MassDOT's annual Community Transit Grant Program is scheduled to open for applications April 29 and close on June 24. Councils on Aging, non-profits, transit authorities, municipalities, and some taxis can apply for funding for vehicles, mobility management projects, or operating expenses to expand mobility for older adults and people with disabilities. For inspiration, check out this recent report on creative examples of how organizations have used this funding in the past. Attendance at a virtual training session - scheduled for April 21 and 27 - is mandatory for new applicants and optional for returning applicants. If you have questions or wish to sign up for a training, contact Jenna Henning.

Find additional funding opportunities on the MassMobility funding for community transportation webpage.

Recently celebrated as a key accomplishment of Salem’s age-friendly initiative, the Salem Skipper is an example of senior-friendly transportation that meets the needs of not only older adults but also other groups. The Skipper is a microtransit service operating within the City of Salem, providing mobility for residents, employees, and visitors of all ages. Since launching the Skipper as a pilot in December 2020, the City has worked to improve and expand the service through listening to community feedback, building partnerships, and seeking out additional funding sources.

From the beginning, Salem wanted this age-friendly initiative to serve riders of all ages and abilities. While designed to meet the needs of older adults, the Skipper is open to all and provides on-demand, shared rides within Salem. Riders summon their ride through an app or by calling; once the ride is booked, the rider receives directions to a nearby spot to pick up the ride. Riders who use wheelchairs or have other accessibility needs can get picked up in their exact location. Operated through the national company Via, the Skipper uses dedicated drivers who are hired as Skipper drivers and dedicated vehicles; two of their six vehicles are wheelchair-accessible.

Feedback from Spanish-speaking residents of Salem led to the addition of a Spanish-language version of the app in March 2021. David Kucharsky, Director of Traffic and Parking in Salem, credits the Spanish-language version with growing ridership – including high ridership in the City’s Point neighborhood, where 42 percent of households live below the poverty line and nearly a quarter of households do not own a vehicle. Additional feedback from a variety of riders led to an expansion of hours. The Skipper originally operated weekdays from 7am to 7pm and 10am-6pm on Saturdays, but in October 2021 it expanded to run from 7am to midnight Mondays through Thursdays, 7am-1am on Fridays, 10am-1am on Saturdays, and 10am-8pm on Sundays. The expanded hours were possible in part due to a partnership with Salem State University, which contributed funds to support later night service.

In addition to Salem State, Kucharsky is pursuing additional partnerships. Some middle and high schools within Salem have begun using the Skipper to support students’ rides to internship sites, and Kucharsky is in talks with additional schools. The City is also currently working on a partnership with a local hospital to allow hospital staff to book Skipper riders on behalf of Salem residents who are getting discharged and need rides home. The funding streams supporting the Skipper have also evolved over time. A Workforce Transportation Grant from MassDOT funded the pilot’s first nine months. Salem currently funds the Skipper through cannabis revenues and community benefits agreements with housing developers, as well as through contributions from partners.

“The Skipper has improved access to transportation for a variety of historically disadvantaged groups. We are finding this type of service to be a great addition to a community’s toolbox,” Kucharsky says.

On February 14, the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA) bus route 51 began its new routing through downtown Amesbury, the result of a partnership between MVRTA, the Mayor of Amesbury and her staff, and the Amesbury Age-Friendly initiative. The new routing allows the bus to directly serve the Amesbury Housing Authority, Our Neighbors’ Table food market, and the post office while continuing to serve the Amesbury Health Center. The bus previously took a more circuitous route that bypassed the downtown and added travel time.

The idea for re-routing the 51 first emerged during a meeting of the transportation subcommittee of Amesbury’s Age-Friendly initiative when a member pointed out that the routing did not serve the senior housing in downtown Amesbury. This omission became clear to Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove and her Director of Community and Economic Development, Angela Cleveland, when they rode the two bus routes serving Amesbury together in July 2021 – a ride they had originally planned to take in March 2020, but had to delay due to the pandemic. “It was right there in front of us when we were on the bus,” shares Cleveland. “We saw it as an equity issue, and it was a priority for us not only from the age-friendly standpoint, but also from an affordable housing perspective.” Gove and Cleveland wrote up their notes, developed a proposal, used a mapping tool from the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission to make a visual representation of the new proposed route overlaid on the existing route, and submitted the proposal to MVRTA Administrator Noah Berger.

Berger, newly installed as MVRTA Administrator, was excited to receive the proposal and partnered with Gove to implement it. “This is a great example of what we want to do with a lot of our routes – serve key destinations more directly, so we can be respectful of riders’ time,” he says. He encourages all municipal officials and legislators to ride the buses in their communities as Gove and Cleveland did.

