MassDOT's annual Community Transit Grant Program is now open! 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. New applicants should contact Jenna Henning before applying. Applications are due June 24, but don't delay - start early so you have time to reach out to MassDOT with any questions.

Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA) is seeking proposals to advance work at the intersection of transportation access and social justice. This opportunity is available to groups organizing and advocating to improve walking, cycling, rolling, and public transportation to help reverse racial and economic inequities in Massachusetts. Apply by May 31.

Through the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds, grants of up to $200,000 per year for up to 5 years are available to nonprofits, municipalities, and quasi-governmental agencies working to address root causes of health inequities and social determinants of health to create a sustainable impact on health outcomes. The Healthy Aging fund includes a focus on transportation and housing. Apply by June 17.

More funding opportunities are coming online soon! For example, the annual Helping Hand Mini Grants for small capital purchases by Regional Transit Authorities, municipalities, and nonprofits that provide transportation in rural and small urban areas is scheduled to open May 16. Bookmark the MassMobility funding for community transportation webpage to stay up to date on the latest grant opportunities.

Have you used PT-1 or other Human Service Transportation (HST) services since July 1, 2021? If so, share your feedback with the HST Office at an upcoming Virtual Public Listening Session. HST transportation is coordinated by two brokers: the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) and the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA). New contracts with MART and GATRA went into effect on July 1, 2021. These new contracts introduced new technologies to improve customer service, such as smart phone apps and self-service web portals to facilitate scheduling rides and reporting complaints. Members and consumers are invited to join virtual public listening sessions to share their experience with HST services through MART and GATRA since the new contracts were implemented on July 1, 2021:

Calling everyone who moves around Massachusetts! MassDOT is looking for input on your transportation needs and priorities as they begin to develop their next long-range transportation plan, which they are calling "Beyond Mobility." Learn more, watch the video, and fill out the survey - and please share this with your networks so that MassDOT hears from older adults, people with disabilities, and others who lack access to transportation.

Find additional ways to get involved in transportation planning processes.

Participating agencies in Lowell’s HEALing Communities Study (HCS) can now request bus passes for their consumers as part of the “Honey-Pot” transportation initiative that launched in February 2022. With sites in Massachusetts and three other states, HCS is a national study implementing evidence-based practices to address the opioid epidemic. Sites can choose from a menu of options of evidence-based interventions, and from the beginning, the Greater Lowell Health Alliance (GLHA) – which manages the Lowell HCS site – chose to include transportation as one of their services. “At the end of the day, not being able to access transportation is a terrible reason for someone to die from an overdose,” emphasizes Dr. Hannah Tello, Project Manager for HCS at GLHA.

GLHA initially offered transportation through contracting with Wheels of Hope, a regional service where callers call a helpline and – if they qualify – get a ride through a contracted transportation provider. However, due to a loss of other grant funding, Wheels of Hope had to pause operations at the end of 2021. Determined to continue offering transportation, GLHA surveyed their partner agencies as well as other agencies that had referred consumers to Wheels of Hope. Based on the survey responses, GLHA decided on a model where each agency could purchase transportation for eligible consumers and then receive reimbursement from GLHA. To make the system viable for very small agencies, GLHA also offered to pay upfront if an agency’s budget could not sustain waiting for reimbursement. This approach – which they are calling the “Honey-Pot” – offers agencies more flexibility in terms of what type of transportation to purchase. For example, in addition to purchasing rides from contracted providers, agencies can now purchase bus passes for the Lowell Regional Transit Authority (LRTA) system for consumers.

According to Tello, the Honey-Pot system is working well so far, although ideally she would like to partner with Wheels of Hope again and be able to offer both the Honey-Pot and centralized helpline approach. At the end of the day, she hopes the agencies will be able to use the data from the study to make the case for including transportation funding in their own budgets. “Agency staff spend a lot of time finding transportation or tracking people down if they don’t have transportation, and so offering transportation actually saves money,” Tello says.

