The final report summarizes efforts to identify potential cost-effective alternatives to private automobile travel in Lake, Mineral, and Sanders Counties. As of this report, there are currently six organizations in these three counties that provide transportation services. The current transportation providers and other regional stakeholders have a strong interest in providing quality public transportation services. The Western Transportation Institute (WTI) identified and analyzed alternatives related to improved coordination of transportation among the current providers. WTI also facilitated meetings among stakeholders to discuss potential implementation of these alternatives. This project yielded numerous benefits:
• Identification of existing resources available for transportation services, including vehicles, staff, and funding.
• Identification of viable alternatives to enhance transportation coordination in three categories: communication, cooperation, and consolidation. The alternatives require varying levels of time, complexity, and resources, ranging from initiatives as simple as email notifications of scheduled trips to more comprehensive initiatives such as consolidated services.
• Creation of a forum for coordination. The meetings brought together regional stakeholders to identify needs, discuss available resources, and evaluate alternatives. The meetings helped establish and/or strengthen working relationships among potential partners. The forum could serve as the structural basis for ongoing interagency collaboration and coordination.
• Development of a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU): Initially, Mineral County Pioneer Council, Inc. and Mineral County Hospital and Regional Medical Center agreed to sign an MOU for consolidating transportation services. However, the hospital decided to opt out of the public transportation business. Thus, the MOU development process did not move forward.