A New Perspective on Hurricane Helene in North Carolina
You haven’t heard a story about Hurricane Helene like this. At the end of September 2024, devastating flooding and mudslides caused destruction throughout western North Carolina because of Hurricane Helene. Emergency response teams and communities, including transit systems, swiftly came together to help the recovery.
Field Guide to Great Transit: Do We Know Great Transit When We See It?
Join CTAA's Chris Zeilinger for a field guide to great transit. In Chapter One, Chris asks, "Great transit: do we know it when we see it?"
Field Guide to Great Transit: The Factors that Make for Great Transit
In Chapter Two, we look at the 12 urban areas in the U.S. and Canada with the most UPT per capita, according to transit agencies’ reported data for 2023.
Field Guide to Great Transit: It’s the Community, Not Just the Bus
Chapter Three: When scouting for places with great transit, we’re looking at the community, not the transit agency. There are some truly awesome transit agencies that serve all sorts of communities, but that doesn’t necessarily mean every community is great for transit.
Field Guide to Great Transit: When Is a Community Ripe for Great Transit?
Chapter Four: In many of our largest cities, we see how transit shapes the community and its identity, whether it’s the London Underground, the NYC subway, the combination of San Francisco’s cable cars and BART trains, or Toronto and its streetcars. But how do we generalize from those examples to see transit’s role in a broader range of communities? Let’s look at two places you might not have been eyeing as great transit cities. State College and Sudbury: A Tale of Two Transit Cities.
Field Guide to Great Transit: Does Great Transit Run on Rails?
Chapter Five: Do places with great transit have subways, streetcars or other forms of rail transit linking origins and destinations within the urban area? Sometimes, this is the case, but not always.
Field Guide to Great Transit: When a Small Town has Great Transit
Chapter Six: Larger communities are more likely to have the wherewithal to support robust transit than smaller communities. Nevertheless, there are quite a few rural areas with levels of highly used, intensive transit service that compare admirably with their more populous urban counterparts.
Field Guide to Great Transit: It’s Local Support that Drives the Bus.
Chapter Seven: In the preceding chapters, we’ve seen that places made great by their transit are diverse, but share some key attributes. These include the provision of frequent and reliable fixed-route bus service, offering this service in ways that generate high ridership, and providing transit service that is attractive to – and used by – a community’s “middle class” population. That kind of transit service requires serious outlays of cash. Your ability to generate and sustain that flow of cash will determine whether your transit service helps make your community great, or if you’ll be confined to a cycle of mediocrity.
Achieving Transit Frequency & Coverage in Smaller Cities
Chapter Eight: In this chapter we look at Ames, Iowa and Juneau, Alaska in an analysis of frequency and coverage in small cities.
Inside CTAA HQ: Sage Kashner
Sage is the Communications Associate at the National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM).
Inside CTAA HQ: Rex KNowlton
Rex is the Association's CFO.
Inside CTAA HQ: Andrew Carpenter
Andrew is the Director of the National Center for Applied Transit Technology
Inside CTAA HQ: Bill Wagner
Bill Wagner is the Deputy Director for NCMM.
Technical Assistance Site Visits
A report from Charlie Rutkowski on his visits to Grand Rapids, Minn. and Hertel, Wis.
Inside CTAA HQ: Dave Engel
Dave Engel is one of CTAA's Training Coordinators.
Talking About Tobytown
Tobytown, Md., doesn't exist. But it's very real. Chris Zeilinger takes on a journey through the 2020 Census to find a lost place.
CTAA at the National Transportation in Indian Country Conference
This August, Loreal and Marcela attended the National Transportation in Indian Country Conference in Louisville, Ky. The conference included transportation professionals across the board from tribal nations from throughout America... from Alaska to Oklahoma.
What does Tactical Urbanism Look Like in Small-Urban & Rural Communities?
Tactical urbanism is known by many names, including DIY urbanism, guerilla urbanism, quick build projects, etc. – however you want to describe it, it is defined by taking action.
Electric Bus Fever
Every truck, bus and automotive engineering magazine that arrives at my office is filled with articles, ads and helpful hints about some type of electric vehicle. The articles also discuss the remanufacturing of the earlier battery packs, as well as looking into the many "new" vehicle manufacturers who are entering this fast-growing field. Some have never made commercial vehicles. Like most of CTAA's members, buses, of course, are at the center of my interest and they have been getting tremendous attention in recent months.
Health Policy Experts Dive into the Medicaid NEMT Benefit in Two Recent Publications
As non-emergency medical transportation has become a larger component of the health care discussion, it is only natural that health policy experts have started to take an interest in both the opportunities and challenges present within NEMT services - particularly within the Medicaid population (where they have existed the longest.) As a part of this trend, this past summer, we saw the release of two major health policy reports related to NEMT, that not only provide the most comprehensive summaries of the service since the TCRP report from 2018, but also begin to showcase the movement of the industry, the stakeholders and provide transportation providers with insights into this changing space.
Lethbridge Transit Redesigns Fixed Route & Implements Microtransit with TripSpark's Rides on Demand App Webinar
Sponsored by TripSpark. What does Lethbridge Transit have that other transit agencies need? Valuable insight on the impact of Microtransit to the future of transportation! On Wednesday Oct. 13 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, Lethbridge Transit will join TripSpark Technologies for an entertaining and interactive webinar that you don't want to miss. Please join us!
Three Questions to Ask Before Investing in New Paratransit Software
A guide to finding the best technology provider to support your ADA paratransit service, by Yannis Simaiakis, General Manager of Paratransit, Via.
Driver Shortage and Incarcerated Re-entry - Solution for Success?
