Embracing Collaboration To Help People in Need

BY MIGUEL VELÁZQUEZ
CEO
Regional Transit Service
Rochester, NY

One of the best ways public transit systems can help address critical needs in the communities we serve is to collaborate with local governments and organizations to provide a vehicle to independence and prosperity for those in need.

For many years, Regional Transit Service (RTS), the public transit system in Monroe County, NY, has worked with the county’s Department of Human Services to provide bus passes for more than 300 recipients of public benefits. Through that partnership, the county would purchase single trip, daily, and monthly bus passes and distribute them to eligible recipients. At the beginning of August, we launched a pilot program with Monroe County to simplify the distribution of bus passes by making it possible for Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card recipients to use their EBT cards to pay their fare on our buses.

This updated process is a game changer in a few different ways.

First, it provides unlimited access to the public transit system and the destinations we serve for those who need it the most. This includes access to job sites, medical facilities, schools, grocery stores, and social services.

Second, it makes it easier for these eligible recipients in that they no longer need to keep track of multiple cards and passes. They can now utilize one benefit card for these critical expenses.

Third, it makes it easier and more efficient for Monroe County and RTS to administer the program by removing the cost and time needed to order, organize, and mail various bus passes.

Fourth, this new process reduces the fraudulent use, sale, and resale of the bus passes.

And fifth, it provides the flexibility and mechanism needed to customize a specific window of access to the transit system based on the changing needs and eligibility of recipients.

It is our hope that this new and more modern stage of our partnership with Monroe County will help lift families out of poverty, while also introducing the full benefits of public transit as a safe, easy, and reliable way to access important destinations.