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The TPCB Peer Program is a free resource for agencies in need of transportation planning assistance. The program pays for travel, accommodations, meals, and incidental expenses associated with on-site peer exchanges and offers workshops, roundtables, and webinars to participants free of charge. Interested agencies are encouraged to apply for assistance if they have a clearly identified transportation planning problem to solve and are interested in working with TPCB Program staff to plan and organize an event. Please keep in mind that peer events may require several months to plan.

Each peer event is designed to suit the specific needs of applicant agencies. Dialogue and information sharing among transportation planning agencies is offered in a variety of formats, corresponding to different levels and types of need:

• Peer Exchange: One-on-one site visits and small-group discussion of specific, shared transportation planning issues that respond to agencies’ direct needs.
• Peer Workshop: Peer experts train other agencies in the use of specific transportation planning tools and/or techniques during site visits or in conjunction with conferences.
• Peer Roundtable: Half- or full-day panel or roundtable discussions of innovative transportation practices at conferences by recognized national experts and/or agency representatives who have successfully implemented the practices being highlighted.
• Webinar: Interactive web-based presentations and information sharing during which participants exchange questions and answers.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

Central Texas Transportation Grants, Resources, and Updates Newsletter giving biweekly information on Federal and State Legislative news and events, Regional Transportation Advisory Group meeting announcement with a description of the meeting topic, and external Funding Opportunities and Resources.

Keywords: Stakeholder Resources

On October 27, 2022, the FTA convened the Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (CCAM), a federal interagency council that coordinates funding and provides expertise on human services transportation for people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals of low income, and officially adopted the 2023-2026 CCAM Strategic Plan. The plan prioritizes expanding safe access to transit, providing affordable mobility options and sets a framework for collaboration among CCAM grantees at all levels and across jurisdictions.

The plan was created through collective engagement among leadership, staff, and stakeholders from across the CCAM partner agencies during 10 federal working sessions held from February to June 2022. In addition, the CCAM held four listening sessions from May to June 2022, where each CCAM agency invited stakeholders, including national, state, and local agencies, organizations, and associations, who provided valuable input.

The plan required a collective effort from CCAM agencies and stakeholders to develop; from 2023 to 2026, the same coordination will be harnessed to implement its strategies to improve transportation access for all.

Keywords: Stakeholder Resources

The Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL) helps people with disabilities get connected to  information about local community resources that support independent living. Launched in 2021 to help disabled people access COVID-19 vaccinations, DIAL also provides information about essential services such as transportation, housing support, disability rights, and more.

DIAL’s staff are trained to work with people of various communications abilities and will spend as much time as needed to ensure effective communication. DIAL’s Information Specialists can assist people in all languages and are trained to work with callers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. Connect with a DIAL Information Specialist from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET, Monday–Friday.

• Call | Text Message | Videophone: 888-677-1199
• Email: [email protected]

Keywords: Stakeholder Resources

Eldercare Locator is a nationwide service that connects older adults and their caregivers with trustworthy local support resources, including meals, home care or transportation, or a caregiver needing training, education or a well-deserved break from caregiving responsibilities.

Keywords: Stakeholder Resources

A large list of writing guides and resources for developing grant proposals.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability

This Toolkit, developed by Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, gives a step-by-step overview of the grant writing process and a general template for writing a grant application. Successful grant application examples are also provided.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA): Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 – 2026 Characteristics of New/Existing USDOT Competitive Discretionary Grant Programs for Planning and Capital Projects. Provided by North Central Texas Council of Governments.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability

Mobility Managers across the country are running unique projects that benefit their communities. To learn from these great examples, the National Center for Mobility Management has compiled  this catalog of promising practices. The list contains projects ranging from youth and senior transportation to cross-sector partnerships in the health care sphere. While these projects are great examples, they are not exact blueprints. At the end of each example, there is a way to connect with the practitioner to learn more.

Keywords: Stakeholder Resources

A collection of resources dedicated to coordinating more effectively, planning efficiently and promoting public participation and involvement in decision-making for transportation programs, policies, and regulations.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning, Public Participation

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) is committed to reducing inequities across our transportation systems to ensure that communities benefit from the safe, efficient, and sustainable movement of people and goods. When done right, transportation policy can help level the playing field. It can transform economies, connect people to opportunities, and empower underserved communities to build generational wealth for the future. In partnership with the traveling public, community leaders, State, Tribal and local governments, and Federal agencies responsible for regulatory oversight, we at USDOT strive to empower communities through technical assistance resources such as this set of promising practices for meaningful public involvement.

