Wis. Association of Mobility Managers Board Member Issues Public Comment on DOT Notice

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 -- Corie Dejno, board member of the Wisconsin Association of Mobility Managers, West Bend, has issued a public comment on the Department of Transportation notice entitled "Request for Information: Transportation Equity Data". The comment was posted on July 23, 2021:

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I am a Mobility Manager(MM), serving a county comprised of small-urban hubs and rural areas since the Spring of 2018. As a board member of the Wisconsin Association of Mobility Managers, whose focus is education and legislative advocacy in WI, peer sharing shapes my vision for transportation equity in rural communities around our State. I have also participated in a Design Challenge and have worked with a group considering shared infrastructure to reduce costs. I also serve as a board member on a local housing authority. This response is written from my perspective, on my own time, because I have been working to connect the dots to try to understand how our transportation systems can grow to meet the increased demand as Boomers age. My county is slated to see a 75% increase in seniors by 2040.

According to data from the Insured Retirement Institute in 2019, about 45% of baby boomers surveyed had no savings. IRI reports that about half of the baby boomers who don't have retirement savings did have money set aside at one time, but they had to use the cash before retirement.

To understand my community's needs, I recruited and rallied community supports. Some became part of our Coordinated Transportation Committee (CTC) in WA CO, currently with about 60 members, including legislators, county human services, non-profits, public and private transportation providers, workforce development, planning commission, hospitals, care facility, and managed care organizations. They helped distribute a transportation gap in services survey that yielded 824 responses and a statistically significant number of responses from seniors. The Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee(UWM) worked with the data we collected and wrote a paper "How does driving status affect trip patterns among older adults in suburban and rural communities?" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140521000827 Subsequently, the MMP was invited and served on an advisory committee to develop a statewide survey distributed in collaboration with the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, "Understanding mobility needs for older adults in Wisconsin" by UWM with support from WisDOT. The people who shared their challenges are the most significant contributors to these views.

The CTC members are collaborating to solve gaps in services. A non-profit, transit and the MMP collaborate to fund and take people to smaller food pantries during off-peak hours while ridership is down. The county, the MMP, and a private transportation provider collaborate to fund cross-county medical trips, typically costing between $100-$280, amounts few can afford to get to specialists. As a member, a major medical facility has identified transportation as a social determinant of health and identified support of the CTC as an implementation strategy. During Covid, the county, churches, hospitals, the Mobility Management Program (MMP) and food pantry collaborated to ensure isolated people had access to food. The program continues to serve folks who do not drive and cannot get to the food pantry, a gap identified in our survey. It came together quickly because the outreach had already occurred to solve the problem.

It became quickly evident that many folks who needed food were struggling with other financial issues mostly due to COVID. MMP gathered resource information and asked questions of callers to determine the resources needed, such as career planning, rental help, utility help, community financial support, legal aid, mental health services, Low-income housing programs, disability and aging department, food pantries, homeless support, w-2, and crisis intervention. When counseling callers on transportation options, many times, we also refer to other supports. The MMP collaborated with a non-profit across the State to bring a 0% car loan program to help low-income employed individuals purchase a vehicle to a three-county area administered by a workforce development non-profit.

The Work-n-Wheels (WnW) program, a 0% car loan program, is inspirational in employing a holistic approach. The program administers and applies for grant funding for 31, 25 primarily rural Wisconsin counties. The Work-n-Wheels Program serves low-income workers and families to rise from poverty with a comprehensive set of tools to enable participants to become self-sufficient, with relief from powerlessness and insecurity, restoring dignity by being empowered with access to suitable employment. When workers can acquire the skills to live independently, they thrive at work and in life.

WnW uses a Family Development Plan, which considers: housing, income, employment, health care, dental care, legal issues, skills, education, childcare, transportation, family unity, and stress level. A family-centered approach considers factors that may prevent participants from achieving success by referring them to resources such as a job center, free clinic, domestic abuse support, food pantry, addiction program or temporary low-cost employment transportation. Mainly serving rural areas, loan recipients with little to no transportation options agree to participate in ride-sharing with others in need when purchasing a vehicle.