Job security is a necessity to re-entering the community after incarceration, however recently released individuals often return to underserved communities and face a wide range of barriers that make successful reintegration difficult. Re-entry programs are vital to the success of employment, housing, social interaction and decision-making.
Looking Back for a Better Future: Data Driven Decision-making
This past month, CTAA staff traveled to visit Cape May Fare-Free Transportation on the New Jersey coast. Cape May Fare-Free Transportation provides demand-response, and subscription transportation service in Cape May county. Staff met with Dan Mulraney, the director of Cape May's transportation program to learn more about their pilot program to provide a mobility on-demand service via Routematch by Uber.
Top Ten Tips for Sourcing and Hiring Drivers
CTAA's Training & Certification Program Director, Caryn Souza, gives us her Top Ten.
Notes from the Road
The past 15 months have been challenging for everyone, including those of us at CTAA. Although our offices are in downtown Washington D.C., much of our work in providing technical assistance and training is undertaken outside the Beltway, in actual on-site engagement with transit providers and users in small urban, rural and tribal communities across the nation. Charles Rutkowski writes about returning to the road for his work with CTAA.
Meetings and More Meetings to Grow OATS
A CTAA Member Contribution from Peter Schauer, first Manager of OATS, chronicles its establishment.
CTAA Member Mountain Line (Mont.) Creates COVID-19 Vaccination Map
Earlier this year, CTAA member Mountain Line in Missoula, Mont., created a COVID-19 vaccination map that included vaccination sites and their bus routes for accessing them. I was able to speak with the team at Mountain Line on how they came to create and distribute this important resource, as well as how they plan on expanding vaccine accessibility to all community residents.
Impacts of Recent Federal Legislation on NEMT
For NEMT providers, there has recently been two main pieces of federal legislation passed that relate directly to their services. The Consolidated Appropriations Act passed in December 2020 and the American Rescue Plan recently passed early in March 2021. The following provides a summary of the two pieces of legislation and their impacts for NEMT.
State and Tribal Delegate Blog Series: North Carolina
This blog series comes to us from North Carolina, where David Rhew (Executive Director of the North Carolina Public Transportation Association) serves as the state delegate.
State and Tribal Delegate Blog Series: New Hampshire
Welcome to CTAA's latest blog series, providing updates from our state and tribal delegates on the state of transit.
The National Mask-Wearing Mandate for Public Transportation
On Jan. 28, representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation, along with presenters from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provided insight into how the Biden Administration plans on implementing the public transportation mask mandate signed by the President as an Executive Order on Jan. 21.
MACPAC Presents Further Findings from NEMT Report
On Jan. 29, 2021, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (known as MACPAC) provided additional results from its congressionally mandated study of Medicaid non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT). The Final results will be included in MACPAC's June 2021 report to Congress. CTAA's Public Health and Transportation Policy Consultant Alex King listened in, and here are her notes.
CTAA Member HIRTA Awarded U.S. DOT Grant to Improve Transportation Mobility
Earlier this year, the Heart of Iowa Regional Transportation Agency (HIRTA) was awarded $1,084,257 in part of its Complete Trip - ITS4US Deployment Program. CTAA's Taylor Klocke spoke with HIRTA's Executive Director Julia Castillo about the program and its importance for her community.
Member Prairie Hills Transit Receives Accelerating Innovative Mobility Grant from FTA
Prairie Hills Transit (PHT), a CTAA member serving 15 rural communities in western South Dakota, has received the Accelerating Innovative Mobility grant from the FTA to automate its paratransit dispatch system using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The system will collect real-time field data to replace most radio communication, allowing PHT to manage more rides with the same number of dispatchers and decrease costs.
A Snapshot of Public Transit in Small Urbanized Areas
In anticipation of this year's CTAA Small Urban Network meeting, it's interesting to take a look at a few foundational facts and figures about transit in urbanized areas with populations less than 200,000.
U.S. DOT Releases Mobility for All Project Selections
On June 5, 2020 the U.S. DOT released Mobility for All Project Selections. There were 17 projects awarded, with a total amount of $3,502,820.
New Challenges for Small Bus Maintenance
Today, what goes on in the bus maintenance shop is quite different from just ten years ago. Most of us have mastered the repair functions of the bus engine's fuel injection system, many of us have earned our certificate to inspect the compressed natural gas (CNG) system, and most all of us have learned about the federal requirements of the small bus through the Vehicles Maintenance Management & Inspection (VMMI) training of CTAA. However, a new requirement has just landed on the shops work order pages, it is called Covid-19, and it cannot be ignored.
Announcing CTAA's new State by State COVID-19 NEMT Guidance Tool
To provide additional resources to NEMT providers during this time, CTAA has collected, read, and analyzed guidance for NEMT providers provided by state Medicaid agencies. Through sharing the State by State COVID-19 NEMT Guidance Tool, CTAA hopes that NEMT providers, brokers, and even riders can get a sense of not only the available guidance in their state, but also look at trends across the country on topics such as PPE, Air ventilation, cleaning, payment and reimbursement, and transporting COVID+ riders.
Increasing Parent-Child Reunification Through Innovative Transportation Options
Earlier this year, CTAA and its partners - EMBARK and the Oklahoma Transit Association (OTA) - were awarded the Arnall Family Foundation's Transportation Innovation Grant. The grant is focused on improving transportation for families in Oklahoma County who have children in the foster care system. The CTAA-led team has been working with its partners to develop a pilot program that will increase parent-child reunifications in Oklahoma County through innovative transportation delivery.
"Forward Together" in Oklahoma City
When looking for inspiration on communities that have embraced the evolving future of public transportation, one would be amiss not to look to Oklahoma City. The public transit system there, called Embark, is one of a growing number of transit systems that offer multi-modal traveling as well as fare payment.