AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank the following individuals for their support, cooperation, and participation in providing information for this report: Dave Sprynczynatyk, Dave Leftwich and Bruce Fuchs from the North Dakota Department of Transportation, and all those who participated in the steering committee and the focus group meetings around the state. DisclaimerThe contents presented in this report do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the North Dakota Department of Transportation, but are the sole responsibility of the Small Urban & Rural Transit Center, Upper Great Plain Transportation Institute, and the authors. AbstractNorth Dakota's public and human service transportation services evolved along the same program-specific approaches as did those in many other states. Individual human service agencies funded and/or operated transportation programs to support their basic missions. In addition, in recent years, federal and state funding has led to the inception or expansion of public transit services in many areas of the state. Transportation coordination, at the state funding level or at the local operations level requires extensive personal interaction and negotiation to work out the best service plan for all organizations' funding, using, or providing service. The Small Urban & Rural Transit Center (SURTC) conducted a study on coordination of North Dakota transportation services. The study process included intensive discussion and collaboration between organizations and individuals, data collection, and a literature review. The study was guided by an advisory committee that included representatives from state funding and program agencies and local human service and transportation providers. The second major way the study involved funders, providers, and users of the transportation services was by holding eight regional meetings throughout the state during the first six months of 2004. Based on results of the regional meetings, data collection, review of the literature, and the survey of state practices, the SURTC team developed a range of alternative policies that could increase transportation coordination. These options were reviewed and refined by the advisory committee and then the SURTC team developed detailed descriptions and assessed the benefits and costs of each option. These analyses, as well as a summary of the other activities of the study, are included in the final report. The following five options are presented in order of impact, effectiveness, and implementation cost. The five options and a brief description of each follows:
The recommended coordination option (Option 5) calls for active promotion of cooperation among transportation providers and funding agencies with a goal of improving service and reducing costs. To implement this option requires a five-action implementation process that is described along with details on the state and regional coordinating bodies and a timetable for implementation. Executive SummaryCoordination, cooperation and collaboration all refer to groups of people, programs, and/or funding sources working together to improve services to clients through a more unified approach. The underlying assumption is that a group of entities working together can create a greater benefit for society than individual programs and entities working separately. North Dakota's public and human service transportation services evolved along the same program-specific approaches as did those in many other states. Individual human service agencies funded and/or operated transportation programs to support one of their goals of providing transportation to the disadvantaged and general public. In recent years federal and state funding has led to the inception or expansion of public transit services in many areas of the state. A new emphasis on coordination by the North Dakota Department of Transportation in the past two years has led to an examination of the policy, funding, and operational options available to maximize the benefit of public transportation funds managed by the DOT and human service programs. Increasing the effectiveness of transportation resources is crucial because of increasing needs for service and increasing difficulty in providing services especially in the rural western portion of the state where the overall population is declining and the remaining population is aging. Transportation coordination at the state funding level or at the local operations level requires extensive personal interaction and negotiation to work out the best service plan for all organizations funding, using, or providing service. Therefore, the study process included intensive discussion and collaboration between effected groups, organizations, and individuals and was supported by research and data collection by the SURTC study team. Several models have been proposed to develop coordinated transportation programs. The common thread in the models is to identify needs that exist, convene a variety of interested stakeholders, and talk and plan for coordination. The planning process is crucial because it identifies unmet needs, potential benefits, and participating parties. Leadership is required to develop an appropriate coordination plan. Coordination options are progressive in nature as they move from cooperation to joint-use agreements to collaborative ventures. After the planning process is complete, implementation and evaluation begins. Any study concerning the coordination of services provided by existing FTA-funded systems and various health and human service agencies requires an inventory of these programs and related services. First, the report provides a macro-level review of programs and services available in North Dakota. This review is at the state level and focuses primarily on general programs, related guidelines, and overall expenditures. Second, the report provides a more micro-level review of programs and services available in each of North Dakota's eight human services regions. These discussions include both an inventory of transportation services in each region and observations concerning coordination efforts taking place within each region. North Dakota had 44 public transportation providers, fixed-route and paratransit operators, and 13 taxi cabs operating in the state. There are 8 established economic planning regions in North Dakota. SURTC facilitated transportation coordination focus group meetings in each region. Each region has a unique customer base and system for servicing their customers. The funding sources and amounts vary per region as does the service coverage. All region have a significant number of vehicles owned by human service agencies for specialized client services. North Dakota's eight regions are similar in terms of potentially transportation-disadvantaged populations (disabled, seniors, and low income). Two significant deviations are the high percentage of low-income residents in the Devils Lake region (Region 3) and the high percentage of seniors in the Jamestown region (Region 6). This study was directed with the help of a steering committee comprised of representatives of a wide variety of state transportation and human service agencies, regional planning councils, transportation service providers, and user groups. The steering committee met twice to provide direction to the study within the context of the guidelines prescribed by the North Dakota Department of Transportation in its contract with SURTC and to work with project team members to developed related recommendations. Four coordination options were developed by SURTC that might be appropriate for North Dakota. These options were presented at the second steering committee meeting in June 2004. The consensus of the committee members was that options three and four both had features that they would support and the best features should be combined into a fifth option. Therefore, the following five options are presented here in order of impact, effectiveness, and implementation cost.
The recommended coordination option (Option 5) calls for active promotion of cooperation among transportation providers and funding agencies with a goal of improving service and reducing costs. To implement this option requires a five-action implementation process. This process, along with details on the state and regional coordinating bodies and a timetable for implementation, are explained. The following actions are suggested for implementing the recommended coordination option.
Discussions with local and state officials throughout this North Dakota coordination study indicate strong support for increased coordination efforts on the part of public and human service transportation systems as a way to improve service and stretch limited budgets. This enthusiasm combined with the data and other background information presented in this report should help state and local decision makers refine the recommendations presented and start the coordination process. |