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From page 82... ... Page 6-1 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families This chapter provides guidance on using existing transportation resources in your community to help meet the transportation needs identiied through your planning efforts. "Starting with what you have" -- that is, with the transportation services and programs currently available in your community -- is a foundation of transportation coordination and mobility management. Read the entire page →
From page 83... ... Page 6-2 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" of the existing transportation services in your community and where you and your leadership team want to direct improvement strategies. Note that the actions and projects described in the chapter focus on improving community transportation speciically for veterans, service members, and their families. Read the entire page →
From page 84... ... Page 6-3 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" information later if vehicle sharing among partner agencies is considered as a strategy to improve transportation) Read the entire page →
From page 85... ... Page 6-4 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Create an Information Portal -- Coordinate with 2-1-1 and 5-1-1 To expand the availability of the compiled information, explore whether the centralized information could be made available through your local 2-1-1 service (the phone number reserved for community social services) or 5-1-1 service (the phone number reserved for traveler information) Read the entire page →
From page 86... ... Page 6-5 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Transit agencies that provide GTFS data (general transit feed speciications) to Google have trip planners powered by Google that can readily be accessed via smartphones. Read the entire page →
From page 87... ... Page 6-6 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Step 3: Enhance Existing Public Transit for Improved Service to Target Groups Most communities have some level of public transportation and depending on what your planning efforts revealed about how effectively -- or not -- the community's public transit system serves identi�ied needs, you might consider enhancing those transit services. This can be as straightforward as promoting transit to community organizations that work with veterans to fare incentives for veterans and service members, to possible transit service modi�ications so key destinations are better served. Read the entire page →
From page 88... ... Page 6-7 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" the veterans' employment specialists surveyed through this research project indicated that they are able to provide bus passes or tickets; if the passes are discounted, the employment specialists may be able to stretch their resources and purchase greater numbers of passes, assisting more veterans with transportation. For student veterans, work with your local college, university, or technical school to offer discounted bus passes for enrolled students. Read the entire page →
From page 89... ... Page 6-8 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" You could also prepare information tools that are speciic for selected staff members and individuals who work with veterans, for example, those working within the VAMC, such as the DAV Hospital Service coordinator, VTN staff, VA staff providing general patient information services, as well as CommunityBased Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) administrators. Read the entire page →
From page 90... ... Page 6-9 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Encourage Public-Private Partnerships to Support Public Transit Collaborate with local businesses to see if they might provide �inancial support for public transit modi�ications that improve service for veterans, service members, and families. If you extend service during evening hours to better serve employment destinations, for example, consider asking the businesses now served with additional hours if they might contribute to the additional operating costs for those additional revenue hours. Read the entire page →
From page 91... ... Page 6-10 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" service members with regional trip needs. As noted earlier, your community may already be able to locate such connections on Google Transit. Read the entire page →
From page 92... ... Page 6-11 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Arrange with your local public transit agency to donate retired vans from the agency's paratransit service (often these vehicles have plenty of miles left in them) Read the entire page →
From page 93... ... Page 6-12 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" The American Legion/DAV in Flagstaff, Arizona provides long- distance trips from the northern Arizona region that includes the City of Flagstaff, the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation, and many small rural communities to the Prescott VAMC. The volunteer driver program began providing local dialysis trips for a veteran in Flagstaff but found it dif�icult to combine the veteran's six trips per week with the long, out-of-town trips to the VAMC. Read the entire page →
From page 94... ... Page 6-13 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" The yellow ribbon has come to symbolize support for the country's service members and the war effort in general. Its origins are not entirely clear: some think it dates back to the Civil War; more believe it originated with the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, inspired by the popular song from the 1970's titled "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree." The symbol emerged again during Desert Storm in 1991 and has endured. Read the entire page →
From page 95... ... Page 6-14 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Your coordination endeavor may be able to help these organizations, so that they in turn can assist their clients or members access available transportation resources. Options to consider: Provide information on available public transit services. Read the entire page →
From page 96... ... Page 6-15 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" to meet their trip needs. The mobility manager may even be able to help individuals learn how to use those services -- with travel training. Read the entire page →
