Community Transportation

WORKSHOPS

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Monday, June 10

10:15—11:15 a.m. (60 minutes)

Using Innovative Software to Improve Service to People with Developmental Disabilities

Room: 2B
Speaker: Eric Esch; Gail Nehls
Learn the what, why, how and lessons learned from a software deployment in Colorado that simplified Medicaid verifications and electronic data interchanges to hasten reimbursements. Target Audience: NEMT, paratransit, on-demand and specialized transit systems.

How to Make the Most of Your CTAA Membership

Room: 2C
Speaker: Loreal Lance; Meredith Bay-Tyack
From discounts on training, certifications and background checks to ensuring that your agency’s needs find their way into CTAA legislative priorities, learn how to make the most of your membership from Association staff.

Florida Transit Success Stories - A Four-County Approach

Room: 2D
Speaker: Karen Deigl; Chris Stephenson
Join the Senior Resource Association for a discussion of service and operational innovations they’ve successfully implemented across four countries. Hear about the Senior Resource Association's unique challenges and successes in creating a developmental disabilities ride program. Engage in a dialogue with your peers and trade innovative tips you can bring back to your agency and community.

The Value of Fully Credentialed Drivers

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Ron Brooks; David Engel; Rebecca Rodgers; and Yili Affonso
A fully trained and credentialed driver workforce creates significant operational, financial and safety benefits. Learn how to set up a system to fully credential your operators (including using CTAA trainings and certification!) and how to evaluate its impact.

Workshop on FTA’s Oversight Review process (State Management (SMR)/Triennial Reviews (TR)

Room: 1G
Speaker: Hope Jensen
Are you a direct recipient of federal funding from FTA or a subrecipient of federal funding from your State DOT? Either way, FTA’s Oversight Review process applies to your transit agency. In advance of your next SMR, TR, Procurement System Review, or other specialized Oversight Review, this workshop will provide what you need to know about FTA’s Oversight Review process, go over the top 10 SMR/TR findings and what resources are available to help transit agencies through the process, including mitigating findings.

11:30 a.m.—12:15 p.m. (45 minutes)

Addressing Your Driver Shortage by Co-locating Childcare at Your Facility

Room: 2B
Speaker: Barbara K. Cline
Get an inside look at how one rural transit agency co-located a full-service childcare within its transit facility. Participants will learn how to include childcare into transit facilities; the realities of running a childcare; and the impact on providing childcare on transit employee recruitment and retention.

Workforce Development Strategies for Smaller Transit Agencies

Room: 2C
Speaker: International Transportation Learning Center
Learn how to best use the 5 percent workforce development funds included with every Low-No Bus grant. This panel, coordinated by Transit Workforce Center, FTA’s technical assistance center for workforce development, will provide concrete examples from agencies who have received these grants.

Ensuring Inclusion and Accessibility for Older Adults and Persons with Disabilities in Transit Programs

Room: 2D
Speaker: Virginia Dize; David J. Bernstein; Charles Rutkowski
Transportation services for older adults, persons with disabilities and their caregivers cannot be fully accessible unless these same individuals are included in their design and deployment. Learn about innovative strategies to ensure that mobility services are fully inclusive and accessible.

FTA Safety Workshop

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Joe DeLorenzo
FTA’s Associate Administrator for Transit Safety and Oversight and Chief Safety Officer Joe DeLorenzo will discuss the latest data on assaults on transit workers and bus-to-person collisions, share FTA’s fatigue resources for transit operations, and more.

Revolutionizing Mobility: How Houston METRO Tackles Mobility Challenges with On-Demand Transit

In this session, attendees will learn how a large-footprint transit agency implemented on-demand transit to solve different mobility challenges like fixed route replacement, education commuting (School trips), late night service and same-day on-demand paratransit.

2:00—3:15 p.m. (75 minutes)

How Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Can Improve Your Transit Service

Room: 2A
Speaker: Jennifer Sweten; Ryan Daniel; Gabrielle Chavez, Meredith Greene
A real-world look at using diversity, equity and inclusion principles to build a better workplace, attract and retain workforce, and better serve your customers and your community. This session will focus on recruitment challenges, equitable training practices; retention strategies; community-centric services; and leadership’s role for smaller transit operators.

