National RTAP eNews - September 17, 2020

eNews - September 17, 2020

National RTAP is a program of the Federal Transit Administration dedicated to creating rural and tribal transit solutions through free training materials, technical assistance, and partner collaboration.

Let's Go to RTAPgo! Launch Party on October 1, 2020.

National RTAP RTAPgo podcasts provide peer tested innovations, trends, and ideas on facing operational challenges, surviving, and thriving with grace, grit, and creativity. Visit our new RTAPgo web page to hear brief snippets of our very first episode: "RTAPgo on the Road with Tribal Transit: Big Woods Big Impact." Subscribe to our RTAPgo email list for updates, content access, and a chance to win prizes. Enter our RTAPgo social media contests on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter beginning today, September 17, 2020, after 2:00 PM ET.

Featured Resource

Join us on October 1, 2020, at 2:00 PM ET for the first episode of the first season of RTAPgo: I woke up one morning and was a transit manager. Jennie Rowland, Transit Manager of Big Woods Transit in Nett Lake, Minnesota takes us on a tour of her program and her experiences as a transit manager. Register for the Launch Party.

Announcing USBs for National RTAP Training Modules

As a result of our 2020 Resource Center Survey, we are providing our training modules available by disc on credit card-style USB thumb drives. They are easy to clean and can be stored in your pocket, wallet, or business cardholder.

They are compatible with any device and include a label with the training title. To order, contact us at info@nationalrtap.org, call us at 888-589-6821, or chat with us on nationalrtap.org.

Resources and Events

Join Us Today for our Tribal Transit Manager Peer Roundtable

Join National RTAP staff, Amy Fong, Transportation Program Analyst, FTA, and fellow Tribal Transit providers, today, September 17, 2020, from 3:00-4:00 PM ET. In this roundtable, we will discuss program updates and virtual training needs. Register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Upcoming Rural Transit Manager Peer Roundtable

Please join National RTAP staff and Review Board members for a Transit Manager Peer Roundtable on October 8, 2020, from 2:00-3:00 PM ET for an opportunity to convene with your peers and discuss issues affecting your job, your agency, and your community. Topics may include transportation to voting, farebox revenue, and remote work. Register for the Peer Roundtable.

U.S. DOT and FTA Updates

FTA has published new Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan Regulation (PTASP) resources, including a Safety Performance Targets Fact Sheet, Certifying Compliance with the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan Regulation, and Understanding PTASP Safety Training and Communication Requirements.

FTA will be holding a Listening Session on Managing Vehicles and Facilities in a New Service Environment on September 24, 2020, between 2:30-3:45 PM ET. Panelists from the transit industry will discuss strategies, service planning, and tools and resources they use to maintain a clean and resilient infrastructure.

Stage I of the U.S. DOT Inclusive Design Challenge is open. The Challenge seeks innovative design solutions that can enable people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities to use automated vehicles to access jobs, healthcare, and other critical destinations. Stage I of the Challenge requests written proposals describing the design solution. Proposals are due October 30, 2020.

Guam Regional Transit Authority RTAP Update

Guam Regional Transit Authority (GRTA) has been working with its Transportation Management System (TMS) One Call/One Click initiative to convert the current manual system of operations to a technology-based system to improve operational efficiency. This move will improve customer service, create efficiencies in fare collection, and improve data collection and reporting with real time mobile communication and automated vehicle location.

The TMS will go live in January 2021. Within the next 2 to 3 years, GRTA will expand its infrastructure with a fleet of new shuttles, electric vehicles and charging stations, a new park and ride facility, and a new modern transportation facility.

Webinars and Training

TRB is hosting a number of webinars on timely topics, including:

Publications

National Aging and Disability Transportation Center (NADTC) published a research report on Inclusive Shared Mobility: Enabling Service for Older Adults and People with Disabilities. The research team identified strategies that shared mobility operators can implement in order to make their programs more inclusive, such as allowing members to add a peer-driver to car-share programs.

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation at the University of California, Davis released a Best Practices for Electric Vehicle Cost Calculator User Interfaces policy brief. The researchers categorized best practices as those related to the vehicle cost calculator use cases, outputs, user experience, and user inputs.

TCRP's Development of Transactional Data Specifications for Demand-Responsive Transportation presents a specification to facilitate interactions among software systems that manage these services. A validator software tool that verifies data messages generated by a software system is available as part of the project.

