Mobility Management in the River Valley Region

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Mobility Management in the River Valley Region

• Jarrod McCarthy
• River Valley Regional Commission
• Mobility Manager

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The River Valley Region
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What Are the Available Transportation Programs?

• Public Transportation Anyone within the service
  area can ride, provided that they pay a fare.
• Medicaid Non-emergency medical trips for people
  that meet certain criteria.
• Department of Human Services (DHS) In our area,
  DHS is most commonly used to provide job-based
  trips for job training, interviews, etc. for
  individuals that meet certain criteria, as well
  as trips to and from Senior Centers for older
  adults.

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Benefits of Mobility Management

• Increasing coordination among different
  transportation funding sources so that the
  required local match amount can be reduced

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Example of How Coordination Improves Cost
Efficiency Part I

• How you can utilize your 5311 (Public
  Transportation) program to aid your DHS or
  Medicaid program
• You pay 100 of the cost of your vehicles if they
  are only being used for DHS or Medicaid transit
• If you coordinate by also using the vehicles for
  5311, 5311 pays 80 of the vehicle cost with
  federal funds, 10 with state funds, and the
  remaining 10 must be paid for locally.
• You save 90 of the vehicle purchase cost by
  using the vehicles for both programs
• Important to note that 5311 trips must take
  priority over POS service trips, but it is
  feasible to accommodate this.

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Example of Coordination Improving Cost Efficiency
Part II

• How you can utilize your DHS or Medicaid program
  to match your 5311 public transportation program
• If we assume you have a 100,000 5311 operating
  budget
• 10 must come from fare box
• Remaining 90,000 is 50 federal and 50 local
  match
• Some of your DHS and other programs can
  supplement the 50 local match
• For matching, you can use TANF, DFCS, Title 3
  Social Security, DOL, some Behavioral Healthcare
  and Disability, and Medicaid
• CanNOT use 5310, 5316, 5317
• The difference is that you can only use federal
  non-transit funds to match federal transit funds
• Coastal RC managed to lower the local match from
  50 to 10 by regionalizing (POS covers 40)

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Benefits of Mobility Management

1. Increasing coordination to maximize the number of
   passengers from each funding source that are
   utilizing a single vehicle in order to reduce the
   cost per trip.
2. Identifying additional funding sources to
   increase the diversity of people served and
   community needs addressed. (See hand out.)
3. Inter-System Cooperation

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Benefits of Mobility Management Cooperation

• Tying systems into one another
• Exploring cost sharing options between transit
  systems to reduce rates
• Exploring the opportunities for joint transit
  systems and their potential financial and
  improved service benefits.

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Advantages of Joint Transit Systems

• Shared Administrative Costs
• Shared Cost of Building and associated bills
  (electricity, water, etc.)
• Residents may be able to ride further distances
• Easier for residents to access and navigate.
• Marketability of a universal name, logo, and
  slogan.
• Easier to achieve coordination and the resulting
  cost efficiencies.

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Re-Investing Saved Funds

• Cost efficiencies resulting from increased
  coordination, cost sharing, and/or joint systems,
  etc can in turn be used to accomplish transit
  improvements including, but not limited to
• Increase Service Distance and Fill Service Gaps
• Extend Hours of Operation
• Hire Additional Staff
• Upgrade Facilities

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Deliverables

• Existing Conditions Report
• Regional Directory
• Performance Measures
• Financial Model
• Coordination and Action Plan
• Formation of the Regional Transit Advisory
  Committee 

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Local Outreach

• The RVRC Mobility Manager plans to visit each
  county to present and discuss transportation
  enhancement information relevant to that
  geographic area.
• Cities and other pertinent entities and groups
  are invited/welcome as well
• This extra effort will bring critical information
  to a much larger number of elected officials and
  staff beyond the Regional Transit Advisory
  Committee.
• Much of the information is organized into maps
  for ease of use.

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Other Endeavors

• Established the Pataula Regional Transit System
  and its governing body, the Lower Chattahoochee
  Regional Transit Authority to serve Quitman,
  Randolph, and Stewart counties.
• Serve as the administrative arm of the transit
  authority for the joint system and attend all
  meetings to advise
• Administer a DHS program for 8 western River
  Valley counties.
• Helping with any miscellaneous issues such as
• Needs presented by the nursing homes or Ombudsman
  office
• If operators in our area had been having any
  trouble finding quality drivers, we were prepared
  to step in to help facilitate uniform hiring
  practices, if requested.
• Presentations to groups such as local chapter of
  the National Federation of the Blind
• Presented to the GDOT/Governors Development
  Council Technical Coordinating Group and
  Department of Public Health staff.

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Want to Know More?

• Jarrod McCarthy
• Mobility Manager
• River Valley Regional Commission
• 706-660-5371
• jmccarthy_at_rivervalleyrc.org