Equal Employment Opportunity Circular

Federal Transit Administration

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is responsible for ensuring that grantees receiving FTA financial assistance carry out the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) provisions of Federal law, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA), FTA’s predecessor agency last issued EEO guidance in 1988. The Collaborative assisted FTA in developing a revised EEO Circular, which incorporates changes in laws, regulations, and guidance.

The Collaborative also developed Microsoft Excel workbook templates for grantees to use in preparing required analyses of employee utilization as well as analyses of employment practices.

United We Ride

Community Transportation Association of America

To promote the efforts of the United We Ride program, the Collaborative developed an information campaign around the concept of “One Vision, One Call.” The program’s aim is to make it easy for all Americans to make one telephone call to arrange for a ride. The strength of the One Call vision is that it simplifies the conversation about how to better coordinate human service transportation. One Call shifts the focus to riders. Products included a primer for community leaders, meeting and web informational materials, technical assistance fact sheets, and other materials.

Chris Zeilinger, Assistant Director of Governmental Affairs and Training for the CTAA remarked, “I have been continually impressed, sometimes even astounded, by your firm’s dedication, cooperation, patience and perseverance as we’ve worked together to get a product completed to everyone’s satisfaction. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with you, and it will be a delight if our paths can cross again in the future.”

Program For Accessible Transportation Infrastructure

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The Collaborative is part of a team supporting the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Program for Accessible Transportation Infrastructure (PATI) project, a multi-year data collection and prioritization effort to improve accessibility. The team is assessing nearly 8,000 bus stops and more than 250 rail stations throughout the Boston metropolitan area. The Collaborative’s ADA experts have guided development of the data collection phases, trained field assessors, and contributed to the quality assurance project, PATI is already informing the MBTA’s capital improvements program and will have increasing influence on the types and extent of future accessibility improvements throat the system.

Human Services Transportation Study

Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Human Service Transportation refers to agencies, jurisdictions and non-profit organizations working together to maximize transportation services for people with disabilities, low-income populations and older adults and the elimination of service gaps. Various state and federal funding streams have different administrative and eligibility requirements, which complicate the coordination of public and human service transportation.

The Collaborative was part of a team that worked with the Massachusetts HST Office analyzing brokerage management costs and operational data for cost savings and opportunities for interfaces with other transportation systems. They also met with the existing brokers to understand service challenges and opportunities for better and more cost-effective service.

ADA Rail Station Assessments

Federal Transit Administration

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is required to ensure that new, key, and renovated rail stations comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Since 2000, the Collaborative has assessed for FTA over 850 stations at more than 46 transit agencies throughout the country. Compliance assessments involve measuring and documenting curb ramps, elevators, and accessible routes, then analyzing the findings. In the process, the Collaborative has collected, organized, and analyzed data to produce practical, management-oriented documents.

Strategy to Promote Fixed-Route Transit

Transportation Research Board

The Collaborative helped to develop developed a strategy guide for part TRB to offer guidance on providing transit services for riders with disabilities in the most integrated setting possible. The guide included a summary of the literature, results of a national transit survey of practices, and detailed descriptions and analysis of successful strategies.

Highlights of the overall strategy include bus stop and pedestrian infrastructure improvement efforts, fare incentive programs, travel training, and innovations in ADA paratransit eligibility determination programs. All research is documented in TCRP Report 163.

ADA Bus and Paratransit Compliance Assessments

Federal Transit Administration

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is required to ensure that transit service providers (fixed route, demand responsive, and complementary paratransit) comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and conducts grantee reviews.

Since 2000, the Collaborative has been conducting bus and paratransit ADA compliance reviews, including over 100 reviews of fixed route stop announcements, fixed route lift reliability and maintenance, and complementary paratransit service. The reviews encompass background work, on-site activities, development of reports, and follow-up monitoring.

Crosstown Connect Mobility Management Program

Acton, MA and Adjacent Towns

Community Partnership Award Ð 2015 International City/County Management Association
Recognizing innovative programs among local governments, other governmental entities, and private sector for providing more efficient and effective services.

The Collaborative provided analytical and mapping services as part of a team working with the towns of Acton, Boxborough, Concord, Littleton, Maynard, Stow, and Westford, MA to launch CrossTown Connect, a regional mobility management program. The project transformed current disparate, uncoordinated, and incomplete transportation services in the region into a new cooperative and coordinated system. The towns’ Councils on Aging consolidated their previously separate shuttles and on-demand ride services under a single centralized dispatch call center, increasing each community’s daily dispatch hours and ridership.

For its work, the collaborative received the 2015 Community Partnership Award from the International City/County Management Association, recognizing innovative programs among local governments, other governmental entities, and private sector for providing more efficient and effective services.

Americans with Disabilities Act Circular

Federal Transit Administration

The Collaborative served as prime contractor for the development of the Federal Transit Administration ADA Circular, published in November 2015. The Circular covers all aspects of the DOT ADA regulations applicable to FTA grantees, and includes chapters on facilities, vehicles, equivalent facilitation, fixed route service, demand responsive service, complementary paratransit, ferries, and other modes. The Circular also explains FTA’s oversight role, the complaint-resolution process, and how to effectively monitor for compliance. Included are examples of good practices transit agencies use to efficiently deliver compliant service.