Keywords: Public Participation

This toolkit compiles promising models and resources to support organizations implementing transportation programs in rural communities across the United States.

The modules in the toolkit contain resources and information focused on developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining rural transportation programs. There are more resources on general community health strategies available in the Rural Community Health Toolkit.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability, Stakeholder Resources

This report explores why and how to implement more multi-modal planning in rural areas and small towns. Current trends are increasing demand for non-auto travel options in rural communities, including aging populations, rising poverty, growing health and safety concerns, and growing tourist industries. Various strategies can help rural communities improve and connect walking, cycling, public transport, including innovative facilities and services, and Smart Growth development policies.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

The Subcommittee Progress Worksheet produced by Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Corporation to assist in meeting the needs and gaps of the Five-Year Regional Public Transportation Coordination Plan. Each stakeholder completes the worksheet before the subcommittee meetings to document activities since the previous meeting. It’s broken into section by timeframes for action (short term, mid term, long term, and new). This template still has the Recommendations from LRGVDC’s plan so those would need to be changed to be used by another region.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning, Stakeholder Resources

The Subcommittee Kick-off meeting agenda from Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Corporation. It includes a review of the findings of the current 5-year Plan and the previous findings. It also includes:

• Needs Assessment
• Gap Analysis
• Recommendations (broken into short-, medium-, and long-term groups)
• Projects to meet the needs

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning, Stakeholder Resources

This guide to inclusive planning is built from the knowledge and experience gained from the local projects sponsored by the ACL-funded Transit Planning 4 All program. This is a brief step-by-step introduction to the inclusive planning process. It is our belief that thoughtful and sincere inclusive planning leads to better programs.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning, Public Participation

Access by session title presentation materials used during the 2021 Planning Workshop.

WSDOT developed this guidebook for their state to provide a resource for their locally developed, coordinated public transit – human services transportation plan (CPT-HSTP). Note that the details on required elements and plan organization do not apply to Texas.

This guidebook offers technical assistance and direction for maintaining compliance with the laws and regulations associated with coordinated public transit – human services transportation plans, including:

• Conducting and documenting effective community outreach

• Topics to address

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

A Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation (HST) Plan is an important tool for community transportation planning. HST plans create a systematic way for communities to improve collaboration and communication across human service organizations and transportation providers – plans can improve access, efficiency, and effectiveness of community transportation systems. Although the process can seem daunting, the end-results are important.  This technical brief summarizes the key steps in developing an HST Plan. National RTAP, the National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM), and the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC) collaborated to update this brief.

Access presentation files and videos from the 2020 Planning Lead Agency Conference. Watch a session again or catch what you missed! Each session has a separate recording to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Based on the input from each participating agency, this guide defines Federal fund braiding for local match and program eligibility to enable Federal agencies and Federal grant recipients to more effectively manage Federal funds and coordinate human service transportation.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability

Article provides information about nine digital tools from innovative start-ups and civic tech organizations that could help government entities manage various dimensions of their Covid-19 response.

Keywords: Public Participation

Ohio Department of Transportation has gathered and developed resources for lead agencies and coordinated plan planning committees to use to assist in the development of coordinated plans. These tools are meant to be used in conjunction with the coordinated plan template and guidance. Lead agencies are not required to use these materials, but they are provided for convenience.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

The purpose of the regionally coordinated transportation planning effort is to provide more efficient and effective public transportation services, especially for priority populations including individuals with disabilities, individuals 65 and older, people with low incomes, veterans, and children. Texas uses a decentralized, stakeholder-driven approach, with 24 designated planning regions charged with developing and adopting a unique regional transportation plan. Lead agencies, in collaboration with regional stakeholders, develop and include a metric for each identified gap in transportation service or local service priority in the coordinated plan. The purpose of each metric is to measure the extent to which each priority was met or gap filled. Metrics may vary from one planning region to another; however, each region’s metrics should demonstrate that individuals in the region, including persons 65 and older and individuals with disabilities, have improved access to an effective and efficient network of public transportation services. The data on these metrics is reported to TxDOT-PTN, which collects common data elements statewide.

