By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
It has been a year since the results of a local public transportation survey were revealed, but a meeting Thursday highlighted the still unmet needs of workers.
City, county, and school officials, along with business and Seneca-Crawford Area Transportation (SCAT) representatives attended a public hearing on the Crawford County Rural Public Transportation Service Evaluation and Planning Study. Julie Schafer, a senior associate at RLS & Associates, presented an overview of last year’s survey findings and an update to the changes in the county’s public transportation.
Currently, Crawford County is served by two transportation services: the Crawford County Council on Aging, which serves seniors and the disabled population, and SCAT, a rural public transit system that opened in January.
The addition of SCAT helped alleviate the high number of denials the Council on Aging needed to issue in order to continue to serve its targeted population. However, a glaring portion of the county residents were still being underserved: those who worked second and third shifts.
“That’s a common theme in this area,” Mary Habig, executive director of SCAT, said about employees needing rides to work. “It’s not just during our hours . . . We got a lot of second shift folks that need transportation.”
Robin Hildebrand of Crawford Works echoed Habig’s concerns over a lack of transportation for late and early shift employees.
“Not having transportation solutions for second and third shift is huge,” Hildebrand explained. “Almost every manufacturer in this county has second and third shift operations and when you get first hired you’re not going on first shift. I can’t say enough that that gap is huge.”
“We have closed the gap during the Monday through Friday 5 (in the morning) to 6 (in the evening). That gap has almost been eliminated as far as transportation needs. It’s the other hours the gap is still huge,” said Habig.
Schafer said there are creative solutions to that issue, but it was not until Spherion Staffing Executive Director Dave Warren mentioned the number of turnovers due to transportation issues that an idea was sparked.
“Right now, 37 percent of our workforce indicated they do not have their own transportation,” Warren explained.
Gary Frankhouse, executive director for the Crawford Partnership, proposed a pilot program between SCAT and a local company to discover if some type of transportation would be feasible.
“I’m on board. This isn’t a service provider issue,” Habig said.
Trip data from January through April revealed that most of the rides took place within individual communities rather than from one municipality to another. During that time, SCAT provided 2,231 rides. Those were broken down to 857 in Bucyrus, 698 in Galion, 90 in Crestline, and 546 in a category marked other, which Schafer said included the rural areas and smaller communities.
Habig said their ridership increased 155 percent from January to March.
In April, SCAT provided 696 rides for 53 seniors, 97 disabled persons, and 539 others, which typically involved employees.
The Ohio Department of Transportation is requiring coordination between SCAT and Council on Aging to serve Crawford County. The coordination will involve shared scheduling software, referral of trips, trip connections, county and multi-county demand response service, and an ongoing service evaluation.
As Schafer wrapped up the meeting, she turned to where public transportation in the county will be heading.
“No one thinks about public transportation until they need it,” Schafer said. “Let’s look on what is occurring and build upon that.”
Data collection will continue through June and will include map trips and denials, turndowns, or refusals. As service patterns are monitored and evaluated, the most effective mode of transportation will be determined, whether that would be demand response, a combined deviated route and demand response, or fixed routes.
The survey data collected by RLS & Associates will be available at www.rlsandassoc.com and SCAT’s website.
More information about SCAT can be found at http://senecascat.org. The Bucyrus office is located at 107 N. Poplar St. and can be reached at 419-617-7191. SCAT operates Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Crawford County Council on Aging schedules rides for those 60 and older and those with disabilities. The hours of service are from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. To schedule a ride call 419-562-3050 or 1-800-589-7853. More information can be found at www.crawfordcountyaging.com.
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