Public Transportation Service Plan

1. Public Transportation Service Plan • The Public Service Transportation Plan (Service Plan) should help the Grantee determine how best to use their public transportation funding and equipment. The Service Plan should give the Grantee a clearer picture of existing services and potential needs. • The Service Plans are due no later than Monday, January 5, 2014. • Chuck Abraham, our Manager of Program Support (Planning) will review each of these Service Plans and provide feedback and/or concurrence.

2. Tips for Completing the Public Transportation Service Plan (Service Plan) • You should use the internet to gather as much information as possible before talking with outside entities (e.g. other transportation operators, businesses, and other governmental entities). This will: • Limit the time you will request from others, • Reduce stress and help you better focus on the questions you need, and • May help you better determine whom to interview. • Several internet searches may help you answer 50-60% of this Service Plan’s questions. The following tips should help you.

3. Service Operations Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 2-12) • TRANPRO Information Management System (http://www.utc.uic.edu/tranpro/) • This database contains all of the information needed to answer most of the Service Plan’s first five questions. • It will identify each County’s public transportation and human service operators and provide their contact data (Service Plan p. 3), service areas, days of service, and sometimes their service hours (Service Plan p. 4).

4. Service Operations Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 2-12) • The TRANPRO database also lists the type of services each operator provides (e. g. demand response and fixed route) and, in many cases, their operating hours (Service Plan, p. 5, question 1), and procedures for securing a ride (Service Plan, p. 6, question 1). • You may use the internet to see if each of the transportation service providers listed in the TRANPRO database have individual websites (Service Plan, p. 9, question 2)

5. Accessing TRANPRO • Please search for www.utc.uic.edu/tranpro on the internet • On the dark blue line just under the heading, please click on “Transportation Providers”. It appears in white type. • You will now see a map with the heading “Query Transportation Providers by Region”. Please go down to the bottom of that page and click on your county or counties. You will now see a list of the transportation and human service transportation providers.

6. Service Operations Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 2-12) • This Section’s remaining questions will require you to talk to the Operators listed in the TRANPRO database. • Please do not leave any of the Service Plan’s boxes blank and answer the questions for each of the entities listed in the TRANPRO database for your Grantee.

7. Service Operations Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 2-12) For the question on page 12, please summarize what types of “major” complaints each of the Operators had during the previous year, if any. Major complaints in this case could involve legal issues (e.g. civil rights and/or ADA violations) or continuing complaints (e.g. continually late rides or denied rides). These types of complaints could show the Grantee where improvements can be made.

8. Demand Analysis Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 13-30) The Illinois Department of Public Health has directories showing all of the hospitals and rural health centers by county or city with their addresses (Service Plan, p. 13).

9. Accessing These Health Facility Databases To access the Illinois Department of Public Health Hospital and Rural Health Center Directories: • Please enter https://data.illinois.gov/Public-Health/IDPH-Hospital-Directory/wsms-teqm in the internet. • You will see a light gray bar under the heading. Please locate either County or City and click on it for your relevant hospital information. • For the Rural Health Center Directory please enter https://data.illinois.gov/Public-Health/IDPH-Rural-Health-Center-Directory/hcpx-tvp5.

10. Demand Analysis Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 13-30) • The Illinois Department of Human Services lists major human service agencies for each county in their Office Locator website. • It provides addresses, type of services, and operating hours (Service Plan, p. 16, question 1).

11. Accessing The Human Services Office Locator • To access the Illinois Department of Human Services Office Locator: • Please enter http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?module=12 in the internet. • The web page will show three red circles labled1, 2, and 3. Please leave 1 alone, enter your County for 2 and click on “Find Offices” for 3. • This will provide you with your County’s human service providers, their addresses, and websites in most cases (Service Plan, p. 13).

12. Demand Analysis Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 13-30) • For the Major Employers question on page 17, you will have to do a general internet search in Bing, Google, or other search engine using Major Employers in (your County or City). This search will usually provide you with Names, Addresses, and Types of Work. • For some Counties, you will have to look up major employers for your largest cities and create a list. The data is usually available and easy to retrieve.

13. Demand Analysis Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 13-30) • For missing data, please look on each of the employer’s websites or call the employer directly. • For the Parks and recreation question on p. 19, please look at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ website at http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/recreation/Pages/default.aspx.

14. Finding the Relevant Parks and Recreation Data • After clicking on the Natural Resources website, you will see the webpage titled “State Parks and Outdoor Recreation”. Please scroll down the page to a map of the State of Illinois and “Find a Park by Region.” • Please click on your relevant region to reveal a more detailed map and links for individual parks and recreational areas.

15. Demand Analysis Section Public Transportation Service Plan (Pages 13-30) • The Education Bug website (http://illinois.educationbug.org) lists public and private high schools and colleges by county. Clicking on the school name will give you the institution name, address, type of institution, and number of students. • You will have to check another website or contact the schools for their operating hours.

16. Strategy and InitiativesPublic Transportation Service Plan (Pages 31-33) Please review the data you have collected and review it with the Grantee and Operator(s). • Do all people in your service area have access to public transportation? If not, who doesn’t? Why? • Are all parts of your service area adequately covered? Are you turning down rides? Does the general public know your public transportation services exist? If not, why? • How can public transit be improved in your service area?

17. Questions If you have questions about this presentation or would like some help about how to fill out the Service Plan, please contact: Mr. Chuck Abraham Manager of Program Support (Planning) IDOT-Public and Intermodal Transportation 1.312.793.3510. Thank you!