The best takeaway from the Community Transportation EXPO is acquiring new knowledge, learning new techniques, and exchanging ideas with your peers. This year we will design our workshops to offer you the best learning experience possible as move to the “next normal” in community transportation.
1:30-2:45
No issue is more central to any transportation operation: How do I find and keep good, qualified drivers. The tight labor market brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has made this issue essential as systems of all sizes, all around the country, struggle to be able to make pull-out. You'll thank us for all the great ideas, tips and strategies you'll learn in this session that you'll be able to use immediately back in the office.
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
In this workshop, Mike Brock will discuss: special training requirements, preparations prior to inspecting high-voltage systems, required high voltage personal protective equipment, lockout/tagout procedures, zero voltage verification and more.
9:00-10:30 a.m.
While the nation's attention has understandably been focused on COVID, another 90,000 Americans last year lost their lives to substance abuse. Too often, the inability to get to initial and ongoing treatment is the biggest roadblock to substance abuse recovery. That's where all forms of transit can assist. You'll learn in this session how one state's transit operators - West Virginia - have banded together to develop a mobility solution to this critical, ongoing, national emergency.
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Bob Dylan went electric in 1965 and yes, the times they are a changing for all forms of public transportation. Does it make sense at your agency? Has the equipment and technology matured to a point for you to make the leap? What do you need to know about working with local utilities and electric bus maintenance? Have your questions answered here not by salespeople or environmentalists but by your peers whose job it is to move people.
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Don't just hope your system's ridership returns to pre-COVID levels. Be intentional and pro-active about winning back ridership through improved service design, communications and marketing strategies. This session will emphasize how to build back better!
9:00-10:30 a.m.
As the pandemic disrupted standard operations and moved in-person processes to virtual platforms, the transit industry rose to meet the challenge and has learned some important lessons that can be carried forward after the pandemic subsides. The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and KFH Group devised a web-based process for completing virtual compliance reviews that can improve ongoing business practices. Hear from the team about how to front-load review procedures for a quicker overall process and more efficient virtual or on-site meetings and inspections. This workshop offers tips to benefit both reviewers and reviewees.
9:00-10:30 a.m.
In this panel discussion, transportation leaders for several regional programs in Richmond, Va., will discuss how they have been able to make use of a trusted, FTA drug and alcohol compliant Adaptive Transportation Network Company for their mobility programs. Transportation leaders have had to adapt to increased paratransit ridership that outpaces funding. The Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) found innovative solutions to address this gap - all while providing high levels of satisfaction for its riders including the use of the Adaptive TNC. After successful pilots and program rollouts under GRTC leadership, other city agencies and regional transportation authorities began to take notice. With a fully integrated technology platform and a highly vetted, experienced driver network already fully operational in the region, it made sense for these innovative leaders to adapt this unique TNC to meet their challenges. We’ll briefly review the GRTC experience and then open up discussion with the full panel of regional program leaders and a rider with experience using the program.
Interactive Workshop
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Sponsored and presented by Uber Transit with Cecil Transit
Join on demand practitioners from Uber Transit and Cecil Transit as we discuss how to create an on demand service with clear community impacts. You'll gain tools and insights from agency and industry peer leaders to start up or expand your own on demand service, how to generate demand, engage your community partners, and build out a take- home tool kit/template for long-term success. We'll also cover ways to use technology and agency vehicles and drivers to supplement or enhance service in areas of need, and for your most vulnerable populations.
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
With all of the emerging new on-demand and micro-transit options making their way into mainstream public transit operations, let's make sure that full accessibility for all Americans isn't left behind. Participants will learn how to not only incorporate ADA regulations into new service designs, but how to fully meet the spirit of full accessibility.
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
If failing to plan is - as they say - planning to fail, then failing to fully involve communities (everyone!) in transit planning is a one-way ticket to transit irrelevance. Come ready to learn new strategies to actively engage the entire community in your agency's future. And yes, this is a key component in activating equity considerations at your organization.
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
It takes revenue to keep your vehicles moving and the best run CTAA member agencies are those that have diversified their income streams to become more resilient operations. This session will share how some of your peers have found and cultivated new sources of transit investment and give you some concrete steps to take when you return home from EXPO.
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
The value of effective leadership has never been more important than in the past 18 months. Unprecedented challenges, safety concerns and operational threats have landed in your lap, like it or not. With everything that's gone on, you might just need to recharge your leadership batteries, take stock of all that you've accomplished and yes, vent just a little bit. That's where this session comes in. We'll discuss new leadership strategies, led by a previous Emerging Leaders Academy participant, - as well as tried-and-true ones that CTAA members have deployed around the nation. We might also take just a moment to remind you to take good care of yourself, too.
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
How long does it take to create an amazing schedule that achieves a great balance between vehicle / crew efficiency and driver run quality? For every network change, how does that affect your schedule and bids? In this session, we will be delving into how planning and scheduling software can instantly create many 'what if' scenarios in minutes without having to worry about manually cutting runs or waiting for hours to have results from our optimizations. The faster we can run these scenarios, the better quality our operating service will become - all along with much more free time and flexibility to get your other initiatives outside of scheduling done day by day! This workshop is sponsored by Optibus.
Sponsored and presented by the Propane Education & Research Council
3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Paratransit managers around the country are facing challenges to reduce emissions without compromising on operational performance, all while staying on budget. This session will provide a pathway to achieving these sustainability goals with paratransit fleet directors sharing their stories of success.
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
No issue is more central to any transportation operation: How do I find and keep good, qualified drivers. The tight labor market brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has made this issue essential as systems of all sizes, all around the country, struggle to be able to make pull-out. You'll thank us for all the great ideas, tips and strategies you'll learn in this session that you'll be able to use immediately back in the office.
9:00 - 10:30 a.m
We'll profile how two emerging state Medicaid non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) models - Vermont and North Carolina - have both met Medicaid statutes while emphasizing public transit's assets and role. Effective state transit leadership, underscoring the value of safety, quality and customer care will be the heart of this session led by leaders in the two profiled states.
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
The vital session will teach you how to manage the way your operation collects fares - including considerations to do away with fares altogether. You'll learn how to select the best, right-sized new technology for your operation from experts and peers who've already implemented these strategies - including zero fare options!
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Finding and keeping the necessary local and state investment sources to match ever-growing (thankfully!) federal formula transit investment has been a challenge for CTAA members for years. The arrival last year of three waves of federal, emergency COVID-19 stimulus funds - each at 100 percent federal - had the unintended consequence of making local share funding sources even more scarce. New strategies and ideas are needed to win and/or recover local funding sources and we'll share the most promising practices here.
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
We all learned a lot about our operations since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. CTAA commissioned a full White Paper, Public Transportation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it shapes transit's future, to capture the essential lessons learned and their meaning moving forward. The author of that paper, Stewart Mader, leads this important session.
10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
While you were running your agency in the midst of the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic, Congress was busy reauthorizing the FAST Act, rolling out emergency COVID-19 appropriations and investing in transit infrastructure. A lot happened in a relatively short time frame! Learn here about all of the new programs, investment levels, regulatory relief and more from CTAA staff who had a seat at the table in D.C.
The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and its members believe that mobility is a basic human right. From work and education to life-sustaining health care and human services programs to shopping and visiting with family and friends, mobility directly impacts quality of life.