Transit Safety Focus: Managing Challenging Passengers Panel

Room: 2B
Speaker: John Adair; Julie Brown; Gary Blazinsky; Michael Koch
Few CTAA members are not dealing with an increase in challenging passengers who disrupt drivers, upset other riders and generally cause issues within a transit agency. And though these concerns are societal and not unique to public transit, they must be addressed nonetheless. Learn how some CTAA members are addressing this increasingly important transit safety topic.

Winning Grant Writing for Smaller Transit Agencies

Room: 2C
Speaker: Heidi Ganum (moderator); Heather Dalmolin; Raymond Mui; Sarah Vallieres; Paige West
With the number of competitive grants in the transit space expanding annually, smaller transit operators simply can’t apply for everything. This session will help you decide what to apply for and how to do so successfully. Participants will hear from a group of transit professionals who’ve won discretionary grants in the past year and who will share their expertise.

Successfully Collaborating to Yield Improved Community Mobility

Room: 2D
Speaker: Kristin Lam Peraza
Learn how to more effectively collaborate at the local and regional level with potential partners to build community mobility. Attendees will walk away with materials tailored to their unique mobility equations paired with creative tactics to engage local and regional partners.

CDL Solutions: STANDING UP YOUR OWN CDL TRAINING PROGRAM

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Wendy Weedon; Taylor Klocke (moderator)
Training and retaining CDL-licensed drivers is a serious challenge for transit agencies of all sizes. In this workshop we’ll focus on one transit system's approach to entry-level CDL driver training, and talk about the various approaches that may make sense in your state or community.

Maximizing Paratransit and On-Demand Mobility Efficiency

Room: 1G
Speaker: Will Rodman
Participants will operational strategies and technology adaptations designed to make paratransit, NEMT and on-demand mobility more efficient. The case studies presented will highlight real-world results with an emphasis on data analysis.

3:30 p.m. — 4:45 p.m. (75 minutes)

Women in Transit: Let’s Get Real

Room: Hall B
Speaker: Kristen Joyner; Meredith Greene; Maggie Kavan; Robbie Sarles
Join us for an brand new approach to how we talk about challenges for women in the transit industry! We are coordinating “round-table” style discussions with facilitators where we provide a safe space to share experiences with one another and talk about a variety of topics encountered by women in transit. Topics will include, but not be limited to: Work-life balance: does it exist?; Coping with personal illness and/or caring for family members; Double Standards: Being a leader/Becoming the breadwinner; Sexual harassment; Balancing personal challenges while working: divorce & separation; Moving up in the workplace: Supervising my friends; unequal pay.

Navigating Affordable Living: Transit's Vital Role in Housing Accessibility

Room: 1G
Speaker: Melissa Harris; Briana Miranda; Terry Terrell; Daeveene May
Many individuals living in affordable housing often rely on community transportation systems to move about their community. This workshop will look at the intersection between transportation and housing from 3 different perspectives: 1) Learn, from a property developer's perspective, the importance of situating new developments near transit options to enhance accessibility for residents. 2) Discover the essential role that service coordinators play in affordable housing, connecting residents to crucial services and ensuring access to public transit. And 3) hear about the innovative Veterans in the Tiny Home Village Project in Washington State, focusing on how this project addresses the specific needs of veterans, particularly concerning public transit access.

The Goal is Connectivity: Intercity Bus and Public Transit in a Post-Pandemic World

Room: 2A
Speaker: Robin Phillips; Stephanie Gonterman; Paul Henjes; Nina Stocker; Kai Monast
Like public transit, the intercity bus industry is going through a period of rapid change. This workshop will explore the current state of the intercity bus industry as well as how the evolving facilities infrastructure impacts the network of connected public-private bus services nationwide. It will also touch on updated language in the proposed FTA circulars regarding reasonable access and in-kind match.

The Rural AV Revolution is Underway: Tales from Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Room: 2B
Speaker: Daisy Wall; Tammy Meehan-Russell
Leaving behind test tracks and amusement parks — here’s an inside look at how a rural, autonomous vehicle implementation is transforming mobility in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (pop. 11,000). Presenters will discuss technology, vehicles, safety, ridership, marketing, implementation and lessons learned.

