Coordinating community -based paratransit in an era of devolution: A role for the state?

In many communities, numerous human service agencies operate independent transportation systems serving populations disadvantaged by age, disability, or income. These transportation operations have been criticized by policy makers as wasteful, inefficient, and duplicative in nature, which has led to a policy response that seeks to coordinate transportation services across providers. This research asks: in what ways can policy and action at the state level catalyze organizational coordination at the local level so that rides to these disadvantaged populations can occur more efficiently and effectively? These questions are addressed through a multiple-case, qualitative study of state transportation policy and local implementation of that policy within Florida, Ohio, and Michigan. In Florida, coordination is legislatively mandated, in Ohio, programmatic incentives for coordination are provided to local areas, and in Michigan, the state government pursues information exchange as a strategy to obtain local area coordination. Analysis of these cases suggests that local transportation coordination efforts can be better facilitated when there is an active state role in that coordination. At the state level, it seems that developing a cooperative attitude and relationship among state agencies is an important component, as is directly providing financial resources and technical assistance to local communities. At the local level, key components include designating a regional coordinator and developing a system for local parties to buy into a coordinated scheme. And beyond the explicit benefits of coordinating transportation (e.g. decreased costs or increased volume of rides), it seems that there are some larger secondary benefits to state involvement in coordination such as institutionalizing an advocate for the transportation disadvantaged and developing a culture of coordination. At the theoretical level, this research suggests that regional planning objectives may be better addressed through active state, rather than regional governance. Also, because transportation provision is ancillary to many social service agencies' core missions, this case presents challenges to conventional theories of organizational coordination that tend to focus on primary organizational missions. Finally, this dissertation successfully applies the conceptual model of cooperation as proposed by Axelrod (1984) to the tangible issue of fragmented social service organizations serving the transportation disadvantaged.PhDPublic administrationSocial SciencesTransportationUrban planningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/126478/2/3016955.pd