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sysop
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| Joined: 19 Sep 2005 |
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Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:57 pm Post subject: LIVING in the COUNTRY WITHOUTt a RIDE |
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Living in the Country Without a RIDE
Bob Hawkins
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 2:50 p.m.
Living in the country is loaded with good vibes. Living in the country without a ride, though, can be trouble when you want to get anywhere.
That is sort of what San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the regional agency, is hearing as it tours the county’s farthest regions seeking the public’s opinions, experiences and observations on rural transit needs.
The rural transit needs tour is winding down, with a final public session at the Caltrans complex in Old Town on Friday, July 9. In all, eight public sessions are being held.
The listening tour actually started with a survey in which 400 mostly rural residents responded to 19 questions about transportation needs. The conclusions aren’t too surprising: People without rides sometimes had to forgo trips to the market, to work, to medical appointments and religious services. Most-affected are people with disabilities, limited income residents and senior citizens.
“Our survey results show that low-income, disabled and elderly people are skipping trips to the doctor’s office, missing work or foregoing church visits because they don’t have access to transportation,” says SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos, in a press release.
SANDAG spokeswoman Colleen Windsor says that the public hearings are yielding similar stories from citizens.
All this information will be used to update SANDAG’s Coordinated Plan which is a tool used by state and local governments to identify needs and find the ways and means to meet them.
Want to do something about those rural transportation needs?
Each public hearing is being frontloaded with a workshop on how to apply for available rural transportation grants. SANDAG expects to “award many relatively small grants to numerous organizations” from a pool that includes millions of dollars.
If you want to know how to apply for these grants or if you’d like to give SANDAG the wisdom of your own rural transportation experiences, stop by one of the remaining sessions:
• July 7: Mountain Empire Community Center, 976 Sheridan Road, Campo. 5 p.m. grant session; 5:30-7 p.m. public meeting. • July 8: Borrego Senior Center, 580 Circle J Drive, Borrego Springs. Noon-1:30 p.m. grants; 2-3:30 p.m. public meeting. • July 9: Caltrans Dist. 11 Offices, Gallegos Room, 4050 Taylor St., Old Town. 1-2:30 p.m. grants; 3-4:30 p.m. public meeting. |
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