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6. IMPLEMENTATION AND DISSEMINATION PLANS This chapter restates the eight key findings as integral to the implementation of this research. It then describes what strategies should be adopted internally by an organization in order to implement the key findings. A dissemination plan follows, which outlines the audiences for this report and the suggested media and mechanisms for distribution. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN The key research findings presented in Chapter 2 outlined factors important to the successful use of public transportation to reduce the economic, social and human costs of personal immobility. These key findings are the cornerstone of an Implementation Plan to move this research into practice. The eight findings are capsulized below. Refer to Chapter 2 for details. I. Retaining basic public transportation services; 2. Providing comm~'nity-wide economic benefits; 3. Forming nontraditional partnerships; 4. Blending an array of Herman and monetary resources; 5. Bundling transportation and support services 6. Linking with economic development efforts; 7. Planning regionally; and S. Capitalizing on simple ideas and programs. As identified in the findings above, coordination with organizations across other strata of society will be needed to enhance options for personal mobility. This chapter describes what an organization can do within its own cultural environment to go forward with implementation. The transportation organizations visited in the case studies had certain strategies in common that have led to their success, which can be replicated by others. These strategies can be summarized in the following checklist for success: Checklist for Success 1. Exert leadership. 2. Win internal support from the stay and the policy-makers. 3. Adopt a mobility management mission. 4. Build community support. 6-l
1. Exert leadership. Things happen when a leader takes charge. Leaders experiment; leaders challenge the status quo; leaders inspire others with their vision. The vision of an MTA Board member to use telemobility in planning development at Los Angeles light rail stations led to the Blue Line TeleVilIage. In Miami, starting the Medicaid Metropass Program required energy and commitment to combat bureaucracy. The Medicaid Program Administrator was not particularly encouraged by the Florida Agency for Health Administration; instead she took it upon herself to work through obstacles in order to implement the program. Her cohort in the Metropass Program, the MDTA Deputy Director, summarized a leader's bias toward action by defining the difference between an administrator and a manager: "An administrator telIs you what you cannot do what the rules are. A manager rewrites the rules to get things done." Note that the checklist pertains to the internal environment of an organization. There are many external barriers that an organization may face which may be largely out of its control. Some examples are land use decisions, federal funding levels, the political environment in the region, the local economy, and government regulations. However, even these external barriers can be influenced by leadership. When her community objected to a large parking structure at the Frui~vale BART station in Oakland, the Chief Executive Officer of the Spanish Speaking Unity Council led a planning process to change that land use decision into one supporting a Transit Village. She also overcame the conventional viewpoint in the political environment, which held that infill development in the inner city is infeasible, by putting together a strong funding package to support the development. Another example of combating external barriers is legislation that the Chesterfield County Coordinating Council (CCCC) intends to introduce in South Carolina. The CCCC wants to demonstrate that changing state law to allow adult riders on school buses in rural areas can increase mobility while continuing to safeguard schoolchildren. Leaders are needed at many levels of society to solve the difficult issues of immobility that have been presented in this research. As these examples demonstrate, the collaborative efforts needed to tackle problems of immobility point to a role for social services agencies, community-based organizations, local governments, and employers, as well as transportation organizations. Public transit cannot tackle immobility alone. Nonetheless, mobility is the mission of transportation organizations. Tt is proper that transportation organizations be among the first to exert leadership in addressing immobility. If transportation organizations do not take on this role, they may be preempted by others with their own agendas. For example, welfare 6-2