Ten new projects promoting equitable access to the benefits of electric vehicles are ramping up to launch as early as this summer, thanks to $5 million in funding from the Accelerating Clean Transportation for All (ACT4All) Program. With locations from the Berkshires to the Cape, the funded projects each fall into one of three categories: making e-bikes affordable and available to low-income and minority residents, electrifying fleets to reduce emissions in environmental justice neighborhoods, and promoting awareness of electric vehicles to underserved communities. Projects will run for 18 months after launching.

Funded in part by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), Act4All is administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), a quasi-public economic development agency whose mission is to spur the growth of the clean energy sector in Massachusetts and to help the state meet its climate goals. While MassCEC and DOER funded their first round of clean transportation demonstration projects in 2020, this year’s round adds a focus on equity and scalability. “Our goal is to reach low- and moderate-income residents in the Commonwealth and those particularly affected by transportation burdens like emissions. We wanted to think about how the state would be supporting equity and environmental justice moving forward, and so our goal is not just to showcase successes of these individual projects but also to think about scalability and to inform how to administer these types of projects moving forward,” explains Rachel Ackerman, MassCEC Director.

MassCEC embedded equity into the process from the beginning, offering nonprofits and municipalities grants of $7500 to cover staff time to complete the application and inviting advocacy groups to participate in grant selection. To promote scalability, projects will report not only traditional clean energy metrics but also feedback on their experience with implementation, including lessons learned and any changes made to their original plans. MassCEC will meet monthly with each grantee to hear how the project is going, and will also convene related projects quarterly for peer learning.

Recognizing that the bicycle can play a role in age-friendly transportation, the City of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) are each working to bring to scale recent pilots supporting older adults in biking. After piloting bike programming for older adults last year using a mini-grant and unspent funds, Cambridge has set aside funds in the general city budget to operate the program again this year. Building on webinars held last year in partnership with AARP, MassBike is scheduling in-person events for this summer.

Cambridge initially developed its program in response to community feedback. After receiving quite a few inquiries from older adults about biking, the City’s Community Development Department partnered with the Council on Aging to launch a survey of older adults in late 2019 to identify what barriers were preventing older adults from biking. Three main barriers emerged: physical inability to ride, lack of access to a bike, and fear of traffic – and the City set about designing a program to address all three.

That program kicked off in fall 2020 with a four-part webinar series held in collaboration with MassBike on Healthy Aging and Bicycling. Even after the webinar series was over, Cambridge continued to host monthly virtual meetings so attendees could connect with each other and build community. The City also ran a 12-week “Power Pedal” Zoom fitness class over the winter, where an instructor specializing in older adult fitness led participants through exercises to help them gain and maintain the balance and strength needed for biking. In summer 2021, Cambridge partnered with MassBike to run four on-bike clinics to help older adults practice getting on and off the bike and assess grip strength for braking. The City also ran weekly summer bike rides to offer older adults a supportive, social opportunity to practice. “We designed it to be a supportive, long-term program, not just a series of one-off events,” explains Adi Philson, Mobility Education Coordinator for Cambridge. “Some people started not knowing how to ride, and by the end they were participating every week in the weekly bike ride. It was really exciting to see the program help people get back on bikes who otherwise would not have been able to ride.”

Excited about the success in Cambridge, MassBike was eager to bring the programming to scale statewide and partnered with AARP on two webinars on age-friendly biking in 2021. “In the last four years, we have embarked on a new focus on those who have traditionally been left out of bike culture,” explains Galen Mook, Executive Director of MassBike. “So that means we are thinking about racial justice, environmental justice, and older adults.” Seeing educational programming as key to supporting older adults in the short term, Mook has shared the webinar recordings – they were broadcast on Gloucester’s local cable access station, for example – and MassBike is planning in-person events this summer. In the longer term, Mook sees great potential for e-bikes to more systemically address some of the barriers older adults face in biking. MassBike received an Act4All grant to promote e-bike adoption among older adults and low-income populations Worcester.