WnW considers the whole picture to help families become stable and requires responsibility from the onset. Approved applicants are required to attend free Consumer Financial Education classes and are given community-specific information on second-chance checking accounts, no-fee ATMs, and other financial services, as well as education on prudent vehicle selection and how to identify a reliable automobile. Requiring a down payment, administration fee and full insurance coverage with the agency as lienholder, participants apply the skills they learn to budget and thrive. WnW will loan 80-90% to repair a program vehicle to assist in maintaining employment. WnW helps participants build credit by reporting to the credit bureaus so that they may qualify for conventional loans in the future. WnW has a comprehensive knowledge of internal and external programs to aid in career enhancement and advancement. Most CAP agencies house Skills Enhancement programs that complement State and

Federal job programs and cover the costs associated with furthering education not covered under another program, such as gas vouchers, childcare costs or testing fees. SWCAPs Business Development program offers small business start-up planning and expansion planning. All aid in yielding a higher income to create long-term stability in families. Because of the comprehensive understanding and structure developed over 20 years to serve low-income families, their default rate is very low even as they serve persons with impaired or no credit. Creating a solution is not enough; it must be comprehensive and continually tested with adjustments made as new variables are understood. In a larger transportation solution, it could take years to create a comprehensive model, but this time does not exist; therefore, analysis and the willingness for the model to adapt is essential.

When interviewing a group of HR professionals in a suburban area, an "aha" moment occurred. An employer worked with an organization to provide transportation to its workplace for minority workers from the city. It took about an hour to an hour and a half to commute once everyone was collected. The program was unsuccessful, and no participants remained. With frustration, they discussed the investment in training and time wasted. When asked what challenges the employees faced with this model, there was not an answer. As in this example, follow-up is critical for success. In a large scale transportation solution, I would consider data and evidence-based funding important.

When calling to create a regional directory of transportation providers to include the Milwaukee area, it was discovered that many medical transportation providers had gone out of business during Covid. Our State has a contractor that provides all Medicaid NEMT rides. I learned that African-American providers in Milwaukee were being told by the contractor they would only get paid very small amounts of money.

These amounts differ in other areas of the State.

Interviews associated with the "Understanding mobility needs for older adults in Wisconsin" by UWM included rural elderly Wisconsinites confined to home because they live in areas without transportations resources, relying heavily on friends and family. I could not help but wonder about those without supports and wondered how many were forgoing medical care. Sometimes inequity sits right under our noses, yet we are unaware. Stay connected.

Currently, state funding by county is creating silos in service areas, not crossing county lines or serving anyone outside of a county. This most hurts our rural communities, elderly, disabled and low-income individuals with little to no transportation resources, and because of geography and population density, equitable transportation solutions are expensive. As the need for transportation grows as Boomers age, the need for efficiency and optimizing funds is achievable from the regional perspective instead of present bias. For those who do not drive, if they live in a county that only coordinates transportation services, there may be only unaffordable solutions to coordinate. If pooling counties' monies regionally, funds would go farther to build services in our most rural areas. I have been advocating for greater 85.21 state funding to help those without an option. Through this process, I realized that extra funding will not create capacity now or in the future without comprehensive regional solutions. Form regions by analyzing the travel patterns of the people. Our current plans are regional but hold no weight.

Our Southeastern WI Planning Commission's (SEWRPC) data shows the inequity in a Fiscally Constrained Transportation System (FCTS) for Milwaukee in its 2050 plan. It shows the loss of access to employment for African Americans in Milwaukee. They have studied the adverse effects of segregation on minority populations and low-income populations in SE WI.

"For the 1 in 10 households in the Region without access to an automobile, households that are more likely to be minority or low income than the overall proportion of the Region's population, mobility and access to jobs and activities within the Region would be limited." "Not addressing this funding shortage limits access to jobs, education, and other opportunities for households without, or with limited access to, an automobile, perpetuating the Region's racial and economic segregation and the long-standing disparities that are at least partially attributed to that segregation."