“Amesbury is very lucky to have such a high level of investment from our residents and volunteers,” says Doreen Arnfield, Director of the Amesbury Council on Aging (COA) and chair of the Age-Friendly Task Force and transportation subcommittee. Now that the new routing is in place, the subcommittee’s next step will be an outreach campaign to educate older adults about how to take the bus and encourage them to try it.

Arnfield is also in the process of receiving a used, surplus van from MVRTA that will allow the COA to offer additional mobility to older adults in Amesbury, which has not had a COA van in over 10 years. Arnfield says the van will complement the existing services they have, allowing the COA to offer day trips and enabling COA staff to better serve older adults who need extra assistance. Berger says he is glad the van will continue to serve the community. “We view our COAs as part of the family of transportation providers,” he says.

Travelers in the Quaboag Valley have a new way to get around on Saturdays: the Route 9 Shuttle launched on March 5, a fixed-route service making local stops between Belchertown and Spencer between 8am and 6pm. The Route 9 shuttle is the latest addition to a growing list of mobility options in the area, which include the demand-response Quaboag Connector that launched in 2017 and Amherst-Worcester Intercity service that launched this past September. Like the Quaboag Connector, the Route 9 shuttle is operated through a partnership between the Town of Ware and the Quaboag Valley Community Development Corporation (QVCDC).

The idea for the shuttle emerged in 2020. A Synergy grant from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts offered the Connector the chance to engage stakeholders in a Design Thinking process to re-envision how to provide mobility in the region. From February through September of 2020, QVCDC and the Town of Ware collaborated with community members and partner agencies to gather feedback from riders and potential riders, brainstorm several creative options through a set of facilitated exercises, test prototypes of the ideas generated, and use community feedback to refine the options into a plan. The result was a proposal to complement the Connector’s existing demand-response service with a fixed-route shuttle that riders could ride without scheduling in advance, such as if they got the opportunity to pick up a last-minute work shift. Originally scheduled to launch in 2021, the Shuttle faced pandemic-related delays; while still working on securing sufficient staffing to operate the shuttle on weekdays, QVCDC decided to begin with Saturday service.

Next steps including promoting the shuttle through outreach and gathering rider feedback. QVCDC encourages any rider with questions or comments to contact them.

Riders on the Beverly Shuttle now have more access to grocery stores and hospital appointments, thanks to a route change that went into effect February 21. The new routing is the result of collaboration between the City of Beverly, which funds the service, and the Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA), which operates the service.

The impetus for the changes originated in the Apple Village neighborhood, where residents advocated to their City Councilor for more transportation. Accessible only off the highway, the neighborhood includes affordable housing and senior housing complexes and households without access to a car, yet the shuttle only came by on Saturdays. A city-wide survey of residents found that residents also wanted more access to grocery stores, so Beverly collaborated with CATA on a redesign that adds consistency and increases service to key destinations, while fitting within the constraints of covering the entire service with only one bus. The redesign unifies the weekday and Saturday service into one consistent routing and also increases service to grocery stores, Apple Village and other housing authority properties and senior housing, Beverly Hospital, and some employment centers. The shuttle is open to the general public and connects to two commuter rail stations for longer-distance trips.

Paul Scanlon, Transit Supervisor at CATA’s operating company, stresses that for many riders, the shuttle is more than just a ride: “People depend on that bus to get them out of their house. It’s a good social opportunity. You get out, you talk to the other people on the bus, they know the bus driver. It’s a close-knit community.”

Two two-year, fare-free transit pilots went into effect on March 1. Riders on the 23, 28, and 29 bus lines in Boston no longer have to pay a fare, due to a partnership between the City and the MBTA where the City will reimburse the MBTA for lost fare revenue. The Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA) implemented free fares systemwide on bus and paratransit, while continuing to collect fares on their commuter bus into Boston.

Both pilots build on past efforts. Boston began piloting a fare-free 28 bus in August 2021, while the MVRTA began piloting three fare-free routes in 2019 in partnership with the City of Lawrence. The MVRTA Board voted to go fare-free for two years in hopes of increasing ridership and decreasing delays, and based on an analysis showing a poor return on investment for upgrading their fare collection system. Read more from the Boston Globe about the pilots in Boston and MVRTA, check out this national coverage from the Washington Post, or hear MVRTA Administrator Noah Berger discuss it himself in his presentation from the 2021 Moving Together Conference.

The National Center for Mobility Management is compiling a database of promising practices in mobility management. If you have implemented a new or enhanced method of delivering mobility management that improved people's ability to travel in their communities, submit your promising practice for potential inclusion in this national database.

New Hampshire is hiring a Statewide Mobility Manager, and the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission is looking for a Regional Mobility Manager. Find job postings on the New Hampshire RTAP website in the "NHRTAP News" section.

The Central Mass Regional Planning Commission is hiring a Transit Planner.

Many transit authorities and human service transportation providers are looking to hire drivers, while volunteer driver programs need additional volunteers.

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