Job Access and Reverse Commute (jarc) Program fy 2009 Service Profiles Region X alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington October 2010 fta-08-0162 Job Access and Reverse Commute (jarc) fy 2009 Service Profiles: Region X

Pierce County Department of Community Services (655)

Beyond the Borders (Special Needs Transportation for persons living outside the Pierce Transit Service Area) (1392)

Location: rural south Pierce County (WA)
Type: Trip-Based Services/Demand response
Goal: Expanded geographic coverage
Service description: The Beyond the Borders program transports people in rural south Pierce County, an area that covers about 400 square miles. Beyond the Borders also transport people to three primary Pierce Transit bus stops. Individuals then take the fixed route bus or the paratransit ADA bus to worksites in locations throughout the county. People may also use Beyond the Borders to connect with Intercity transit, going to Olympia, WA; to King County Metro or Sound Transit going to Seattle, WA and beyond.
Evaluation: We gather monthly destination reports and tabulate the number of rides given. we report the number of rides to the State of Washington each quarter. We set a goal of increasing ridership by 5% per for the year, and saw a steady increase in ridership each quarter due to our outreach and marketing.
Accomplishments: We are partners in the Pierce County Coordinated Transportation Coalition (PCCTC). Through this partnership, we contract with the Medicaid Transportation broker in our county to give the Beyond the Borders clients rides. Rather than duplicating services, we use the existing call center, dispatch, and certified providers through the broker. In some cases the broker is able to arrange shared rides, so the costs are split among several funders.
Lessons learned: It takes a lot of work to keep the public informed about the transportation services available. Our ridership changes continually. We work with community groups to do outreach and to market our program. We also have our service listed on the PCCTC website www.piercecountrides.com and we participate in quarterly "Travel Options" workshops for human services case managers to get the word out about our services.

Pierce County Mobility Manager (753)