Included with the report:

• Appendix A. 2017-2021 RCTP: Year 3 Progress Online Survey Form – March 1, 2019-March 31, 2020 (PDF)
• Appendix B. 2017-2021 RCTP: Year 3 Progress Planning Region Status Sheets – March 1, 2019-March 31, 2020 (PDF)

Access the presentation materials used during the workshop.

This technical memorandum provides an overview of updated public transit-human services transportation plans developed and adopted by stakeholders in each of Texas’ 24 planning regions.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

Access the presentation materials used during the Regionally Coordinated Transportation Planning WebEx meeting.

Access the presentation materials used during the Regionally Coordinated Transportation Planning WebEx meeting.

Access the presentation materials used during the workshop.

Access the presentation materials used during the TxDOT-sponsored Plan to Work It! Workshops.

The transportation community may find it challenging to involve the public in a meaningful way. Still, quality planning and project development require meaningful input from the public. This guide provides a variety of tools to secure input from the public on transportation plans, programs, and projects—and it can help agencies improve their overall public involvement techniques.

Keywords: Public Participation

Access the presentation materials used during the Regionally Coordinated Transportation Planning WebEx meeting.

The Texas Transportation Code Chapter 458 authorizes 26 urban transit districts (UTDs) and 37 rural transit districts (RTDs) to provide and/or coordinate transit services for people in Texas. UTDs and RTDs receive public transportation money through the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The TxDOT Public Transportation Division (PTN) requested that Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) form a consistent set of profiles for each transit district, providing a quick, easy way for interested parties to comprehensively understand each transit district. This is a preliminary compilation of the profiles.

The Texas State Independent Living Council’s Transportation Works Project presents this report based on extensive research and thoughtful community feedback. Recommendations in this report may increase economic opportunity and mobility options for Texans with disabilities and seniors.

This study was designed to provide an overview of the current status of the transportation services for dialysis patients in Far West Texas, and to examine how the main stakeholders — medical and transportation providers, as well as dialysis patients — viewed the transportation system and elicit from them suggestion for improvements.

Access maps and tables of the 2010 Urbanized Area (UZA) in relation to transit operator boundaries in Texas and for each UZA. There are two types of maps available: (1) UZA map showing the change of the urbanized area from 2000 to 2010 and (2) another map that shows transportation service providers in and around each urbanized area.

The report linked on this page provides a synthesis of the regional coordinating council approach and how regional coordination is complementary to state efforts; 50-state information about which states have state and/or regional councils; case studies of regional councils in five states (California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho and Iowa); information about what factors can help support the success of regional coordinating councils; and a comprehensive directory of regional councils nationwide.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

Stakeholders in regions throughout Texas recently updated (or are in the process of updating) regionally coordinated transportation plans according to Federal Transit Administration guidance. This technical memorandum provides an overview of the updated regionally coordinated transportation plans prepared in 2011-2012. The Texas Department of Transportation, Public Transportation Division (TxDOT-PTN) requested researchers from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) to review these plans. The goal of this report is to provide a summary of content of the newly updated plans, the process used to create them, and highlight some examples of past projects mentioned in the plans.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sponsored a two-day conference in Austin, Texas on April 17 and 18, 2012 to identify best practices on regionally coordinated transportation services and mobility management. This document serves as a compendium of the information shared at the conference.

A formal evaluation report of the Texas Department of Transportation’s recently completed United We Ride pilot projects. The pilot projects include: Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the Heart of Texas Council of Governments (HOTCOG) and Texoma Area Paratransit System (TAPS).

Video highlighting the work of the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), with the assistance of transportation stakeholder groups and transit agencies, in developing an Updated Regionally Coordinated Transportation Plan for the purpose of coordinating public transportation services in the 13-county Gulf Coast Planning Region.

Volume 1 leads the user through the process of setting up the necessary cost accounting system, identifying the data requirements and the measurement parameters, and describing procedures for applying the model. This volume concludes with instructions for using the actual Cost Sharing Model.

Keywords: Fiscal Sustainability

To minimize maintenance cost and improve rural transit vehicles services, a Regional Maintenance Center (RMC) concept is being considered by Texas. Currently, rural transit vehicles are maintained and repaired by local garages, where service fees and quality of work performed often are questionable. RMCs are designed to maintain and repair rural transit vehicles within a geographical region. A cost-efficient method to create an RMC is by upgrading an existing maintenance operation. The objective of this study is to create a site assessment instrument to assist in the process of selecting potential maintenance operations that could be upgraded to an RMC. Upon interviewing various rural transportation experts and visiting the benchmark RMC in Illinois, a list of criteria crucial for a successful RMC was compiled and classified into various categories. The result of this benchmarking was used in a preliminary study of Lubbock County, Texas, and vicinity.

