Coordination: Stretching Transportation Dollars
Where's the Future Leading Us?
 Keven Anderson, District Project Manager, Transit
Minnesota Department of Transportation
What's the most frequently heard phrase over the last 6-9 months? In my world it has to be "what's the funding going to be?" At least that's what everyone that I work with is asking and you know I still don't have an answer. With the veto of the Minnesota Transportation bill and the legislature going into special session the future is far from clear.
We have been lucky in Minnesota to have been able to hold the funding to our Transit systems basically flat and even so many have found ways to increase their ridership while still "tightening their belts." But even no increase is a decrease when you figure inflation. So where are we going to look for funds?
My only thought is to get to know your neighbors better. Who manages the local day activity center and how can you share vehicles or dispatching? The schools, by and large, don't want to be in the transportation business. How can you meet their needs and still service your customers? How are the veterans getting to town for medical appointments?
One phrase that one of my directors used in a board meeting keeps coming back to me: "Who in the world is funding all the transportation I see in our community? It seems like everyone has a budget line item for transportation!"
Well who's got it and how can we share it?
NDinfo.org is North Dakota's information hub linking people to services, organizations and events in their community. NDinfo.org was created to provide much needed support to the non-profit and government agencies that serve North Dakota citizens and is now expanding to provide for day-to-day information and human service needs for all North Dakota citizens. The NDinfo.org information system has had many partners working collaboratively together in support of an information delivery system for the citizens of North Dakota. To access this information hub, go to NDinfo.org .
Montana Seeks Coordination Examples
 Tom Steyaert, Transit Section Supervisor
Montana Department of Transportation
Because of increasing interest in passenger transportation coordination at the national, state, and local levels, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) will soon begin an effort to develop model processes for developing local coordination plans in Montana communities. The goal of this effort is to create models or templates that transportation providers can adapt to fit their specific needs and community characteristics.
In cooperation with the Montana Transit Association, MDT will work with a variety of transportation providers to develop and test processes and plans that are appropriate for Montana's primarily rural communities. Although transportation providers in many of these communities are already coordinating services, the new model processes will give providers a new tool to improve and document their efforts. This tool will be especially important if TEA-21 reauthorization legislation requires Section 5310 providers to develop local coordination plans. Our goal is to complete this effort by Dec. 31 so the processes will be available to providers in early 2006.
To help us in this effort, we are seeking examples of similar processes from transportation agencies and providers in other states. If you have something you think would help us, please contact Tom Steyaert, MDT's Transit Section Supervisor, at (406)444-4210 or tseyaert@mt.gov .
 Unless you look close, you may miss SURTC's new logo. It looks similar to the old one, but the new logo has people in the bus.
"Our mission at SURTC is to increase the mobility of small urban and rural residents through improved public transportation," notes director Jill Hough. "That means we're not interested in empty buses, but full ones that represent transit agencies doing the best job possible of serving their communities and clients."
|
