Partnerships

The first step in coordinating transportation service delivery is to bring the various providers of transportation services together and establish open lines of communication. While this may seem all too obvious, many transportation providers related that this first step was the most critical. In fact, prior to efforts at coordination, many transit and health and human service agency officials had never had contact with one another. Consequently, they lacked a complete understanding of the current transportation services provided by their counterparts and the opportunities to enhance services to their clients and realize possible operating efficiencies through collaboration.

The impetus for forming partnerships varies widely from place to place. In a number of areas, state legislatures commissioned studies that identified the need for coordination to provide enhanced transportation for seniors and other human service clientele. Governors in some states have pushed through initiatives and executive orders requiring coordination between agencies. In other areas, states passed laws that require all agencies and operators who are recipients of Federal, state, or local transportation funding to coordinate their activities. Individual staff have also served as catalysts for coordination - informal relationships between staff of state DOTs and state DHHS agencies have led to the exchange of information and realization that a coordinated partnership approach could benefit all agencies involved. It is also common for individuals to take the initiative in seeking solutions to their agencies’ transportation delivery challenges and funding shortfalls by reaching out to other agencies for help. Regardless of the impetus, legislatures, politicians, agencies, and individuals have recognized the benefits derived from forming partnerships to coordinate transportation services.

Partnerships contribute to a coordinated approach to transportation service delivery in a number of ways. Without the establishment of working partnerships, none of the planning strategies discussed would be possible, because all depend on staff working together, sharing information and resources, and developing cooperative agreements. Partnership is the first step to that cooperative relationship, bringing together agencies with very different missions, constituencies, clientele, staff and resources, to create a free flow of information. Key to these new partnerships is establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or similar agreement among participating agencies to address any obstacles to coordination. MOUs help to define the roles and responsibilities of each participating agency.

Establishment of permanent coordinating councils or transportation advisory committees, including a state or local DOT, state and local health and human service agencies, transit agencies, MPOs, and others often strengthens the newly formed partnerships. While these partnerships have the potential to bring staff with technical expertise together, the partnerships thrive only if they have the political support from their organizations that will be required to implement a coordinated system. In some cases, political support provides the original impetus for the establishment of coordinating councils and committees. In other cases, coordinating councils have first had to develop information to illustrate the potential benefit of coordination before political support is generated. In either case, political support is essential to make a coordinated system a reality.

The two examples that follow illustrate how the formation of partnerships occurred, what provided the impetus, the agencies involved, the challenges faced, and the benefits realized. For additional information about forming partnerships, please see "Planning Guidelines for Coordinated State and Local Specialized Transportation Services," Checklist of Transportation Planning Steps, Steps 1 and 2.³

A. State of Washington - Developing Partnerships for Coordination at the Statewide Level

In Washington, transportation coordination has had some notable successes, including the collaboration between the Washington State DOT and the State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to establish a brokerage model for the delivery of transportation in the 1980s. Originally, a number of DSHS agencies were considering participating, but when the brokerage system was put in place, only the Medicaid agency decided to participate. Other DSHS agencies did not participate because of concern over losing control of their program’s transportation element. The brokerage system has been successful by any measure, but the State DOT, with a long tradition of using coordination as a primary component in evaluating grant applications for transit funding, believed that coordination could be achieved on a larger scale.

In 1997, the State Legislature undertook a transportation study that recommended a statewide forum on coordination. Although a bill was introduced in the Washington legislature to create ACCT, the bill did not pass out of the legislature during the session. The legislature did allocate $1 million to the State DOT to fund coordination demonstration projects, however. The DOT established a multi-agency advisory council that mirrored the proposed membership of the ACCT and went forward with the selection and awarding of demonstration projects in January 1998.

In March 1998, the bill to form ACCT was re-introduced in the legislature and passed. The ACCT membership includes the State Secretaries from DOT, DSHS, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Transit Association, the State Association for Pupil Transportation, the Community Transportation Association of the Northwest, and members of the user community. This included a senior lobby representative, a person with disabilities, and an at-large appointee of the governor. ACCT also has eight state legislators who are non-voting and the DOT provides staff support. The underlying mission for ACCT is to identify barriers to coordinated transportation between agencies. ACCT undertook a statewide survey of health and human service and community agencies and transit providers and held 13 public hearings to get input regarding barriers to coordination. That effort resulted in identification of barriers grouped under the six headings below:

• organizational and structural
• policy and regulatory
• operations
• funding
• communication
• information and data.

