual cost of $10,000, as well as U.S. Census data, SMART performs corridor analyses with breakdowns by number of businesses, type of business, and jobs (See Appendix C). SMART uses the employment location data in combination with data showing existing or proposed transit service to demonstrate whether existing transit service is sufficient to link potential employees with employers who are located on or within a limited distance of the transit route.
• Ombudsperson - SMART assigns one ombudsperson in each of its three counties to establish long-term working relationships and marketing outreach with business, community and government leaders, including FIA/job training staff. The Ombudsperson is responsible for working with local communities to coordinate transportation services as part of their community coordination plans, and works closely with businesses to identify employment service and transit requirements.

DDOT and SMART are focusing specifically on access to jobs through their work with the FIA, the Michigan Employment Security Agency (MESA), and job placement contractors to implement Project Zero. According to DDOT and SMART staff, sharing of information between transit agencies, job placement firms, and state agencies is critical to effective planning for access to jobs issues. Both transit agencies reported that job placement contractors did not always have job data and expected the transit agencies to provide information on employment location and availability.

Planning Methods

As cited earlier, SEMCOG has helped to provide some of the long-range planning functions for both DDOT and SMART. SEMCOG has employed its transportation demand modeling capabilities to provide travel demand and origin/destination data for use in service planning for both transit agencies, including information needed to provide service to transit dependent, low income families. Furthermore, SEMCOG has also been instrumental in coordinating data from both agencies so they can use the same GIS platform to analyze the metropolitan service area.

As part of a national trend in transportation demand modeling, SEMCOG is moving away from traditional trip based modeling and towards activity based modeling. This change will potentially enable planners to model the transportation effect of paratransit services provided by DDOT, SMART and smaller providers. Activity based modeling will allow planners to analyze who needs to be moved (i.e. elderly, health care) and how they need to be moved, all of which are important elements of multi-purpose trip making that may be typical of people moving from welfare to work.

GIS technology is also being applied to do some service planning, including ensuring adequate transportation for Project Zero families. In addition to using business and employment data provided by private information service companies, SMART uses U.S. Census TIGER files in their GIS to get information on the location of transit dependent populations, based on such items as income and cars per household. SMART also hopes to place TRAPEZE scheduling software at FIA district offices so they can book paratransit rides in real time. This would provide a coordinated reservations system for paratransit-type service among the more than 70 service providers in the SMART service area, allowing for the trip to be provided by the appropriate SMART or local community transit service or agency. This is similar to the idea underlying DDOT's Translink and the MAC's EZ Ride use of scheduling and dispatch technology (discussed on the following pages).

DDOT has also taken several important steps in anticipation of the need to provide accurate transit and bus stop data for the GIS/TRAPEZE scheduling system. DDOT created a coordinator position to guide their GIS efforts. They are also developing in-house capabilities using a commercial GIS platform as a database manager to support the TRAPEZE system. DDOT is currently drafting a bus stop work plan that will serve as a strategic and operational plan for collecting transit route and bus stop data that conforms to the Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) data standards. In partnership with MDOT, DDOT is working to identify the requirements of using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to survey and inventory transit properties in a regional setting. This is intended to ensure that relevant data is collected to support GPS capabilities, including automated vehicle location, that are part of the TRAPEZE system.

Transportation Solutions

Despite recent progress towards greater coordination between DDOT and SMART in areas such as compatibility of data systems and GIS platforms, implementation of transfer tickets, and a regional transit pass, the regional transit system is not well integrated. Therefore, individual agencies and institutions are implementing innovative programs to address the service and scheduling needs of employers and employees, some of whom will be coming off of the welfare rolls and into the labor force.

Translink

DDOT's labor mobility project, Translink, is designed to provide access for Detroit residents to job opportunities in outlying areas of the City and suburban job locations. This project specifically focuses on providing transportation to enhance job opportunities for Empowerment Zone residents. Detroit's Employment and Training Department and MESA, in cooperation with the FIA, are working with for-profit employment centers in Detroit to provide employment screening, mock interviews, job training and development of work skills, and placement for welfare and chronically unemployed individuals within the Empowerment Zone. DDOT is working closely with these agencies and employment centers to provide the necessary transportation links to employment locations.

Translink began service in October 1996, with the majority of routes operating since February 1997. Translink routes represent approximately 2% of the total DDOT route system. In some cases, Translink routes are new routes which service formerly unserved areas, while other Translink routes altered or extended existing DDOT routes to reach new employment centers. To date, DDOT estimates that Translink service provides over 7,784 trips per month to employment centers primarily outside of Detroit, of which 4,904 are Empowerment Zone based trips. The fare is $1.50 on all Translink job transit routes, which is 25 cents higher than DDOT's base fare of $1.25. In fact, Translink routes are estimated to recover a higher percentage of costs from farebox revenues (33%) than DDOT's regular routes, which recover approximately 22% of costs from fare box revenues. DDOT also offers a Transit Commuter Benefit Program that provides a federal tax credit to employers for purchase of transit passes up to $65 per month per employee. DDOT also continues to work with employers in specific corridors to improve their inner city network travel times to meet employer and employee needs.