Key contributors to address maintenance concerns for rural transit systems are an aging fleet, poor maintenance practices, and a lack of technical expertise. This lack of local maintenance expertise is especially severe in rural areas. This paper examines the general requirements and maintenance service approach for a Regional Maintenance Center model in rural transportation systems. Among other findings of this study, it was determined that Regional Maintenance Centers, with a training center for mechanics and drivers, could improve vehicle reliability, increase vehicle longevity, and improve service to transit clientele. Also determined was that a generalized “onesize-fits-all” regional maintenance program could actually be counter-productive. Regional Maintenance Centers must be designed and located so potential use by rural transit service providers is maximized in order to provide superior serviceability and quality customer service.

The purpose of this guidebook is to serve as a resource for jurisdictions and agencies that wish to develop or improve public transportation opportunities for travelers who cross established agency and jurisdictional boundaries. The guidebook describes conditions that should trigger coordination between public transportation providers, as well as tools, strategies, and organizational structures that are working in communities across America.

Each chapter is available as a Microsoft Word document to allow for editing.

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6

Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s strategy handbook provides a resource for a wide variety of coordination strategies and supports the Wisconsin 2008 Planning Process.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

This report examines strategies and practices used to coordinate rural transportation services and identifies model processes used for local coordination efforts in rural communities. It includes a stand-alone executive summary that provides information, instructions, and lessons learned from rural communities that have implemented coordinated transportation services. This information may be used by local communities, state agencies, and tribal governments in planning and implementing coordinated community transportation services in rural areas.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

A self-assessment tool for states and communities seeking to advance transportation coordination.

Keywords: Public Participation

This toolkit identifies an array of management principles and techniques, for use by small urban and rural public transportation providers, to assist in managing their transportation services and resources effectively. The toolkit has two parts: a guidebook and a self-assessment tool. The guidebook introduces the idea of customer-driven transit service attributes and includes general management philosophies. Also included in the guidebook are exemplary practices and “how to” instructions for some topics. Additional sections describing “rules of thumb” or “things to avoid” are included for some management processes.

The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) is a national nonprofit organization that is helping to make accessible and affordable transportation a reality in rural, suburban and urban communities throughout the nation. CTAA offers a variety of technical assistance for communities looking to initiate and/or expand transportation services and programs that link people to jobs, medical care and other destinations necessary for quality of life.

Contact information for Texas’ metropolitan transit authorities.

Access state and regional contacts, coordinated transportation plans, and other state-level information through the National Center for Mobility Management’s States At A Glance list.

Keywords: General Guidance on Coordination Planning

Contact information for Texas’ rural or non-urbanized transit systems.

TTI is the largest university-affiliated transportation research agency in the United States. Its mission is to solve transportation problems through research, to transfer technology, and to develop diverse human resources to meet the transportation challenges of tomorrow.

TxDOT, in cooperation with local and regional officials, is responsible for planning, designing, building, operating and maintaining the state’s transportation system.

TxDOT’s Public Transportation Division provides financial and technical assistance to urban, rural and elderly or disabled transit providers. The division also represents transit in the planning and programming process and prepares funding-needs projections.

Transit District Profiles provide a quick, easy way for interested parties to comprehensively understand each of Texas’ transit districts. Now there are new ways for you to access these profiles.

Texas Transportation Code Chapter 458 authorizes urban transit districts (UTDs) and rural transit districts (RTDs) to provide and/or coordinate transit services for people in Texas. UTDs and RTDs receive public transportation money through the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). On behalf of the TxDOT Public Transportation Division (PTN), Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Transit Mobility Program developed and maintains a consistent set of profiles for each transit district, providing a quick and easy way for interested parties to comprehensively understand each transit district.

The PDF profiles are available at TxDOT PTN’s website.

An online, interactive version of the profiles is available at the Texas Transit Dashboard.

Sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration, the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the public transportation industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The TCRP has an established reputation for providing useful reports and other tools to help public transportation practitioners solve problems and inform decision makers.

Contact information for Texas’ small urbanized transit systems.