Capturing Vital Rider Data in a Zero-Fare Environment

Room: 2C
Speaker: Martin Barna; Jennifer Sweten
Fare-free operations doesn’t mean you have to lose the ability to capture important ridership data. Learn from your peer systems how they’ve devised innovative ways to continue to understand their riders and travel patterns in a zero-fare environment.

Making Change Happen: Transforming Your Operations

Room: 2D
Speaker: Brenda Schweitzer
After three decades, Sioux Falls, South Dakota city leadership wanted to transform public transit’s impact on their city and its residents. Learn how, in a very short time, this community embraced a passenger-focused approach to transit and a total operational transformation. This session will focus on goal setting, implementation and outcomes.

The Innovative Transit Leadership Roundtable

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Krishna Murthy; Ed Benning; Kendra McGeady
Be inspired by some of the most innovative of your CTAA peers as they openly discuss how they devised and implemented transformative mobility innovations in their community. Learn their processes and their inspirations; understand the obstacles they overcame and the places they failed. A lively, memorable and interactive discussion awaits.

Tuesday June 11

9:00—10:15 a.m. (75 minutes)

Let’s Talk About Transportation Equity in Your Community

Room: 2B
Speaker: Carrie Diamond; Melissa Gray; Danny Schnathorst; Michelle Caserta
Three National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC)-funded community projects discuss how they launched productive equity discussions in their communities, emphasizing who participated, the challenges and the outcomes of their efforts. You’ll hear ab out transit service equity from a rural, suburban and urban context.

A Reality-Based Approach to Zero- and Low-Emission Fleet Transitions

Room: 2C
Speaker: John Adair; Chris Forét; Amy Hance
CTAA members both large and small are seeking to make sense of the current fleet transition environment. Here, you’ll learn from a group of members who’ve begun the process (both zero- and low-emission) about what has been effective, and what hasn’t. Why did they choose to begin transitioning their fleets? What is it costing? How are they working with energy companies? What tips can they share?

Ridership Recovery Success Stories

Room: 2D
Speaker: Jaime McKay; Roman Steichel; John Andoh; Josh Baker; Jodi Glock; Jessica Carland
This panel of CTAA members will tell you exactly how they were able to successfully recover ridership figures to pre-pandemic levels. Hint: They each, in their own way, embraced operational and service changes that increased their relevance to the community. You’ll get some direct ideas to take home and customize in your hometown.

Bridging the Growing Gap Between Small Transit Agencies and Effective Data Usage

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Mary Leary, FTA; Andrew Carpenter; Jordan Howard; Abby Tremel; Lauren Ellis
At many larger transit operations, data is viewed as an invaluable resource to be carefully collected, scrutinized and deployed throughout the system. CTAA’s National Center on Applied Transit Technology (N-CATT) has launched a new initiative to increase the data literacy at smaller transit systems. Attendees will learn all about the new initiative — and have the opportunity to help shape its focus.

Microtransit: Service Models and Sustainability

Room: 1G
Speaker: Adolfo Covelli; Louis Ferri
Microtransit systems have been implemented by many agencies across the country, from rural to urban areas. Several different models are being seen: microtransit operated after regular transit hours, microtransit in place of fixed-route service,microtransit for underserved areas, and microtransit for access to fixed-route services, among other models. Leave this workshop with a clearer idea of what model microtransit might suit your community and under what circumstances this model can be financially feasible.

10:30—11:45 a.m. (75 minutes)

Foursquare ITP: Electrifying Smaller Fleets: A Hands-on Workshop (Session Option 1)

Room: 1G
Speaker: Russell Pildes
Intended for transit agencies with small- or medium-sized fleets, this seminar-style workshop will demonstrate. Jolt, Foursquare ITP’s new web-based tool for estimating the fleet and infrastructure needs of a zero-emission transition plan. With just a GTFS feed, Jolt can estimate future fleet needs, changes in emissions and energy use, and associated changes in operational characteristics to support your green transition. Through a series of vignettes, Foursquare ITP’s ZEB transition planning lead Russell Pildes will walk through not just the analysis process, but through the big questions about vehicles and equipment. It’s going to take all of us to get to zero – this session will soothe your zero-emission transition plan heartburn, equip you with knowledge, and give you a chance to ask your questions among friends.

