San Luis Obispo - Caltrans - State of California

SAN LUIS OBISPO REGION
COORDINATED HUMAN SERVICES-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PLAN
CHAPTER 7: FUNDING
This chapter identifies available Federal funding under SAFETEA-LU and acknowledges other
funding sources from which potential match could be secured. The intent of the SAFETEA-LU
coordinated planning process is to extend available dollars, for both public transit and human
services agencies and organizations in meeting unmet transportation needs identified.
7.1 FEDERAL INITIATIVES RELATED TO COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION FUNDING
7.1.1 Federal Funding for Specialized Transportation
There has long been recognition of the value of coordinating specialized transportation as an
important mechanism for meeting the needs of persons for whom it is difficult to use the private
automobile, rail or fixed-route public transport. The Government Accounting Office (GAO)
prepared a 2003 report on coordination 15 , detailing the 62 federal programs currently funding
transportation services for individuals with a variety of specialized transportation needs and
suggesting that improved coordination of these resources was needed to better address these
transportation needs. The programs identified by the GAO report are primarily administered by
the Federal Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Education and Transportation.
Collectively these had spent an estimated $24 billion on transportation services in 2001.
The GAO report identified various benefits to coordination, including improved customer service
and selected financial benefits. A concurrent study sought to enumerate the economic benefits
of coordination 16 , defining coordination as a “technique for better resource management” to
realize benefits in such areas as:
- Additional funding – more total funding and a greater number of funding sources;
- Increased efficiency – reduced cost per vehicle hour or per mile;
- Increased productivity – more trips per month or passengers per vehicle hour
- Enhanced mobility – increased access to jobs or health care, or trips provided to
passengers at a lower cost per trip; and
- Additional economic benefits – increased levels of economic development in the
community or employment benefits for those persons associated with the
transportation service.
In recognition of coordination needs at the Federal Level, in 2004 President Bush issued an
Executive Order to establish the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council on Access and
Mobility (CCAM) and launched the United We Ride (UWR) initiative. United We Ride now
provides website access to best practices and training resources. Together with CCAM, these
serve as means by which the 11 federal departments funding various forms of transportation
can work together to simplify access, reduce duplication, and enhance cost efficiencies in
community human service transportation.
15 United States General Accounting Office, Transportation Disadvantaged Populations – Many Federal
Programs Fund Transportation Services, but Obstacles to Coordination Persist (GAO-03-698T), May 1,
2003.
16 Transit Cooperative Research Report: Economic Benefits of Coordinating Human Service
Transportation and Public Transit Services, Burkhardt, J.E., Koffman, D., and Murray, G. (2003).
Published by the Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, as TCRP Report 91.
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OCTOBER 2007