From page 97... ... Page 6-16 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" vehicles) so the VTS program, with accessible vehicles, can maximize capacity for veterans in wheelchairs. Read the entire page →
From page 98... ... Page 6-17 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" purposes are limited to VA medical trips, however, which leave veterans who lack their own transportation with additional trip needs. To meet these other needs, veterans may bene�it from a volunteer driver program. Read the entire page →
From page 99... ... capital Page 6-18 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Look for Addional Opportunies Part of mobility management is seeking out new ideas and options that will help expand transportation options within the community. A mobility manager based at a community action agency in Washington State commented, "Mobility managers are opportunity seekers." One idea for a small community that does not have a formal ride-share matching program would be to develop a "community bulletin board" that would post ridesharing opportunities. Read the entire page →
From page 100... ... Page 6-19 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" improvement programs, the Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) , or other transportation funding programs. Read the entire page →
From page 101... ... Page 6-20 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Lighting is important, too, particularly because the pick-up times are often very early in the morning when it is dark (and drop-off times may also happen in the dark, depending on the season) Read the entire page →
From page 102... ... Page 6-21Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Chapter 6: Community Tools 6.1 Example of a Lisng of Veterans Transportaon Opons 6.2 United We Ride's "Community Transportaon Opons Directory" 6.3 Naonal RTAP's Tool for Developing GTFS Data for Google Transit 6.4 Organizaons and Opportunies for Mobility Management Training 6.5 Resources on Travel Training Read the entire page →
From page 103... ... Page 6-22 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.1 Example of a Listing of Veterans Transportation Options Services not yet started Service Type of Service Eligibility Fare/Passenger Costs VA Travel Budget Beneﬁciary travel program – mileage reimbursement to eligible veterans to or from VA or VA facilities Veterans with service connected disability Pays $0.415 per mile VA Special Mode Accessible vans dispatched to provide trips to eligible veterans Veterans with service connected disability Trip free, only provided upon authorization VA VTS program Additional accessible vehicles being provided Targets veterans with disabilities and living in rural areas 2 vehicles, 2 drivers, Route Match software, Mobility Manager position Disabled Am. Read the entire page →
From page 104... ... Page 6-23Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.1 Example of a Listing of Veterans Transportation Options (continued) Service Type of Service Eligibility Fare/Passenger Costs ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Read the entire page →
From page 105... ... Page 6-24 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.2 United We Ride's "Community Transportation Options Directory" United We Ride is a Federal initiative that supports states and communities in developing coordinated transportation, including the provision of technical assistance and resources. One of the resources is the "Community Transportation Options Directory," available at http://www.unitedweride.gov/1_934_ENG_HTML.htm Among other features, this resource has a Drop-in-the-Facts Guide for creating a transportation options directory customizable for any community. Read the entire page →
From page 106... ... Page 6-25 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.3 National RTAP's Tool for Developing GTFS Data for Google Transit The National RTAP offers a tool that enables a transit agency to develop the GTFS (general transit feed speci�ication) data that is needed for Google Transit. Read the entire page →
From page 107... ... Page 6-26 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.4 Organizations and Opportunities for Mobility Management Training American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) Mobility Management Technical Assistance Center APTA provides a resource library on mobility management, including common questions and answers and research on mobility management's economic bene�its: http://www.apta.com/resources/hottopics/mobility/Pages/default.aspx. Read the entire page →
From page 108... ... Page 6-27Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.4 Organizations and Opportunities for Mobility Management Training (continued) Transportation Solutions Coordinator Training The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) Read the entire page →
From page 109... ... Page 6-28 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" 6.5 Resources on Travel Training Easter Seals Project ACTION Travel Training Resources Easter Seals Project ACTION offers a variety of resources dedicated to travel training. Communities can take advantage of the free online "Fundamentals of Travel Training Administration" course, which provides information pertinent to launching, operating, and maintaining a travel training program. Read the entire page →
From page 110... ... Page 6-29Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 6 Coordination and Mobility Management: "Start with What You Have" Chapter 6: Additional Resources Creating Livable Communities: How the Transportation Decision Making Process Can Support More Livable Community Outcomes, Federal Highway Administration, October 2011, http://www.�hwa.dot.gov/livability/creating_livable_communities/livabilitybooklet.pdf. Fostering Livable Communities Quarterly Newsletter, Federal Highway Administration, http://www.�hwa.dot.gov/livability/newsletter/. Read the entire page →

From page 82...

... Page 6-1 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families This chapter provides guidance on using existing transportation resources in your community to help meet the transportation needs identiied through your planning efforts. "Starting with what you have" -- that is, with the transportation services and programs currently available in your community -- is a foundation of transportation coordination and mobility management.