Interested in age-friendly biking? Join an upcoming event with MassBike and AARP, check out these virtual workshops from the City of Cambridge, or watch the recorded AARP/MassBike webinars on getting back on your bike and preparing for your next ride. MassBike invites any organization interested in hosting an age-friendly biking event to contact them.

A new three-part series features Boston’s AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP Bus Buddies: older adults who volunteer with the City of Boston’s Age Strong Commission to help their peers feel comfortable riding the MBTA system. The series shows four Bus Buddies traveling together on the red and green lines to enjoy art and talk with artists at an outdoor exhibit near Fenway Park and at the Museum of Fine Arts. “When everything shut down during the pandemic, we wanted a way to keep in touch with the Bus Buddies, and so we decided to make this video,” explains Monique Carvalho, Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Age Strong Commission. “Now we are using the video to relaunch the Bus Buddies program and recruit new volunteers.”

The video premiered on April 12 at a launch event at the Veronica B. Smith Senior Center in Brighton. Three of the four Bus Buddies featured in the film were in attendance, as was the film’s director. After the showing, Age Strong Commissioner Emily Shea presented awards to the Bus Buddies, and attendees ate cake that was decorated to look like a bus.

The Age Strong Commission plans to bring the video to different neighborhoods around Boston in the coming months. Anyone age 55 or older interested in helping older adults ride the MBTA in Boston can sign up to be an AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP Bus Buddy.

As of April 1, older adults who ride the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) dial-a-ride service have more options for when they take their trip. As part of a pilot to expand service while also addressing congestion at peak times, PVTA extended dial-a-ride service hours to 7pm in those communities where they provide the dial-a-ride, and also added Saturday services in communities that have both dial-a-ride and ADA paratransit service. The pilot is scheduled to run through October, at which point the PVTA Board will decide whether to continue the extended hours.

“The extended hours allow people more options for when they schedule their trips, and it also allows schedulers the flexibility to work with callers so that if we don’t have capacity at the time they ask for, we can work with them to shift their times so we can fulfill the request and get them their ride,” explains Paul Burns-Johnson, Director of Transit Operations at PVTA. “We want to serve all of our riders well, and we also hope to encourage new riders to get on board.” Learn more about PVTA’s dial-a-ride and other PVTA services for older adults.

Community members including business leaders, transit staff, hospital staff, and riders gathered at the Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester on April 20 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the launch of CATA On Demand, a microtransit service offering on-demand rides within parts of Gloucester including the downtown, both commuter rail stations, major industrial parks, and the hospital. To ride CATA on Demand, riders download an app, summon a ride, and then get directed to a nearby corner to pick up a Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA) accessible van. The service operates Monday through Friday from 7:30am to 8pm. Each ride costs $2, and employers can sign up to sponsor their employees’ rides. The service is open to the general public.

In her speech, CATA Administrator Felicia Webb announced that due to its success, the pilot would be extended into 2023. Webb noted the popularity of the service – CATA reached its 12-month goal for ridership within the first month of service – including attracting brand new customers who did not previously use other CATA services. Rider Jay Smiledge also spoke at the event, testifying to the value CATA on Demand has had for his life. While he also uses the bus and dial-a-ride service available through CATA, he appreciates the flexibility the on-demand service offers him.

The pilot’s first year was funded through with a Workforce Transportation grant from MassDOT and $20,000 in local match funding raised through area businesses. CATA plans to use general CATA funding – including federal CARES Act dollars – to continue the pilot, and is also partnering with the Gloucester Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC) to raise $40,000 in local match funding from area employers and partner agencies.

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.

The MBTA is opening a new Mobility Center in Boston that will assist older adults and individuals with disabilities in accessing and using a range of transportation services in the Boston area. To staff this Center, MTM is recruiting qualified candidates for the following positions: Mobility Assessment Evaluator, ADA Eligibility Specialist, Transit Navigator, Travel Trainer, and Transit Coordinator. The MBTA encourages individuals with disabilities to apply.

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

Many Regional Transit Authorities, the MBTA, and human service transportation providers are looking to hire drivers, while volunteer driver programs need additional volunteers.

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