To address these barriers, ACCT formed three workgroups in the summer of 1998. The first group was formed to address the organizational/structural and policy/regulatory issues. Their focus was on what a coordinated system should look like. The second group was created to address data planning and information clearinghouse issues. The group assessed what types of data are needed, the availability of data from transit, education, and health and human service agencies, and how data could be used to evaluate the cost of current transportation services and the benefits of coordination. The third work group was formed to address operational and funding issues, and to make recommendations for future demonstration projects. The group focused on how agencies could share the costs of rides, coordinate dispatch, and increase capacity of available paratransit services.

In early 1999, the task of the three workgroups was completed. Their efforts resulted in the introduction and passage of legislation that created a Program for Coordinated Transportation (PACT) at the state level. PACT defines coordination and establishes a two-tiered program for implementing coordination. At the state level, an advisory group consisting of representatives from all state agencies whose programs involve transportation was formed to provide input and recommendations to ACCT. At the local level, PACT provides for the creation of local community forums including all local transportation stakeholders. ACCT appointed a local planning workgroup to develop local coordination planning guidelines that would provide community forums with a roadmap to approaching coordination. The local community forums will be responsible for the development of a transportation coordination plan developed in response to ACCT’s coordination guidelines. The plans will identify the lead agency for funding purposes and provide information on proposed operational implementation of coordinated services.

The original data planning and information clearinghouse workgroup also proposed recommendations regarding the need for and collection of data from various agencies. The group proposed changes over time to DSHS reporting codes and classifications that, while not capturing the full cost of transportation, would provide some information about the level and cost of transportation services being provided by DSHS agencies. This was in recognition of the lack of historical ridership and cost data available from health and human service agencies. However, the legislature was not convinced that the benefits of collecting the data were worth the cost to obtain those data and the recommendations were not implemented.

The demonstration projects originally funded by the legislature in 1997 have moved forward under the oversight of ACCT staff. A preliminary report on the results of the projects was due to be issued at a later date in 1999. The demonstration projects are addressing a number of different elements of coordination:

• In King County, the demonstration project has three components under the direction of the Metro Transit Agency. The first looks at coordinated transportation planning for welfare-to-work, and involves developing working relationships between Metro, county human service agencies, the local private industry council, employers, and local child care centers. The project will provide transit passes and other incentives to help transition new employees into jobs. The goal of the second component is to develop a single broker system for all ADA-eligible individuals and Medicaid transportation to replace the current shared brokerage system. The third component involves providing used vehicles to several community-based organizations to assist them with their transportation needs. The expected benefits of the projects are: to increase the available capacity for trips; to reduce the overall cost of trips; to provide more travel choices for people in the community, and; helping people make a successful transition from welfare to work. The total cost of the combined projects is projected at $628,000.

• In Mason County, the Transportation Authority will create an Interagency Joint Transportation Coalition to develop working agreements between county agencies. Under the project, a Mobility Coordinator was hired to coordinate contracted dial-a-ride services, develop compensation rates for providers, and to develop a volunteer ride services program. The expected benefits of the project are: to reduce costs to individual agencies through coordination by better utilization of available funding and resources; to provide improved services for out-of-county trips for medical and other purposes, and; distributing trips to more providers, including volunteers. The total project cost is projected at $91,000.

• In Snohomish County, the County Senior Services Agency will contract with up to five senior centers in the rural part of the county to serve as transfer sites. This will bring people who are outside the service area of Community Transit (CT), the regional transit agency, to senior centers to be transferred onto CT’s system. The expected benefits of the project are: to connect rural residents to the transit system; to reduce agency costs by shortening trip lengths and sharing rides through coordinated dispatch, and; increase agency vehicle capacities by reducing trip lengths and freeing vehicles for more trips. The total project cost is projected at $319,000.

• In Yakima County, People for People, a community-based non-profit organization, is exploring ways to serve outlying areas beyond the city-bounded service area by assessing resources available for coordination with local agencies. A coordination center will be created to serve as a central clearinghouse. People for People will create an inventory of routes, schedules, vehicle capacities, and program resources and will work with participants to unify scheduling of trips. The keys to the system will be a common rate structure and the participation of all local providers within the system. The expected benefits of the project are: to reduce the cost of trips per agency by sharing expenses; increase capacity and decrease trip denials; and expand the availability of services within the community. The total project cost is projected at $243,000.

• In Clallam and Jefferson, located on the Olympic peninsula, the Olympic Area Agency on Aging is undertaking a planning exercise to determine community needs and assess service alternatives within the two counties for coordinated transportation. A coordinator will be hired to implement a "Bus Buddy" system to move trips from paratransit to the transit system and will implement a marketing plan to educate consumers about their transportation options. The expected benefits of the project are: to minimize trip duplications; reduce costs by shifting trips to less expensive transit and thereby make resources available for more trips, and; expand the availability of services through coordination between agencies. The total project cost is projected at $165,000.

