Emergency and Aging Care Webinars; Local Profiles

The National Association of Regional Councils NARC) will be hosting a webinar about emergency preparedness lessons learned from Japan's multi-dimensional disasters that occurred one on top of each other. Sudden Emergency: An Insight into Japan's State of Emergency will be held tomorrow, March 23, at 3 p.m. ET.

The Administration on Aging (AoA) is hosting a webinar, Care Transitions in Action: From Hospital to Home in Two Communities, which will explore in depth care transitions partnerships between hospitals and area agencies on aging in two communities. Transportation issues are not specifically mentioned. The webinar will be held on March 30 at 2 p.m. ET.

Around the Country

The Dublin-area Alameda County Transportation Commission will hold a community workshop this week to discuss a 25-year transportation plan. From PleasantonWeekly.com:

Key issues to be addressed in the planning process include planning for a multi‐modal system that equitably moves people and goods efficiently and cost effectively throughout the county; planning for the full range of travel needs and the diversity of users of transportation systems; integrating new legislation that requires greater coordination between transportation and land‐use planning and a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (COMPASS)posts a Mobility Management Toolkit with a cornucopia of resources for promoting community transportation and zero-emission modes (translation: biking and walking), and carpooling.

Templates for many of the items/ideas listed in the background information,
including model lease agreements and a model ordinance. These can be
downloaded and personalized for your use, or can simply serve as initial ideas
for creating your own materials. Feel free to cut and paste; mix and match;
add, delete, and change these materials to suit your needs.

Visit COMPASS on facebook for a terrific example of engaging the community about transportation planning and usage, and community design.

Reaching Out to Seniors

AARP New York is hosting a series of webinars for Westchester residents. Westchester is generally affluent, suburban and primarily auto-dependent, though it has transit as well as Metro-North train service into the city. The county is trying to become more senior friendly. The webinars cover how to get around without a car and walking safely. This mode for sharing information was selected as an "innovative way to enable seniors to remain active in their communities as well as a valuable resource for adult children caring for aging parents."

Mobility Management Profiles

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has posted mobility management profiles, including a case study of COAST, the transportation program of the Council on Aging & Human Services (CoA&HS), a nonprofit social service agency located in rural eastern Washington near the Washington-Idaho border. [When using the link, scroll down to the profiles section.] COAST serves the general public as well as transportation-challenged populations, over a large, multi-county, area.

I despise long quotes, but this one is packed with a wonderful illustration of mobility management and partnerships in action.

COAST’s customer orientation is reflected in its comprehensive client list. Its mobility management services extend to members of the general public, seniors, school children, commuters, persons with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities, low income persons, Medicaid recipients, veterans, and many others. COAST has agreements with a wide range of agencies and service providers, including public transit operators, private for profit providers, area agencies on aging, schools, sheltered workshops, hospitals, Head Start programs, and many others. COAST brokers or provides services at night or during weekends when such services are not offered by other public transportation providers or to destinations not otherwise served. They manage vehicle sharing among various agencies, and they train drivers and maintain vehicles for many agencies. In order to establish this network, COAST has been reaching out to the community. When new facilities open up, whether it is a group home, a small non-profit social service agency, or other agency, COAST approaches them and informs what COAST can do to meet their transportation needs.

A Chicago-area county is studying coordination options to make transportation easier for clients of human services agencies as well as those accessing medical care. An article in the Highland Park News reveals that the challenge the county confronts is a common one: "[T]ownship and other paratransit services only serve residents in specific geographic areas and there is little service available for residents who need to get from one part of the county to another." Thanks to Jane Hardin for sharing the article.

Ambassadors

February's ambassador blogs hold a treasure trove of information about developments across the country. Here are some highlights; visit the NRC website for these informative monthly updates.

Beverly Ward - Region I Ambassador blog
Bev brings news of New Hampshire's regional efforts to create transportation options and to expand and improve opportunities for public involvement in transportation planning.

Barb Singleton - Region X Ambassador blog
Barb writes about statewide coordination in Alaska, specifically the Coordinated Transportation Task Force, its responsibilities and consensus on recommendations for state-level coordination.

James McLary - Region II Ambassador blog
James shares his knowledge about Medicaid and its related transportation program, the difficulty of coordinating that transportation with other transportation services, and an example that demonstrates that coordination is possible.

Margi Ness - Region VII Ambassador blog
Margi announces a Nebraska coordination success story and how federal officials are noticing local livability and coordination efforts. At the other end of the spectrum, Margi discusses the start of a senior transportation coordination effort in Shawnee County.

Events

National Transit Institute (NTI)
NTI has upcoming classes on rural transportation technology. Please note that NTI classes fill up. Courses on mobility management and ADA paratransit eligibility are full well in advance.

Association for Travel Instruction (ATI)
ATI's annual conference - Aug, 12-14, 2011 in Philadelphia. ATI is calling for presentation proposals, including such topics as marketing travel instruction programs, travel training at community colleges, ADA paratransit certification, travel instruction for senior citizens, discussing travel instruction with parents, caretakers, educators, and job coaches, developing and maintaining program partnerships, and funding.

Some Fun (Work) Websites to Visit

Oops! Hit that publish button too soon. Should never have two publishable pages right next to each other on my screen.

Not that there aren't interesting activities going on around the technical assistance network, but here are some enjoyable, fun and illuminating resources from other sources.

New York City is mapping 311 complaints. What will this accomplish? Not only will city government staff be able to see where the potholes are, but so will the neighbors. This type of device offers as much for rural residents, who live rather far apart, as for the uber-urban stoop-sitting folks of Brooklyn, who tend to gab when they run into each other. By the way, in my childhood area code, no one is kvetching about transit, though residents are not happy with parking meters and blocked driveways.

