Transportation Workshop Held for Regional Agencies

Tracy Harris, Ross County Mobility Manager, and Gerod Rickerd, Pickaway County Mobility Manager, hosted a one-day workshop for regional transportation agencies at the Ross County Service Center on April 25. Strategies were brainstormed for overcoming persistent transportation obstacles. Adams, Brown, Highland, Jackson, Pickaway, Pike, Ross and Vinton counties were represented as well as several state level representatives. The workshop’s focus centered on employment and medical transportation.

A diverse background of attendees fostered rich dialogue on transportation hot topics such as contracting, funding, and coordination between agencies. During group break-out exercises, workshop participants discussed solutions to issues such as transportation as a barrier to employment, arranging transportation across county lines, and coordination of non-emergency medical trips. A representative from the governor’s office participated in the dialogue of seeking transportation solutions for work and medical appointments.

Facilitator Bill Wagner, NCMM Deputy Director, said of the workshop, “My first objective is to engage the people who came here today and increase their awareness of both the issues, the barriers, and the resources available to start trying to match them up.” Wagner conducts similar workshops all over the United States as a representative of the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA). “This meeting happens all around the country. It’s about getting people from Point A to Point B. It’s really pretty basic,” he says. “This is a good talk. A lot of people were engaged,” remarked Wagner.

“The communication, engagement and participation of different agencies and seeing people from such a broad network who are concerned” was one of the highlights of the day, host Traci Harris concluded after the workshop. Today’s activities were a positive step forward in a continuing conversation to meet mobility needs in Ross County.