Deploying a Mobility Solutions Center to Optimize Rural Regional Transit Service

Room: 2B
Speaker: Melissa 'Lisa' Leckrone; Mendra Hupp
To best serve an 8-county region in Appalachian Ohio, this CTAA member developed a regional mobility solutions center to collaborate across county lines and provide local residents a consistent, reliable and cost effective service. You’ll learn how they deployed data collection, built lasting partnerships and enhanced local mobility options.

Winning Driver Recruitment and Retention Strategies

Room: 2C
Speaker: Caryn Souza
There’s nothing more central to the success of any transit agency than the ability to find and retain good drivers and operators. Learn the latest techniques and tips that will make your system more competitive and stand out in the highly competitive driver marketplace.

Procurement Simplified: The California Experience

Room: 2D
Speaker: Jacklyn Cuddy; Joe Meer
Procurement — every year — produces the most findings in FTA oversight programs (Triennial and State Management Reviews). It’s a complex process that often further complicates already time-consuming and costly vehicle acquisitions. Here, you’ll learn how the California Association for Coordinated Transportation (CalACT) created a user-friendly and cost-effective approach to procurement for its members.

CMS’s NEMT Transportation Guidance: What it Means for YouR AGENCY

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Robbie Sarles
Last year, the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issues non-emergency medical transportation guidance; developed after a series of in-depth listening sessions throughout the NEMT industry. Here, an expert will help you understand the changes, opportunities and challenges the guidance presents to CTAA members.

1:45—2:45 p.m. (60 minutes)

Foursquare ITP: Electrifying Smaller Fleets: A Hands-on Workshop (Session Option 2)

Transit Management Skill Sharpener: Effective Board Communications

Room: 2A
Speaker: Kristen Joyner
Today, a transit agency manager must possess a wide-ranging skill set in order to be successful. Among those skills, effectively working with Boards of Directors is pivotal. From financial statements to policy development, HR issues to grants management, this session will focus on effective Board communications.

Florida Transit Success Stories: Key West

Room: 2B
Speaker: Rod Delostrinos
Join folks from Key West Transit for a discussion of service and operational innovations they’ve successfully implemented. Hear about Key West Transit's unique challenges and system, engage in a dialogue with your peers and trade workforce tips you can bring back to your agency and community.

Preview: National Survey of State NEMT Efforts

Room: 2C
Speaker: Will Rodman
CTAA’s National Center of Mobility Management (NCMM) is leading an effort to capture a national understanding of Medicaid NEMT and how it is currently being delivered. This research project will capture emerging NEMT delivery trends; service models and partners; building a state-by-state analysis.

Innovative Transit Maps: How Agencies Collected, Used, and Made Decisions From Their Spatial Data

Room: 2D
Speaker: Kari Distefano; Traci Harris
Maps are a core component of the transit world: agencies use them to plan service, passengers use them to understand their travel options, and funders use them to justify how they allocate money for programs. And yet, the transit industry has a lot to learn about effective mapping to maximize its potential. This session will highlight innovative uses of spatial information - from collecting demographics in areas without strong data samples to making important changes based on visualizing your transit demand needs - and how you can learn from these experiences to up your mapping game!

The Dialysis Trip Deep Dive

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Wendy Schrag; Beverly Sidlo-Tolliver
On any given day, most CTAA member agencies find themselves taking a passenger to dialysis. For some, the demand for such trips is rapidly growing. This session will provide an comprehensive look at dialysis transportation, with a focus on recent research; emerging potential partners and proven service models.

Wednesday, June 12

2:00—2:45 p.m. (45 minutes)

The Rural Transit CEO Forum

Room: 2A
Speaker: Scott Bogren
All CTAA rural transit managers are invited to attend this roundtable discussion with CTAA staff leadership. Be prepared to discuss key rural transit topics and, ideally, to highlight how CTAA can best help its members.

Rethinking Transit Leadership

Room: 2B
Speaker: Dan Mulraney
Maybe we’re thinking about transit leadership all wrong. Perhaps the concept of the team working for the leader needs to be flipped. A “leader serves the team” approach creates an environment of professional fulfillment for transit staff members that can be transformational.

