PPA 419 – Aging Services
Administration
Lecture 10c – Public Transportation
and Aging.
Source
 Sterns, R., Antenucci, V., Nelson, C.,
& Glasgow, N. (2003). Public
transportation: Options to maintain
mobility for life. Generations, 27
(Summer), 14-19.
Introduction
 Social service agencies, transportation
service providers, and governmental
entities are searching for ways to develop
or improve transportation services to meet
local travel needs of older people.
 Services can be provided to:
 People of all ages;
 Age-segregated group; or
 Both older adults and people with disabilities.
Organization and Management
 Transportation services may be
organizaed within a single
organizational entity acting alone or
by two or more entities acting
together through some informal or
formalized arrangement.
Organization and Management
 Organizational structures.
 Regional transportation authority (RTA).
 The most familiar organizational model of
public transportation services.
 Fixed route, fixed schedule, plus:
 Many new flexibilities.
 A unit of local government.
 City, village, or county.
Organization and Management
 Organizational structures (contd.).
 Social service agencies.
 Transportation services to clients with
agency-operated vans or buses.
 Private enterprises.
 Tribal governments.
Organization and Management

Coordination arrangements.

Brokerage.
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Coordination.
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Identifying customer needs and matching them with available
transportation services.
The process of coordination consists of combining arrangements and
agreements among transportation providers to pool physical and
financial resources, combine transportation capabilities, and improve
the capacity of services to meet travel needs.
Three stages – cooperation, development of joint-use arrangements,
and consolidation.
Mobility management.


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Serving customers as opposed to running a bus.
Mobility manager carries out the coordination of transportation services.
Brokering, facilitating, encouraging, coordinating, and managing both
traditional and non-traditional services to expand the array of
transportation services to diverse consumer groups.
Framework for Service Delivery
 The delivery of transportation services
varies in flexibility, accommodation to
people with different levels of functional
capability, and cost, affecting how services
are provided and how customers gain
access to them.
 The challenge is to determine the type and
level of service that best meeting the needs
of residents of the community and to
develop appropriate services, given the
resources available.
Framework for Service Delivery
 Framework for service delivery.
 Fixed route, fixed schedule.
 Traditional mode.
 Dependable and reliable transportation for
functionally capable older adults with least
assistance.
 Fixed route, flexible schedule.
 Generally designed to accommodate an area
with recreational opportunities or points of
interest along a fixed route.
 Jitney, requires high level of functional
capability.
Framework for Service Delivery
 Framework for service delivery.
 Flexible route, fixed schedule.
 This type of service requires additional time
built into a fixed schedule to accommodate
a stop that occurs off an established route.
 Accommodates declining levels of functional
capabilities.
 Flexible route, flexible schedule.
 Demand-responsive or paratransit service.
 Costs more, suitable for low level of
functional capability.
Framework for Service Delivery
 Framework for service delivery
(contd.).
 No specific route or schedule.
 Like a private taxi, virtually unlimited
flexibility, especially when people are able
to call and schedule rides for specific times.
Older Consumer Preferences for
Transportation Services
 Older adults choose specific forms of
transportation for specific trips that
meet their physical and emotional
needs for specific situations.
Older Consumer Preferences for
Transportation Services
 Ideal services:
 Reliable.
 Provide travel door to door.
 Available within 30 minutes of a phone
call for service.
 Provide travel to more than one
destination during an outing.
 Allow flexibility in choosing destinations
and times.
 Provide comfortable waiting areas.
Older Consumer Preferences for
Transportation Services
 Ideal services (contd.).
 Provide easily accessible vehicles.
 Travel during evening hours and weekends.
 Provide friendly, courteous, helpful drivers and
information specialists.
 Provide easy-to-read and understandable
timetables, maps, and other travel information
materials.
 Provide training for travelers to help them use
the services successfully.
Older Consumer Preferences for
Transportation Services
 Preferred service features offer the
rider control, empowerment, and
choice.
Bringing Improved Services to Your
Community
Bringing Improved Services to Your
Community
Bringing Improved Services to Your
Community
Bringing Improved Services to Your
Community
Summary
 Successful transportation service delivery
to older adults as well as others in the
community requires the organization and
management of a brokerage and
coordination or mobility management.
 Efficient and effective services are those
that combine demand response, fixed and
flexible routes, and fixed and flexible
schedules.
Summary
 The challenge facing mobility
managers and transportation
planners is to find ways to deliver
needed services efficiently in order to
achieve the greatest public benefit for
the public resources expended.