Older people are consumers. Public and community transportation that they can use to shop benefits local merchants, other businesses.
QUERY: Does anyone have experience with local businesses supporting transportation for older persons?
Below is an URL to NY article in which merchants ask for more transit, less parking.
http://www.globest.com/news/12_238/newyork/retail/-316347.html
Comments (4)
This idea aligns with earlier comment/idea about getting businesses to provide coupons for public transportation.
A system in Monmouth County (NJ) had obtained contributions from hospitals and supermarket corporations to support fixed route community transit buses that brought seniors to these destinations. The arrangements, going back to the early 1990's, were arranged through the community relations budgets of these corportations which made them easier to get but the amounts were small ($5000.00. The advantage of this approach is if you can put together a whole series of these small contributions.
A CA public transportaiton system worked with a local mall to place a bus stop within the parking lot (versus outside the lot on the main road). Bus Operators weren't thrilled (difficult to drive in a tight space with so many pedestrians) and some merchants opposed it (said they didn't want to encourage loitering). They decided to do a trial run and after several months the merchant nearest the stop (a major discount retailer) noted a significant increase in sales. To the extent possible, this type of demo and data collection would be interesting to try
More than a decade ago, Independent Transportation Network tested the idea of small payments from area businesses to help pay for rides through a TransitIDEA project. It was based on the old idea of parking stickers for people who drive cars. Many merchants are happy to help pay for parking, so ITN studied whether the same merchants would help to pay for ITN rides for older people who do not drive. The program was very successful and ITN built it right into the software that affiliates use for dispatch and billing, so the whole system is seamless to administer and very cost effective.