Best Practices to Ensure Safety Aboard Public Transit

Room: 2C
Speaker: Robert Gehrman
How do you deal with challenging customers on public transit? What are your drivers trained to do? Join us to discuss training for conflict de-escalation and preparing for difficult situations on board. Attendees will hear from a Non-Violent Crisis Intervention Instructor who trains new drivers.

ITS4US Update: How Engagement and Training Help Your Tech Projects Succeed

Room: 2D
Speaker: Elina Zlotchencko; Chris Zeilinger
Smartphone apps and other customer-facing technologies play a big role in many transportation programs' innovations. But how do you ensure success when you're aiming to serve populations with limited tech or other resources, language barriers, concerns about accessibility, or other potential stumbling blocks? The USDOT's ITS4US initiative has four very different projects underway, all of which are finding that effective stakeholder engagement and user training play key roles in paving the path to tech success. Learn about the successful and promising practices being deployed by the Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency (HIRTA) and other partners in ITS4US.

ELA Conclave

Room: 2E/2F
Speaker: Dioane Gates; Michael Noel
Reserved for ELA Alumni
As the conference day winds down, prepare to immerse yourself in an atmosphere brimming with nostalgia and an introduction to new ways to exercise leadership on adaptive challenges. Join us for an exhilarating session at Expo 2024, where past meets present in a vibrant confluence of ideas and memories. Our exclusive ELA conclave is more than just a gathering; it’s a chance to reignite the spirit of camaraderie and collaboration that marked your time in the Emerging Leaders Academy [ELA]. Reconnect with your peers, share your journeys, and discover the diverse paths taken by your cohort since graduation. This is your moment to refresh old bonds and forge new ones, to collaborate on future ventures, and to celebrate the shared legacy that ties us all together. Whether you’re looking to reminisce about the good old days, seek advice for your latest endeavor, or simply enjoy the company of fellow alumni, the ELA Conclave is the perfect setting. With a blend of informal chats, structured experiential learning sessions, and a touch of fun, you’ll leave with a renewed sense of connection to each other and the idea taught during ELA.

This session will cover these three objectives and give you an opportunity to share a cocktail with fellow ELA’ers: Understand that acknowledging and articulating loss can generate productive engagement; Consider ways to create space to talk about loss, and other things groups and individuals normally struggle to talk about; Understand leading with loss is intended to increase trust by acknowledging what an individual or group stands to lose by engaging in difficult work.

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to enhance your professional network and rekindle friendships. Let’s come together to make Expo 2024 an unforgettable experience!

3:00—3:45 p.m. (45 minutes)

The Small Urban Transit CEO Forum

Room: 2A
Speaker: Scott Bogren
All CTAA small-urban transit managers are invited to attend this roundtable discussion with CTAA staff leadership. Be prepared to discuss key small-urban transit topics and, ideally, to highlight how CTAA can best help its members.

Building Great Transit Teams

Room: 2B
Speaker: Milo Victoria; Leslie Rogers
Here’s your chance to sit with a group of transit leaders with decades of experience to discuss their expertise in team building. From front-line staff to operations to finance, you’ll leave this session with great ideas to build your team back home.

That’s One Way to Expand Mobility Resources

Room: 2C
Speaker: DeDe Gaisthea; Hezequias Rocha
The Maricopa Association of Governments transit planning area encompasses 27 cities and towns, three tribal regions and two regions. This session will focus on how the agency successfully deploys mobility management assets to enhance coordination across its broad and diverse service area.

How to Get Your Community Behind New/Expanded Service

Room: 2D
Speaker: Jennifer Whitesell
Rural Lincoln Co., ID has never before had a public transportation system. Couple this with the county residents’ conservative approach to raising and spending tax dollars, and you get a high degree of skepticism that a public transportation could ever get off the ground. Yet the unimaginable is happening. This workshop will cover the importance of allowing a new concept like public transit to emerge from within the community, and the value in providing visualizations of the concept during discussions. The tools Lincoln Co. used could also be used to engage the public on proposed expanded/changed services. Lincoln Co. was supported by a grant from the FTA-funded National Center for Mobility Management.

ELA Conclave - Part Two

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.