Community Transportation

WORKSHOPS

Bring Your Own Workshop

The Community Transportation Association of America would like you to share your recent experiences with EXPO attendees and submit a workshop for EXPO 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Selected workshops will be placed on the conference schedule from June 10-12, 2024. We invite you to tell us your story! If you have an inspiring case study, experiences with challenges or success, and can provide actionable content to our 1,000+ attendees, we encourage you to submit a workshop for consideration.

Monday, June 10

10:15—11:15 a.m. (60 minutes)

Using Innovative Software to Improve Service to People with Developmental Disabilities

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

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. Target Audience: All CTAA member organizations.

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

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.

Effectively Balancing Fixed-Route and On-Demand Services

Many fixed-route transit operators are replacing poorly performing routes and areas served by more than 1-hour frequency with on-demand services. You’ll hear from two CTAA small-urban members that have made this transition. What factors influenced their decision? What software and vehicles are they using? Are they meeting ridership projections? Target Audience: Small-urban transit, rural fixed-route operators.

The Value of Fully Credentialed Drivers

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. Target Audience: Any transit system, with an emphasis on on-demand, NEMT and paratransit providers.

The Future of Paratransit: How Transit Agencies Can Achieve Greater Efficiency through Modern Technology

In this session, attendees will explore the impact of leveraging non-dedicated fleets to deliver same-day paratransit services, fostering an innovative shift towards providing more sustainable, accessible, and cost-effective paratransit services. Discover how modern technology and the introduction of Artificial Intelligence is transforming the eligibility process and enabling agencies to offer more equitable services, improve the rider experience and streamline operations. Presenter: Lynda Chau, VP of Marketing, Spare.

11:30 a.m.—12:15 p.m. (45 minutes)

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

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. Target Audience: Any transit system.

Workforce Development Strategies for Smaller Transit Agencies

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency; particularly those applying or considering applying for Low-No Competitive Bus Funding.

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

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

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

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

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

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

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

Winning Grant Writing for Smaller Transit Agencies

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency, particularly those considering applying for competitive grants at the federal, state or local levels.

Successfully Collaborating to Yield Improved Community Mobility

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency, mobility managers, NEMT operators.

CDL Solutions: State Approaches and Regional Partnerships

Training and retaining CDL-licensed drivers is a serious challenge for transit agencies of all sizes. In this workshop we’ll focus on one state’s approach to entry-level CDL driver training and regional partnerships that have assisted smaller agencies with managing the current labor market environment. Target Audience: Any transit agency, particularly those seeking solutions with CDL issues.

3:30 p.m. — 4:45 p.m. (75 minutes)

Women in Transit: Let’s Get Real

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.

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

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency seeking to improve regional and intercity connectivity.

The Innovative Transit Leadership Roundtable

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency.

Capturing Vital Rider Data in a Zero-Fare Environment

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. Target Audience: Small-urban agencies; any transit system interested in fare-free operations and data collection.

Making Change Happen: Transforming Your Operations

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency.

Tuesday June 11

9:00—10:15 a.m. (75 minutes)

Let’s Talk About Transportation Equity in Your Community

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

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

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? Target Audience: All transit agencies.

Ridership Recovery Success Stories

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

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

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

Microtransit: Service Models and Sustainability

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)

Tales From the Tank – Transit Success Stories Powered by Propane Autogas

Attendees at this session will hear directly from their peers about how easy it is to convert to propane autogas and how it has allowed fleets of all sizes and budgets to transition to an energy source that’s 90 percent cleaner than conventional fuels. The session will demonstrate how fleet owners can reduce emissions and save money by transitioning to a clean, available, and reliable energy source: propane autogas. Thanks to its low fuel and maintenance costs, alongside options to lease infrastructure for little to no money, propane autogas provides fleets with the lowest total cost of ownership of all available fuels.

Deploying a Mobility Solutions Center to Optimize Rural Regional Transit Service

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. Target Audience: Rural transit agencies.

Winning Driver Recruitment and Retention Strategies

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

Procurement Simplified: The California Experience

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

Health Care Collaboration

1:45—2:45 p.m. (60 minutes)

Florida Transit Success Stories

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

The Dialysis Trip Deep Dive

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency that takes passengers to dialysis.

Transit Management Skill Sharpener: Effective Board Communications

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. Target Audience: Any transit system leader.

Preview: National Survey of State NEMT Efforts

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

Wednesday, June 12

2:00—2:45 p.m. (45 minutes)

Rethinking Transit Leadership

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

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

Smartphone apps and other customer-facing technologies play a big role in many transportation programs' innovations. But how do you assure 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. Target Audience: Transit agencies deploying new apps or other customer-facing technology.

Best Practices to Ensure Safety Aboard Public Transit

The Rural Transit CEO Forum

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. Target Audience: All rural transit agencies.

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

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency providing NEMT.

ELA Conclave - Leading with Loss: Part One

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)

ELA Conclave - Leading with Loss: Part Two

Building Great Transit Teams

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies.

That’s One Way to Expand Mobility Resources

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. Target Audience: All transit agencies with an emphasis on planners and mobility managers.

The Small Urban Transit CEO Forum

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. Target Audience: All small-urban transit agencies.

How to Get Your Community Behind New/Expanded Service

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. Speaker: Jennifer Whitesell, transportation director, Lincoln Co. Connections.

Maximizing Paratransit and On-Demand Mobility Efficiency

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. Target Audience: Any transit agency; particularly those in the on-demand, paratransit and NEMT fields.

Transit Safety Focus: Managing Challenging Passengers

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. Target Audience: All transit systems.

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.