Communities grow through the increase of residents’ access to jobs, education, healthcare, and other community services. Unfortunately, sometimes the barrier to active citizenship is a lack of reliable transportation. Recently Bis-Man Transit Marketing Director Misty Staiger, attended Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) transportation solutions training in Omaha, NE.
The training was designed to empower attendees to utilize their communities’ available transportation sources to their fullest potential and to explore options for increasing public transportation ridership. People representing both the transportation field and the human service professionals field took part, resulting in discussion from both angles of the issues.
Topics covered included analyzing current transportation channels in the community, helping riders afford transportation, working with specific populations, developing individualized transportation plans for customers, and working with community stakeholders.
Bis-Man Transit is now working on using the information received at the training to develop goals and a plan for implementation in Bismarck and Mandan with trainings being planned in the near future.