"Given current limitations at the State level on local government revenue generation and on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's ability to allocate funds between different programs, the ability for the Region to avoid such a disparate impact is dependent on the State Legislature and Governor providing additional State funding for transit services, or allowing local units of government and transit operators to generate such funds on their own."

Recently our Joint finance committee heard testimony from approximately 1680 people to consider as they voted on the state budget. Not one suggested a cut to transportation, but our JFC approved a budget-cutting Tier A transit funding from the State in half. Milwaukee and Madison transit systems state budgets were cut in half, with Milwaukee making up about 75% of the cut. While having the most comprehensive data is essential for analyzing, it will not amount to the change we need to see to attain equitable transportation in some areas.

Efficiencies are essential to meeting future demand. When I was young, I thought it was crazy that Microsoft owned and controlled our software. As I worked and used its products, I quickly realized how important it was to have a universal means of sharing information. The USDOT's investment in universal systems, owned by the people and given to its transportation providers, public, private and non-profit with funding incentivized by their use, would minimize the cost of a solution. Think of it as infrastructure to creating a scalable transportation network. The USDOT has the greatest resources to design the best shared-platform software and integrated universal payment system and include data collection for future connected and autonomous vehicles. ATTRI is doing great work, a great place to start. If all transportation could use universal systems, we could travel seamlessly across counties, cities and states.

I recently read about a company. Wejo has exclusive access to vehicle data curated from multiple global motor manufacturers' makes and models across all US states, making it easy to access millions of connected vehicle data points with one seamless integration. https://www.wejo.com/traffic-solutionproviders Data is captured from billions of connected vehicle journeys from across the US. Unique sensors give insight to weather, road conditions and safety attributes. Access to data curated from multiple manufacturers' makes and models providing a wider spread of density and demographics.

The first thing that came to mind is, Do the consumers who have this equipment in their vehicles know they have paid for equipment that will likely be used to sell their data back to them? As long as the data in anonymized, would it make sense for the people to own the data to better transportation for the common good of all to make roads safer and employ technology to help transportation grow to scale in systems designed to be equitable and without negative impact to our environment? The costs to create equity everywhere will be expensive, but attainable if the cost of infrastructure could be shared.

My original intent in my response was to make sure that "the People" were not forgotten in the data.

When I watched your webinar, I was overcome with hope as transportation was being called a civil right.

I reached out to my contact list to help write a response because the perspective of many is valuable.

We are a busy group! While some have had interest, I could not create the time to unite them as I planned. I have learned more in this process than I have time to share. Even though others have greatly contributed to the views in this response, the conclusions are my own. The more I thought through the obstacles to creating equity, the more it seemed a futile effort. I know the stories because I asked stakeholders for their input. I wanted to share the path to reaching those without transportation is through the persons who serve them, the people who work one-on-one with our elderly, disabled and low-income citizens. I wanted to say stakeholder input should not be a check box on a form, but a personal outreach to community to involve people whose lives are changed by decisions made without their true representation.

My response evolved as I realized that if the dots are not connected, if there is not consilience across all factors limiting equity, equity will never exist. A holistic comprehensive understanding of how different levels of government, public perception, stake holder needs, technology, data collection, behavioral economics, present bias, road data collection for connected vehicles and AV, environment, housing, healthcare, isolation, water, jobs, quality education, economic growth, decent jobs and heart-wrenching individual stories to list a few of the factors, are all intertwined and cannot be separated when considering transportation solutions and true equity. Policies at the State, County and city levels will undermine Federal initiatives to improve transportation. DOTs and Planning Commissions armed with a depth of understanding for what is needed to improve transportation are crippled. The system is broken.

The complexities that hinder the growth of efficient transportation are unique to regions, states, counties and cities. A holistic approach requires understanding they are intertwined and efforts to untangled these and any other barriers so that lawful equitable transportation can be achieved at large scale must occur.

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The notice can be viewed at: https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOT-OST-2021-0056-0001

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