Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables .
Communication with vulnerable populations about transportation in emergency situations contains serious gaps. Earlier case studies notwithstanding, the lessons of Hurricane Katrina provided a major impetus to legislation, studies, and action. Much legislation advises that community-based organizations should be worked with to bridge the gaps, but little guidance is given. TCRP funded an effort to create such a tool kit for transportation and emergency managers. The study culminates in spring 2011; this paper presents interim findings from a literature review and interviews. Transportation agencies are not in charge of communication with vulnerable populations during emergencies; emergency management agencies are in charge, but they may delegate such communication. However, transportation, public health, public information, and other agencies have significant community outreach capabilities inherent in their nonemergency roles. The most effective ways for transportation and emergency managers to communicate with vulnerable populations about their transportation options before, during, and after an emergency are learning how to identify and tap into existing resources and the networks of public, private, and nonprofit agencies that work with vulnerable populations and learn how to establish and maintain relationships with those entities. Inclusive planning helps everyone. Creation of accommodations for people who cannot hear or understand the primary language also helps tourists and residents who may lose their hearing aids, their hearing, or their composure in an emergency. Likewise, inclusively planning for people with personal mobility challenges helps accommodate people with temporary mobility problems, such as recent surgery or injury or loss of their vehicles during the event.
This report documents the study process and key findings that resulted in the Guide to Regional Transportation Planning for Disasters, Emergencies, and Significant Events. The project research included a literature review, survey, interviews and webinars. The Guide's purpose is to help transportation and non-transportation stakeholders, such as emergency managers and first responders, better understand transportation's important role in building resilient communities. The research discovered multijurisdictional transportation planning for disasters, emergencies, and significant events taking place in many locations across the country, in many different institutional frameworks. Such planning shares precepts of communication and collaboration, supported by eight basic principles that enable communities to better recover after a major disruption. Effective planning is comprehensive, cooperative, informative, coordinated, inclusive, exercised, flexible and continuous. By using principles that are shared by multiple sectors, the Guide provides linkages between transportation planning processes, which primarily center on mobility as expressed in infrastructure, equipment and operations, and emergency management planning processes, which aim at mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The Guide has an Introduction and four sections: Principles (including characteristics, strategies, and examples); Case Studies from diverse geographic regions and settings; Tools including checklists and discussion guides; and Additional Resources: glossary and annotated list of resources.
The state of Indiana provides operating assistance to transit operators throughout the state. The original formula was designed to reward performance but over time became inflexible to changing situations. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) initiated a study to “create a rational and equitable mechanism for the distribution of State operating assistance to urban and rural transit providers throughout Indiana.” This objective was accomplished through an extensive process that involved the affected transit systems, including a survey of all systems and five meetings with transit system representatives. Transit system preferences were a major deciding factor in selecting specific performance measures and in consideration of factors of importance to the affected systems. The final recommendation was developed under the direction of INDOT and is under senior government review. The recommendation provides a funding mechanism that is flexible, provides comparisons within peer groups and rewards the transit systems within each group that are best serving their customers and providing cost-effective service to their communities, and provides incentives and a phase-in period to encourage systems to improve. The process of developing the formula and its potential application to other states are described.
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