SMART Services

In 1995, SMART was able to secure a local funding source through the passage of a local dedicated tax. Voter feedback revealed that support for the tax came primarily from concern for elderly and handicapped transportation versus an identifiable concern for welfare to work issues. A dedicated funding source has made it possible for SMART to plan for new services and to serve employees in growth areas. As SMART officials suggested, any new service must take into consideration the necessity of generating continued support for the next tax vote which is scheduled for 1998.

SMART has introduced a number of innovative programs to increase ridership and serve employee and employer needs for access including:

• Get a Job-Get a Ride - provides a monthly pass to any new worker that accepts a permanent position for the first month. The annual cost to SMART is $50,000 for administration which they consider an investment aimed at developing new riders who will chose transit on a permanent basis.
• Buses to Business Forum - invites local business leaders to breakfast to gather input to better serve their employees' needs. These forums serve as a starting point to develop relationships between SMART's Ombudsperson and local businesses and communities in planning and coordinating transit services.
• WJLB Job Line - SMART works with local businesses and MESA to advertise jobs located along SMART bus routes through a phone line provided for and advertised by WJLB radio station. There is no financial impact to SMART other than administrative time for the program.
• Community Coordination Plans - SMART provides part of its local dedicated tax revenues to local communities for capital or operating funds; the only qualifier for the funds is completion of an annual coordination plan. It begins to get the entire community involved in transit which is vital because there are over 75 providers of paratransit service in the SMART service area. SMART's Ombudsperson then works to ensure coordination between local community and SMART transit services.

MAC Initiatives

MAC is also working to implement a number of innovative transportation related programs to address the access to jobs issue, particularly for those workers coming off of welfare rolls. MAC's PEI project on Detroit's eastside focuses on assuring adequate and reliable transportation to provide access to employment as well as other needed services. Under PEI, MAC has worked to implement two significant programs:

• Empowerment through Car Ownership (ECO) - is a two phase pilot program with an educational component to teach PEI members about car purchasing, ownership, insurance and maintenance, and an auto leasing component to help qualified PEI members pursue car ownership.
• EZ Ride - is the automated scheduling and dispatch system (ASDS) initiative described earlier in the Emerging Partnerships sub-section. The system will be implemented in Detroit's Empowerment Zone using new technology to coordinate services of various independent agencies in order to provide for more convenient and efficient transportation for zone residents. The implementation of the ASDS system is estimated to cost between $230,000 and $330,000, with two-thirds of that cost accounted for by the purchase of software. The cost to maintain the system once implemented is estimated at approximately $10,000-$20,000 on an annual basis. The cost to design the system was funded by MAC, while funding for the actual implementation of the system will come from the Empowerment Zone grant funds provided by HUD.

To date, the ECO program has leased approximately 7 vehicles and 2-3 more will be leased over the next few months. The cost to lease and insure a car under the program is estimated at approximately $180 per month. According to MAC staff, the cost of car ownership even under this program is significant and makes the widespread application of the ECO program to a larger population unlikely. The EZ Ride program is currently being implemented in cooperation with DDOT under the CBMS.

MDOT Services

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) also sponsors a vanpool program called MichiVan. Under the program, groups of commuters, traveling to the same destination, lease a van on a month to month basis. The lease includes insurance and maintenance and is based on the number of daily round trip miles the van travels. Travelers pay the fuel cost. According to MAC staff, shared vanpools do not appear to be successful for welfare dependent populations in Detroit. A number of hurdles have prevented more widespread implementation of the vanpool programs including the need for a sufficient number of riders working similar shifts to share a van and a secure place to store the vehicle.

Conclusion

While there are efforts underway to build broader coalitions, to date it is individual agencies which have taken the lead in planning for and addressing the access to jobs and welfare to work issue. DDOT, SMART, MAC and local community-based organizations are implementing logical, incremental transportation service improvements to meet changing transportation needs. Individual agencies are also playing an innovative role in developing institutional partnerships, building consensus, and serving as a catalyst to address access to jobs. MAC's Transit Choice proposal, a phased approach to merging DDOT and SMART services into a more unified regional transportation system, is one such example. All participants in the metropolitan area agree that greater coordination of planning, information, and resources among all agencies will be key to the future of any effort to improve access to jobs through public transportation and the transition from welfare to work.

