2014 Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan for Benton and Franklin Counties 2014 Coordinated Public Transit - Human Services Transportation Plan For Benton and Franklin Counties Benton-Franklin Council of Governments Adopted: December, 2014 Benton-Franklin RTPO Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan This document is incorporated by reference into the 2011-2030 Regional Transportation Plan for the Tri-Cities Metropolitan Area and Benton-Franklin-Walla Walla RTPO. Grant applications prioritized based on processes described in Chapter 7: Projects are incorporated by reference into this Plan. For information concerning, or copies of either of these plans, please contact the Benton-Franklin Council of Governments. Benton-Franklin Council of Governments PO Box 217 Richland, WA 99354 Phone: (509) 9443-9185 Fax: (509) 943-6756 www.bfcog.us This Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan has been financed in part through grants from the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, and the Washington State Department of Transportation. The policies, findings, and recommendations contained in this plan, do not necessarily represent the views of the agencies identified above and do not obligate those agencies to providing funding to implement the contents of the Plan as adopted. BFCG hereby gives public notice that it is the agency policy to assure full compliance with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice, and related statutes and regulations in all programs and activities. i Benton-Franklin RTPO Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Benton-Franklin Council of Governments Andres Gomez, Transportation Manager Len Pavelka, Transportation Planning Specialist Jacob Gonzalez, Transportation Modeling/GIS Specialist Geoff Wagner, Transportation Planner Julia Lopez, Administrative Assistant Plan Advisory Committee Roger Bowman, Ben Franklin Transit Citizens Advisory Committee Dan Cryer, Arc of Tri-Cities Caprice DeHart, Tri-Cities Residential Services Andres Gomez, BFCG Linda Howell, Washington State Department of Transportation Tony Kalmbach, Ben Franklin Transit Kathy McMullen, Ben Franklin Transit Gracie Sexton, People for People Cover photos courtesy of Ben Franklin Transit ii Benton-Franklin RTPO Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 1 Federal Direction .................................................................................................................................................................. 1 RTPO Transition ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Transportation Management Area ............................................................................................................................... 2 Federal and State Roles in the Coordination of Human Service Transportation ...................................... 2 Plan Goals ................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Funding Sources and Types of Projects ....................................................................................................................... 5 Consolidated Grant Program .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Project Methodology .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 Technology .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Emergency Management ............................................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 2. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE ......................................................................................................................... 13 Population Characteristics ........................................................................................................................................... 14 Racial and Ethnic Population Characteristics ........................................................................................................ 19 Persons with Incomes Below Poverty ...................................................................................................................... 24 Income.................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Veteran Status ..................................................................................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 3. EMPLOYMENT, ORIGINS AND DESTINATIONS ............................................................................. 29 Major Employers .............................................................................................................................................................. 30 Representative Origins and Destinations ............................................................................................................... 33 Analysis of Ben Franklin Transit Dial-A-Ride Data ............................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER 4. EXISTING TRANSPORTATION SERVICES .......................................................................................... 41 Public Transportation Benefit Area ......................................................................................................................... 41 Ben Franklin Transit ....................................................................................................................................................... 41 Additional Public Transportation Services ........................................................................................................... 45 Other Human Service Transportation Providers................................................................................................. 46 Non-Emergency Medicaid Transportation Brokering Program .................................................................... 47 Transportation Provider Inventory ......................................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 5. PUBLIC OUTREACH .................................................................................................................................... 55 Stakeholder Workshop .................................................................................................................................................. 55 Public Meeting ................................................................................................................................................................... 56 iii Benton-Franklin RTPO Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan CHAPTER 6. KEY FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................................. 57 Common Origins and Destinations ........................................................................................................................... 57 Service Gaps and Strategies .......................................................................................................................................... 58 Analysis of Service Gaps ................................................................................................................................................. 59 Prioritized Service Gaps/ Needs ................................................................................................................................. 60 CHAPTER 7. PROJECTS ........................................................................................................................................................ 63 Call for Projects ................................................................................................................................................................. 63 Project Evaluation Criteria .......................................................................................................................................... 63 Project Prioritization ...................................................................................................................................................... 63 Project Summaries ........................................................................................................................................................... 64 Project Ratings ................................................................................................................................................................... 65 CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................