reform is a burning issue at the time of this research. It is possible that money could be diverted from mainline transit services to new services directed at welfare recipients entering the fob market. instead of integrating those new services into ., ~ ,' , ~ _ . ~ · . · . ~ · ~ · ~ ~ · 1 1 · · 1 · _ 1 · ~ 1_ ~ 1 -_ _ ~ the existing system. transit agencies need to seize one Nave In knew realm o' expertise to insure that the best alternatives are implemented. If they fail to exert leadership in addressing immobility, the problems of immobility will worsen, and transportation organizations will have failed in their mission. 2. Win internal support from staff and policy-makers. A leader, by definition, needs followers. If the leader fails to build support within the organization, the innovation will languish or even be sabotaged. In the case of the Blue Line TeleVillage, some within M'1'A saw trin reduction through use ~. . ~ . ~At ~ _ ot~the lntemet, a goal ot the leleVlllage, as a conflict with the agency's mission of increasing transit ridership. Because the project was not implemented with operating funds, the internal resistance was overcome. However, as consequence of the lack of involvement by the operations division, inadequate fiber and connection points for the TeleVillage were laid during construction of the rail line. Although the TeleVillage now operates using ISDN lines, it is not the optimum solution that would have been possible with full agency support. The culture of any organization hoping to solve immobility problems must nurture an environment in which the key findings can be implemented. This means encouraging staff to exercise leadership by taking the initiative and being creative. It means preventing bureaucracy and hierarchy from stifling innovation. At MDTA leadership for the Metropass came from a transit planner. Her supervisor gave her and her idea the support within the organization to develop the pilot program and expand it. At SEPTA, the Horsham Breeze was successfully implemented because the organization was flexible enough to respond with creative approaches to funding and service. In both these instances, the staff and policy-makers were supportive of experimentation. 3. Adopt a mobility management mission. The definition of mobility management is "an institutional state of mind that emphasizes moving people instead of the mode of transportation." (103) ~ For instance, with Immediate Needs, MTA moves people in a program designed to meet the community's transportation needs rather than attempting to fit those needs into its traditional bus and rail system. Its Blue Line TeleVillage is another example of creating mobility through nontraditional means-in this case, through technology. This type of flexibility will be required as transit agencies design services for those affected by the welfare-to-work reforms. Mobility managers recognize the customers' needs and design services to respond to them. Numero Uno's free shoppers' shuttle is an excellent private-sector 6-3
example of this niche marketing. PDRTA and OATS are two public-sector models of such an entrepreneurial approach. They seek out opportunities and present a menu of service delivery options to the potential customer. Theirs is the opposite of an institutional state of mind that offers a single product with a "one size fits all" approach. Elective mobility management requires viewing the passenger transportation system as a whole. Specifically, mobility management means brokering, facilitating, encouraging, coordinating, and managing both nontraditional and traditional services to expand the array of transportation services to diverse consumer groups. (104) This is an inclusionary definition which envisions responsibility from many partners to assist public transportation in accomplishing its mission of mobility. 4. Build community support. Three of the key findings are dependent on this strategy for successful implementation. Organizations cannot form nontraditional partnerships (Finding 3), bundle transportation and support services (Finding 5), and plan regionally (Finding 7) in the absence of community support. MTA's Immediate Needs Transportation Program and OATS, Inc. are shining examples of building community support using two very different approaches in two extremely different settings-one in the largest cogency in the nation and the other in a very rural state. As a large bureaucracy, MTA chose not to implement Immediate Needs directly. Rather, MTA built community support for its program through respected community-based organizations as brokers. The 600 social service agencies that are participants, along with a waiting list to be accented into .. . . .. ~,~ . ~ the program, attest to the success of MTA's strategy. OATS has built community support by delegating important functions of the operation to County Committees. An annual 76,000 hours of volunteer work has resulted from the sense of ownership that OATS has thereby created in the 87 counties it serves. Building community support takes energy and visibility on the part of transit staff. It means not only attending community meetings but also setting up such meetings. In designing increased access to lobs and health care. it means steaming outside the transportation field and learning other industries' terminology and key players. But the rewards can be a wider constituency of support for transit, an enhanced image of transit, availability of new funding sources and helm an resources, and, consequently, more participation in society by those now afflicted by immobility. %, , 6-4
