Coordination leads agenda of ride givers

Transit agencies to identify problems, gaps in services

Improving coordination among the more than 300 transit agencies in Arkansas is the aim of a series of meetings around the state this week.

Agencies providing transportation extend well beyond fixed-route systems such as Rock Region Metro, which provides bus service in Pulaski County, or Ozark Regional Transit in Northwest Arkansas.

In all, the state has eight urban transit agencies, nine rural transit agencies and 300 health and human service agencies that provide transportation, often called para-transit, said Greg Nation, public transportation administrator for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.

“We include all transit providers because we are looking to maximize coordination opportunities and funds,” he said.

Those agencies provide about 9 million rides and cover 26 million miles annually, according to department figures.

The department is the pass-through agency for about $32 million a year in federal transit funds, much of it going to the urban transit agencies, such as Rock Region. But about $18 million a year is set aside for the other agencies, Nation said.

The department also conducts inspections of the transportation agency vans. They number about 1,000 a year, according to Nation. The department also uses the federal money to purchase about 100 vehicles a year for the agencies.

The effort to coordinate all those agencies is mandated by the Federal Transit Administration, which says the coordination can be used to help identify mobility needs and how to meet those needs, especially for at-risk populations who may have few options for transportation. A coordination plan must be developed every five years.

“Everybody comes to the table to identify problems, gaps in service and where we can do better,” Nation said.

That is a difficult process, given the different missions of the agencies, especially when they are transporting diverse populations. One agency might carry people who are elderly and another might carry people with developmental disabilities.

“You have a lot of different factors that make it difficult to coordinate,” said Ann Gilbert, executive director of the Arkansas Transit Association, which has about 200 agencies providing transportation among its membership.

Those factors include schedules, insurance requirements and rules governing the use of the vehicles, which for most agencies typically are large vans, she said.

The meetings do help, Gilbert said.

“It’s good to get to know the other service providers,” she said. “Someone might know a good maintenance person. There are different ways to coordinate.”

One of the largest non-public transit providers is Pathfinders Inc. The Jacksonville nonprofit agency provides services for children and adults with developmental disabilities so they can lead independent lives.

Its fleet of more than 140 15-passenger vans and 100 drivers provides transportation for the agency’s 1,800 clients and drives 2 million miles annually, said Mike McCreight, Pathfinders’ director.

“It’s a pretty large operation, and expensive,” he said. “But if you don’t have transportation to get people to the programs, you won’t have programs.”

The information gleaned from the meetings will be combined with other data to produce a report by the end of the year, Nation said.

The meetings scheduled for this week include:

Pine Bluff — 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. today at Southeast Arkansas Transit, 709 E. Eighth St.

North Little Rock — 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Arkansas Transit Association, 620 W. Broadway.

Hot Springs — 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at Hot Springs Intracity Transit, 100 Broadway Terrace.

Alma — 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Stepping Stone School Inc., 1036 U.S. 64 East.

Meetings are also scheduled for the following week in Springdale and Texarkana.

The public is invited to visit any time during the scheduled hours to ask questions and offer comments. The meetings will follow an open-house format.

More information is available by contacting the department’s public information section at (501) 569-2000 or info@ahtd.ar.gov.