By time this issue goes to press, November 8 will have come and gone and many regions across the United States will have voted on transportation ballot measures, including Spokane, Washington, where Proposition 1 would authorize an increase in local sales and use tax of up to 0.2 percent to help maintain, improve and expand public transit.
Spokane Transit Authority (STA) has gone through a lot of changes since the last ballot measure was passed in 2004, including bringing on E. Susan Meyer as chief executive officer in 2005.
Focusing on excellent customer service was part of the equation, improving performance metrics to greater efficiencies was another major part of improvements. One area of improved efficiency is for their lower paratransit cost per trip, which is at about $25.
STA began doing in-person assessments on about half their applications and all of the recertifications. They found they had been granting full eligibility to some folks who really only qualified for provisional eligibility.
At the downtown plaza STA has a mobility training center where people have assessments and can get travel training. “Almost everybody likes the independence that a bus provides, rather than a shared ride,” said Meyer. “We get lots of folks who like to use the bus and they thought they wanted to use paratransit.”
They contract out about half the service to MV Transportation and hold the contractor to the same criteria as its own employees, including doing mystery shopping on the contracted employees, as well.
Another way STA has been able to take some of the load off of its paratransit service is through the van grant program. STA grants 10 vans a year that are about to go out of service to organizations that transport people that would be using paratransit instead. Meyer said it took a while to get it worked out so they could do it without it being a gift of public funds, but they’ve been glad the program’s worked out so well.
Read the complete article on Spokane Transit Authority at MassTransitmag.com/12272400