DISSEMINATION PLAN The results of this research are particularly timely because they coincide with rapid changes occurring in welfare and health care delivery. For this reason, dissemination should be enlarged beyond the traditional transportation audiences to practitioners in the social services and health care fields as well. The Methodology Guide is a product of the research which has permanent applicability for transportation professionals. It describes methods to quantify the benefits and costs of immobility, as illustrated by specific examples in the case studies. Thus, it is a too} to measure the implications of additions or reductions in service upon the larger community. Audiences Primary audiences for distribution include: Federal agencies Welfare to Work task force, U.S. Department of Transportation Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Community Planning and Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor State and County agencies that correspond to the federal agencies listed above Public transit Public transit agencies' staff and governing boards Divisions of public transit within state departments of transportation APTA and CTAA, and corresponding organizations at the state level Private contractors Consultants and university researchers specializing in public transportation 6-5
Secortclary audiences for ctistribution include: National organizations of government officials and their corresponding state organizations, such as: National Govemors' Association National Association of Regional Councils U. S. Conference of Mayors National League of Cities International City Managers Association National Association of Counties National organizations of social welfare and health care professionals Civil rights organizations Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities Organizational Responsibility Disseminating the results of the research is a role for TRB and APTA, as the cooperating organizations that make up TCRP, as well as for CTAA. Reaching the secondary audiences will require working together with many other organizations. This is precisely the type of coordination called for in the federal welfare reform legislation, the Work Opportunity and Personal Responsibility Act. The mechanisms for coordination being established now for welfare reform at every government level will be a good avenue for dissemination. Content and Mechanisms 1. Mass media distribution Because of the timeliness of this report, mechanisms to distribute the information through mass media should be emphasized. Therefore, the information should be condensed for targeted audiences. Press Releases A series of one-page, camera-ready stories with pictures should be prepared, each highlighting the strongest case studies according to topic areas. Articles should be sent to newspapers-wire services and to trade and professional magazines representing the primary and secondary audiences listed earlier. Because the report shows transit's proactive response to issues that are very current, mass distribution can enhance the public's perception of transit's value and role in society. 6-6
Access to Health Care: One article each on MDTA's Metropass Program and MTA's Immediate Needs Transportation Program Welfare-to-Work: One article each on SEPTA's Horsham Breeze and PDRTA's 24-Hour Reverse Commute Service Elderly Transportation: One article each on the City of Fremont's Travel Training Program and OATS Livable Communities: One article each on the Fruitvale BART Transit Village and MTA's Blue Line TeleVillage; Numero Uno Market Shonners' · . . ~. . - Shuttle is also a candidate tor tins category, particularly for distribution to magazines aimed at retailers Internet sites The same press releases could be installed on Internet sites aimed at the primary and secondary audiences who deal with these various topic areas. Brochures Colorful, illustrated brochures succinctly presenting the key findings and highlights of the case studies could be developed tor ctistr~bunon at conferences and at meetings with elected officials and government staff. Because of their brevity, these same brochures would be the most likely to be read by transit board members. 2. Traditional methods In addition, to these mass distribution mechanisms, traditional methods should also be employed: Executive Summary Copies of the Executive Summary should be made available at conferences of TRB, APTA, CTAA and other transportation organizations. Presentation Materials Slides and overhead materials on the key findings should be developed for use in presentations not only at transportation meetings but also at meetings of health care and social welfare professionals. Methodology Guide The Methodology Guide could be available to order as a manual separate from the full report. 3. Products as outgrowths of the research Other dissemination mechanisms could be developed, using the research as a foundation, but requiring additional resources to develop: 6-7
Videos Agencies that participated in the case studies could be featured in a video, with key players discussing how their practices were developed and illustrating how they are being implemented today. Roundlable Managers of successful practices could be brought together to exchange ideas with others wishing to emulate their services. Training film The roundiable described above could be filmed for wider distribution. > 6-8
CHAPTER REFERENCES (103) Crain & Associates, Strategies to Assist Local Transportation Agencies in Becoming Mobility Managers, Transportation Research Board, Report 21 (19981. (104) Crain & Associates, Strategies to Assist Local Transportation Agencies in Becoming Mobility Managers, Transportation Research Board, Report 21 (19981. The paragraph footnoted as (2) is quoted verbatim from the Introduction. 6-9
