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TMCNet: Nonprofits consider merging transit services

[November 07, 2009]

Nonprofits consider merging transit services

Nov 07, 2009 (The Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Four non-profit agencies that serve disabled and senior citizens in the Pikes Peak region are working to merge some of their transportation services in hopes of serving more people.

Those involved in the effort, almost four years in the making, say it's not a direct response to the cuts in the city's bus service, Mountain Metropolitan Transit, and its paratransit system, called Metro Mobility. But they said those cuts -- and the specter of even more in the coming months -- give added urgency to their work.

The four agencies -- Silver Key, Community Intersections, Fountain Valley Senior Services and Disability Services Inc./Amblicab -- operate buses and vans whose drivers assist clients to their doors and sometimes into their homes. Metro Mobility only serves riders who can walk to a curb for pickup and only those who live within three-quarters of a mile from a fixed-route bus line.

The four agencies, who together in 2008 provided about 100,000 rides compared to Metro Mobility's 160,000 rides that same year, said with tight budgets and an ever-increasing number of clients, it makes sense to merge parts of their transportation systems.

The four agencies are seeking to create a non-profit that would run a centralized dispatch and billing system.

By coordinating dispatch services, the agencies could serve more people and fill their vehicles, which makes operating them cheaper, said executives from some of the agencies.

The agencies also would save money by training drivers and buying fuel and maintenance services together.

Joe Vaccaro of Community Intersections said right now his agency might send a van to a particular street to pick up a developmentally disabled client while a Silver Key van is on the same street to pick up a senior citizen. That makes little sense, he said.

Lisa Thomas, mobility manager for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, Area Agency on Aging, said agencies that serve the elderly and disabled were already being forced to turn down requests for help before the city's budget crisis slashed transit service. Now, with the possibility that more regular and paratransit routes may be cut by the city, she fears those stranded riders will flood non-profit agencies, particularly Amblicab, with requests for transportation help.

She said the agencies are now trying to find private or public grants for the $500,000 it would take to create the centralized dispatch system. Of that, $200,000 would be spent on dispatch software, and another $132,000 would be needed for new dispatch equipment in the 53 vehicles owned by the four agencies.

Those involved hope to get the coordinated dispatch service working within the next year to year and a half.

To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazette.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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