[Fish-shaped bike rack in Long Beach, CA, right near the beach.]

If you are looking for a new toy, this is it. Trust me, this new tool from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is addictive. It is an interactive county map of the U.S. with statistical and demographic information. Look up elderly populations, density, jobs, and so much more. A valuable instrument for work, with fascinating information, and fun.

Yes, you can find everything on the Internet, including conference materials. This PowerPoint presentation explains the Wisconsin mobility management program.

Employment Transportation: TA for Different Goals

Using math terms in a completely incorrect way, I will say that communities can have parallel goals that intersect. Though we learn in geometry that parallel lines never meet, in real life, completely separate initiatives sometimes have much in common and do in fact get together. Here are two examples of technical assistance resources in which commuter transportation serves two different goals: one, the primary purpose of every person going to work to actually be transported in some way to his or her job, and two, to make sure that our communities contribute to improving the environment and the air that we all breathe.

Getting to Work

Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA)
The Joblinks Employment Transportation Center at CTAA has a webpage devoted to workforce development transportation solutions. The page has examples of communities around the country that use workforce boards, community colleges and other partners to find transportation options for people going to work and school.

Getting to Work While Improving the Air

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
EPA's Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program is seeking letters of interest, due Feb. 23, 2011, to choose 20 communities for technical assistance:

geared toward communities that are relatively new to implementing sustainable communities development approaches but that have a basic understanding of the livability principles and how they apply locally. Appropriate Sustainable Communities Building Blocks Program communities recognize that they have development challenges and are trying to kick-start the conversation about how to address a specific local issue.

Some of the tools the program will be offering involve commuter transportation, complete streets, zoning, and greenhouse gas reduction.

The TA provided will take place "over the course of one day, with minimal upfront preparation and no formal follow-up." Meetings with community stakeholders will be the avenue for the TA.

[Union Station in LA flanked by buses.]

Communities that send in letters of interest to EPA, whether selected or not, and are interested in commuter transportation as a way of addressing environmental problems, should check out Joblinks and other TA resources in the Technical Assistance Provider Network.

Rural Webinars

National Association of Development Organizations (NADO)
NADO's current Rural Transportation newsletter is full of information relevant to those who work with rural communities.

The NADO Research Foundation and RPO America are hosting a webinar on Feb. 15, 2011 showcasing the work of two award-winning organizations on rural and small metropolitan alternative transportation. One of the presentations will focus on rural travel demand management via a website and outreach materials that address transportation options throughout the region.

National Rural Transit Assistance Program (RTAP)
RTAP will be hosting a webinar on Feb. 17, 2011 to showcase its recently released training module, Emergency Procedures for Rural Transit Drivers. Information about the webinar is available at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/780816704.

[Very opposite of rural is a Brooklyn subway station, which commemorates Sheepshead Bay's past as a fishing village. You can still fish in the bay.]

Disability Community - Resources for Making Transit a Better Fit

Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
ETA has created the Disability and Employment Community of Practice. A search of the website produces many of the disability and employment-transportation resources from the TA network. The site is focusing on resources for employers and access and accommodations. The group is looking for members with professional interests in this field.

Easter Seals Project ACTION (ESPA)
ESPA has two upcoming teleconferences. Deviated Fixed Route and Demand Response Service: Creating Solutions in Rural and Small Urban Communities will take place on February 16. The teleconference will focus on the importance of a strong connection between transit and disability groups.

Planning for the Accessibility of Livable and Sustainable Communities, to be held on March 9, will feature representatives from the Department of Transportation discussing the encouragement of community connections to housing, employment and economic development through accessible transportation. A representative from Peoria, Ill. will discuss the city’s plans to redevelop a downtown area using the principles of livability and the role that accessibility plays in the development of those plans.

ESPA continues its Introduction to Travel Training course, a free training initiative that aims to increase the skills, knowledge and abilities of travel training professionals. This intensive, three-day course includes both classroom and field instruction in an environment where travel trainers can directly apply and practice new skills on the street. The next course will be held March 15-17 in Los Angeles, Calif.

Performance Measures

Performance-based Planning and Performance Measures, a peer exchange report of the Transportation Planning Capacity Building Program discusses the purpose and effective use of performance measures. Though transit and human-services transportation were not specifically discussed, this report has general advice for crafting and implementing performance measures.

A performance measure is defined as:

[A]n indicator that objectively evaluates how well something is performing, using quantitative or sometimes qualitative data. Measures can describe performance at one point in time; track progress over time; or identify gaps between desired and actual performance.

These include measures of output - what staff are doing, outcomes - the results of what has been done, indirect outcomes and process. Targets are quantitative accomplishments, in terms of measuring performance, usually with a deadline.

Lessons Learned

* Limit the number of performance measures.

System level performance measurement should be limited to the fewest number of measures that can adequately describe system performance at a level that policy makers find useful. If an agency is using too many measures planning can quickly become too complex, making it difficult for policy makers to focus on, track, and understand performance.

* Articulate goals before determining performance measures. Do not use a performance measure just because data is available.
* Performance measures should reflect broad goals and customer concerns.

Ideally a given performance measure is an accurate indicator of the performance being measured, but often a second best measure needs to be used until better data become available.

* Assign responsibility for measuring performance to one person, even if measures "require partnerships within and outside the organization. If responsibilities are spread out results may be sporadic, making it difficult to integrate measures into an agency’s business practices."
* Conduct an annual review of performance measurements and not merely targets for performance.
* Monitor for unintended consequences of performance measurements.
* Build advocacy and support for performance measures at all levels of an organization.

[Fish-shaped bike rack in Long Beach, Calif.]

The report warns that threats to effective use of performance measure are cultural resistance within an organization and political priorities within or external to an organization.