The lack of a regional perspective can be a major hurdle toward developing support for a regional transportation system. Detroit is the auto capital of the world, as evidenced by some of the highest single occupant vehicle rates in the nation. Despite the fact that substantial funding is received by SMART from local tax sources and by DDOT from the City of Detroit general fund, transit agency staff acknowledged that the public still does not perceive transit as a priority, which makes continued public funding uncertain. According to SMART staff, while business interests generally support more integrated regional transit, those residents who voted in favor of a local tax to support transit are primarily concerned with services within and between suburbs, rather than connections between the suburbs and the central city.

Providing access to jobs through transit is no simple task considering the lack of an integrated regional transit system, the mismatch between the location of new job opportunities and where potential new employees reside, and Michigan's strict welfare work requirements. The State FIA and MESA have acknowledged that transportation is a key link in the job training and placement picture. DDOT and SMART are working with the State to meet this challenge. However, staff from the transit agencies pointed out that they are incorporating welfare to work planning issues as part of their broader focus on service improvement and innovation.

DDOT, SMART and MAC recognize that transit services must be flexible and market driven, responsive to changing customer needs. DDOT and SMART are focusing on making transit services more accessible through a combination of smaller vehicles, automated scheduling and dispatch, and reorienting traditional line-haul services. According to transit agency staff, service enhancements must make public transportation attractive and responsive to all users or the support for financing new and improved measures will not materialize.

The transportation planning process can also play an important role in helping to identify and fund services that address access to work issues. Officials from the transit agencies, MAC and SEMCOG recognize this, but point out that mobility is the primary focus of the planning process and not the implementation of social policy. The officials agreed that the planning process can have an important impact by acknowledging the relationship between mobility and larger societal needs such as access to jobs through the development of related goals, objectives, and criteria. However, they cautioned that transportation is only one element in what must be a community- based solution to transitioning people from welfare to work.

Technology will also play a key role addressing access to jobs issues. SMART and DDOT's use of GIS is becoming an integral part of their service planning. The implementation of new technologies can greatly enhance transit agencies' ability to provide more flexible, responsive services to the traveling public. In the near future, the development of enhanced activity based modeling may help to better identify who travels where and how, and how transit agencies can best provide that service.

Appendix A: List of Local Contacts

Hartford

Capitol Region Council of Governments
Richard J. Porth, Executive Director
Francis P. McMahon, Director of Transportation

241 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06106
(860)522-2217

Connecticut Department of Transportation

Michael A. Sanders, Transit and Rideshare Administrator
Richard Hollis, Transportation Supervising Planner
Lynn A. DiNallo, Transit Planner

2800 Berlin Turnpike
Newington, CT 06131-7546

Community Renewal Team
Dawn Homer-Bouthiette, Director of Special Projects

555 Windsor Street
Hartford, CT 06120-2418

Greater Hartford Transit District
Arthur Handman, Executive Director
Doug Holcomb

One Union Place
Hartford, CT 06103

Connecticut Business and Industry Association
Arlyne Alexander

(860) 244-1934

CT Transit
Charlie Carson
(860) 522-8101

St. Louis

East-West Gateway Coordinating Committee
Blair Forlaw, Director of Policy and Programming

10 Stadium Plaza
St. Louis, MO 63102-1714
(314) 421-4220

Bi-State Development Agency
Fred Douglas, Manager of Service Development

707 N. 1st Street
St. Louis, M0 63102
(314) 982-1514

Missouri Department of Social Services
Marilynn Knipp, Assistant Director

221 W. High St. 2nd Floor
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Missouri Department of Economic Development
Julie Gibson, Director of Training and Development

(573) 526-8229

Mid-co Products Corporation
Robert Leavitt, Manager

(314) 530-1779

Missouri Highway and Transportation Department
Phil Richardson
Lawrence Welty, Urban Liaison Engineer

(573) 751-2523
(314) 340-4116

Detroit

Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT)
Albert Martin, Director of Administration
Claryce Gibbons-Allen, Manager Planning & Marketing
Clarence Allen, Mgr. Scheduling & Service Development

1301 E. Warren
Detroit, MI 48207
(313) 833-7690

Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART)
Dan G. Dirks, Director of Planning
Ron R. Ristau, Manager, Service Development

2021 Barrett St.
Troy, MI 48084
(810) 362-0925

Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)
Adiele Nwanko, Ph.D., Manager, Transportation Programs

660 Plaza Drive, Suite 1900
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 961-4266

Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (MAC)
B. David Sanders, Vice President
Joan Weidner
Susan Phillips

(313) 961-2270

Michigan Department of Transportation
Lisa Funk, Supervisor, Passenger Transportation Division

(517) 373-8746

Appendix B: Hartford Access to Jobs Proposal : Ridership and Cost Estimates - Year 1

Appendix B: Hartford Access to Jobs Proposal : Ridership and Cost Estimates - Year 2

Appendix C: SMART GIS Analysis of Transit Service Versus Employment Location