What are transportation resources, gaps, barriers?
Transportation resources might include access to:
- Mass transit evidenced by bus stops
- Bike lanes provided on city streets
- Sidewalks with sloping access points
- Waterways
- Taxi services
- School buses
- Church vans
- Transportation services (e.g., Uber, Lyft)
Transportation barriers might include:
- Inadequate state funding to improve transit infrastructure
- Local citizens’ attitudes toward tax increases to provide equitable transportation access
- An aging population that is disabled
- No sidewalks
Transportation gaps might include:
- Medicaid funds transport to healthcare only but the customer/client needs to go to the pharmacy
- No local groceries stores but the customer/client has a specialized diet
- Curb-to-curb transportation service but the customer/client needs assistance getting up a flight a stairs
Assignments
Now that you have seen, via the Windshield Survey, the present state of your community, you will begin to look at the existing data that has been collected about that area. In Module 2, your Toolkit Assignment will immerse you in identifying your local community’s strengths and weaknesses using website resources. Community strengths and weaknesses assessment is necessary for understanding the unique combination of community resources and gaps in transportation access. By identifying these aspects of your community, you will be better prepared to interview individual community members in the next module.
Use the web and other resources from Modules 1 and 2 including the local CHNA and results of the Windshield Survey to begin identifying the transportation resources, barriers, and gaps that effect your community.
NOTE: Use the CHNA and your list of gaps and resources to complete the assignment. You may also look up figures on the internet.