National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM) published Current Pandemic Creates Opportunities for Transit and Human Services Partnerships. The blog post describes case studies of how states are adapting their methods to address emergent and unexpected needs of families for transportation.

Researchers and librarians from TREC at Portland State University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, Davis have created Transportation, Race and Equity: A Syllabi Resource List for Faculty. The objective of this effort is to collect readings and other resources that faculty can use in their syllabi for university courses on transportation planning and engineering, so that their courses will better address issues of race, racism, equity, and justice in the transportation field. Public input and contributions are welcome.

National RTAP Older Adults Topic Guide Updated

The National RTAP Older Adults Topic Guide lists organizations that best practices and information about transportation for older adults. The guide was updated in September 2020. Newly added resources include:

Grantmakers in Aging (GIA) provides a web page about transportation and older people that includes Models of Effective Senior Transportation Programs and trending topics.
Administration for Community Living (ACL) provides a web page that describes initiatives stemming from their Strengthening Coordinated Transportation Systems for People with Disabilities and Older Adults Research & Demonstration Program.

Databases and Tools

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Government Transportation Financial Statistics (GTFS) has been updated with new visualizations and information on government transportation revenue, government transportation expenditures, government transportation revenue versus expenditure. (Note that GTFS in this context is not related to General Transit Feed Specification.)

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has a new COVID Data Tracker which displays total cases, cases in the last 7 days, and cases per 100,000. The interactive map enables links to individual state data. The data are updated on a daily basis. World Health Organization (WHO) has also launched a Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard that is updated daily and can be filtered by country.

Upcoming National RTAP #RuralTransitHeroes Twitter Chat

We hope you will join us for our second #RuralTransitHeroes Twitter Chat. We all need heroes and there’s no better place to look than among our own. National RTAP will host a Twitter chat on October 20, 2020, from 2:00-3:00 PM ET, to talk about people in transit who have responded in a time of need. The chat will be moderated by Julia Castillo, Executive Director, HIRTA Public Transit, and Kari Banta, Section 5304 Program Manager, TX DOT. RSVP for an email invite.

Look for More Rural Transit Heroes Each Week on our Social Media

We received over 50 entries to our 2020 Rural Transit Heroes Photo Contest from transit agencies all around the country. We've created a Facebook album of the winners and will be posting all the photos of the heroes (a few each week) on our Facebook page and other social media. All the photo contest heroes and many more will be showcased during our #RuralTransitHeroes Twitter Chat on October 20, 2020.

National RTAP RFP to Develop a Small Transit Agency Management Application

National RTAP is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit proposals from interested and qualified technology vendors to provide a transit management application to be hosted on a third-party server, develop training materials, and provide on-going technical support. The web-based application will assist small rural/tribal transit agencies with managing their day-to-day operations including scheduling, dispatching, compliance reporting, billing, and/or payroll. Proposals must be received by October 13, 2020.

Opportunities

National Center for Applied Transit Technology (N-CATT) is soliciting proposals from consulting firms to develop a series of guidebooks and white papers to be published on the N-CATT website. Topics include Connected Vehicles, Data Practices, Clean Energy Adoption, Software Adoption, Transit Website Strategies, and Public Engagement. Proposals are due September 30, 2020.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a notice of funding availability, soliciting research grant proposals on coastal resilience and surface transportation resilience. A letter of intent (due October 16, 2020) is required before submission of a full proposal. NOAA will be holding an informational webinar at 3:30 PM ET on September 22, 2020.

Results Available for our 2020 Resource Center Survey

Thank you to all who responded to our Resource Center Survey. Results will be used to improve services and processes and to plan new products. Survey results also provide a breakdown of who uses the Resource Center and data on how the training materials are used (in-house, at conferences, etc.)

Updated National RTAP COVID-19 Resources

National RTAP continues to update our technical brief on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Information and Resources for Transit on a monthly basis. The most recent update was on September 14, 2020, and includes promising safety practices, such as social distancing coaches/ambassadors and removable bus grab rail covers, and information about the FDA Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program.

We have also added CDC's COVID-19 Funding for Tribes page to our COVID-19 Topic Guide, which we will also update regularly.

Calendar of Upcoming Events

All event times listed in Eastern Time. Subtract 1 hour for Central Time, 2 for Mountain Time, 3 for Pacific Time, 4 for Alaska, and 6 for Hawaii.

Harvard University

Insights from Congressional and Tribal Leaders: Coronavirus Relief for American Indian Tribal Governments

September 17, 12:00 PM