Regional Transportation Services Receives Grant

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury State University and its regional partners have been awarded over $2 million from the State of Maryland and federal sources to promote the expansion of public transportation services on the Lower Eastern Shore.

The funding comes after more than a year of work by a diverse coalition of community leaders, including the Lower Shore Private Industry Council, SSU, Wicomico Transit, Worcester County Ride, Somerset County STRideS and the departments of Social Services of Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties. The project has been funded through the Maryland Mass Transit Administration, Maryland Department of Human Resources and Federal Transit Agency with the support of the Eastern Shore delegation and U.S. Senators Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski. The goal of the initiative is to create more public transportation options for citizens needing to travel to work, medical appointments, leisure activities and other critical destinations.

To date, the regional public transportation coalition has focused on data collection and consensus-building activities, carried out by a team from Salisbury State’s Project Management Group (Perdue School of Business) and Mapping Science Group (Department of Geography and Geosciences, Henson School of Science and Technology). The initial planning phase demonstrated opportunities to improve current public and human services transportation offerings on the Lower Eastern Shore. It also revealed that there is a broad-based commitment to finding regional solutions that are efficient, effective and adequately support the growing regional economy.

The new funding will allow the coalition to actually implement, on a pilot basis, expanded regional services and connections, as well as continue the transportation planning and consensus-building process. Primary goals for the project year include: Expand public transportation: The public transportation providers of Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties are working to expand their routes and coordinate their schedules to pilot a regional route connecting the major population centers of the Lower Eastern Shore. Coordinate services by human service agencies: These agencies will be invited, on a pilot basis, to begin coordinating aspects of their services for greater effectiveness and efficiency. Continue planning and consensus-building activities to encourage broad-based participation in regional public and human services transportation solutions.

For more information, contact Dr. Memo Diriker, director, or Ruth Baker, associate director, Project Management Group, at SSU at 410-548-5353, fax 410-219-2848, e-mail pmg@salisbury.edu or visit their Web site www.shoretransit.org.