Working cooperatively through their partnership on the council, ACCT members hope to generate support for further funding of the Council to support staff, fund additional demonstration projects, and provide sufficient funding to support the formation of community forums at the county level. Staff from the ACCT acknowledges that generating sufficient funds to support coordination will continue to be a challenge. They will need to persuade the legislature that it will cost money to ultimately save money through coordination.

B. Detroit, Michigan - Developing Partnerships at the Grass Roots Level

While the Greater Detroit metropolitan area ranks fifth in the nation in terms of population, it ranks next to last among the top 20 areas in transit services available. The lack of adequate transportation over the years led many health and human service agencies, churches, and health care providers to develop and operate their own specialized transportation services. In 1990, a study by the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)⁴, the local MPO, identified problems with the coordination of specialized transportation services in the Detroit metropolitan area. SEMCOG identified over 300 specialized transportation providers in the area, including the two large transit agencies, DDOT and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transit (SMART), and numerous community and health and human service agencies. When Detroit was designated as one of six Federal Empowerment Zones in 1995, the Community-based Mobility Strategy (CBMS) Task Force was formed with the goal of coordinating local specialized transportation resources.

The CBMS is a partnership of more than 50 community-based and health and human service organizations and transportation providers from throughout the Empowerment Zone. MAC, a regional coalition of business, labor and government leaders associated with the MPO, is guiding this planning effort to coordinate transportation services in a cost-effective manner to provide Empowerment Zone residents with access to transportation. The Task Force developed an idea for EZ Ride, a system based on a centralized Automated Scheduling Dispatch System (ASDS) to coordinate transportation resources. The closest and most logical provider would provide transportation in an efficient manner. EZ Ride would encourage agencies to cooperate in meeting transportation needs of the community as a whole and not only their agency’s clientele. From the passengers’ standpoint, EZ Ride would also make transportation more accessible by providing a single number to call to reserve a ride.

The involvement of grass roots organizations has been vital to developing local coordination. The CBMS identified the DATC, through its fiduciary agent the Community Resource and Assistance Center (CRAC), as the lead agency to implement the EZ Ride system. The DATC is a coalition of five community-based organizations that provide transportation within the Empowerment Zone:

• CRAC
• Brightmoor Community Center
• Delray United Action Council
• Latino Family Services
• Council of Actions United for Service Efforts (CAUSE)

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 eight vehicles. CAUSE operates four vehicles on the Empowerment Zone's west side for seniors and persons with disabilities, 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.

The CBMS Task Force realized that centralization would be key to the success of EZ Ride. The ASDS system would enable participating agencies to increase available transportation within the Empowerment Zone by maximizing the use of existing vehicle capacity, while providing travelers with a one-stop resource for reserving rides. It is anticipated that EZ Ride will provide 125,000 one-way trips annually, an increase of 50% to 70% over the number of rides provided by the DATC member agencies at present. Furthermore, through MAC and their partnership with local private industries, Ford Motor Company has provided additional vehicles (alternative fuel) to DATC for use in the EZ Ride system. This brings the number of available vehicles up to 32 for the coordinated system, increasing the coordinated system trip capacity beyond projections.

It is anticipated that EZ Ride will also facilitate the coordination of the DATC services with the paratransit operations of SMART and DDOT and, by linking Empowerment Zone transportation providers together, agencies will be encouraged to cooperate and coordinate to a greater degree in the future. After the two-year pilot period, EZ Ride would be expanded to include other paratransit providers with the goal of developing a network of coordinated community-based transportation providers, closely aligned and linked with the paratransit service provided by DDOT and SMART. In an effort to make greater coordination possible, MAC is also working with SEMCOG, DDOT, and SMART on a Transit Choice proposal. Transit Choice recommends a phased approach to merging DDOT and SMART services into a more unified and coordinated regional transportation system. The EZ Ride system would coordinate access by empowerment zone residents to a more integrated regional transportation system.

More than $3 million of the $4 million in funding needed to support personnel, operating expenses, vehicle maintenance, and the implementation of the ASDS for a two-year pilot of EZ Ride has already been raised. MAC and DDOT have worked with local hospital systems, the Area Agency on Aging, the local foundation community, the Department of Labor (through Welfare to Work grants), Michigan DOT, and the FHWA/ITS Office to identify and secure funding for the pilot. Final funding has been secured as part of a Federal Transit Administration grant to Detroit for Access to Jobs and Reverse Commute.