Tri-County Area
APPLICATION FORM
Special Transportation Discretionary (STF)
2016 STF Fund Discretionary Program for Regional Projects and
Projects with Statewide Significance
2016 STF Fund Discretionary Program for Regional Projects
and Projects with Statewide Significance GRANT
APPLICATION
I. Organization’s Information
Name of Organization:
Ride Connection
Contact Person: Julie Wilcke, Chief Operating Officer
Address: 9955 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR 97220
Telephone: (503) 528-1737
E-Mail: jwilcke@rideconnection.org
FAX: (503) 528-1755
Type of Organization (mark one):
Public Entity
Private non-profit
X
Provider’s geographic area of service is (mark one):
Inside the TriMet Service District
Outside the TriMet Service District
Both Inside and Outside of the TriMet Service District
X
Geographic area to be served (please indicate the geographic
features that define y our service area such as streets, rivers or
jurisdictional boundaries):
North Boundary
East Boundary
South Boundary
West Boundary
Other General Geographic Area All of Clackamas, Multnomah and
(ex Canby School District)
Washington Counties
Optional – please provide a map of your service area as a separate,
single page, letter sized attachment.
1
Days and Hours of Operation:
Days
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Please list any planned periods of
service closure greater than 3
days. (ex. Closed the last week of
December)
Hours
7:30AM to 4:30PM*
7:30AM to 4:30PM*
7:30AM to 4:30PM*
7:30AM to 4:30PM*
7:30AM to 4:30PM*
Limited/episodic*
Limited/episodic*
II. Funding Proposal
Project Title:
Addressing Unmet Need
Total STF funds Requested: $2,376,425
Start Date: July 1, 2016
Underline Proposed Funding Source: 1. Regional Project or 2.
Project with Statewide Significance
Underline Funding Request Type:
1. Continuation of existing service at same level of service
2. Expansion of existing service
3. New service
4. Capital request
5. Other
Total Transportation Program Cost by Year:
FY17
$878,259
FY18
$739,074
FY19
$759,092
2
Total STF Grant fund needs by Year:
(Circle below)
Regional Project
Project of
Statewide
Significance
FY17
$878,259
FY18
$739,074
FY19
$759,092
Scalable STF Grant Request by Year:
You are strongly encouraged to request the full amount of
funding that is needed for each program, including funding for
new programs, but funding is limited. Describe the scalability of
your STF funding request below. Enter your scaled down request.
Then describe how you scaled down your request and what aspects
of the program would not be funded under this funding scenario.
FY17
FY18
FY19
Total
Scaled request
$819,243 $693,805 $712,532
$2,225,580
Description:
This project is scalable by FTEs. Per FTE
subtract $41,766 from the annual budget with
3% increase per FTE annually. If the Mid
Multnomah County Funding Parity application
is funded, one FTE could be subtracted per
year and one sedan purchase could be
removed from year one and insurance for one
sedan removed each year. This is what is
shown in the table above.
Amount of other funds leveraged to support the total
transportation program: (list county contributions, STF
Discretionary funds, donations, other):
Contribution/Source Number of
Amount
% of Program
Units/Hours
Funding
3
Total STF Grant
Request
$2,376,425 100%
STF Discretionary Project Type Category (mark one):
Direct Service
Mobility Management/Coordination
Both Direct Service and Mobility Management/Coordination
X
Program Description (limit 900 words)
Describe services or capital investment to be provided by STF
funding. Please include a description of the following:
 Who do you serve
 What geographic area do you serve?
 Level of service provided to customers
 Operational activities; how customers request and
receive rides, including scheduling and dispatching
 Describe if volunteers are utilized to provide service
and how this occur (is the volunteer program
supported with STF or other funds? Do you provide
mileage reimbursement to volunteers using their own
vehicles?)How the service is marketed.
Across Ride Connection programs in all areas of the region, we have
a persistent turn-down and unmet need trip request rate of over 7%.
These are trips that customers have requested, primarily during
service hours, but also at time when service is unavailable. Need and
total trip requests have been growing – and we have added additional
programs and services to help meet this need including our Ride
Together mileage reimbursement program, our Veterans Helping
Veterans program and “Floor of Service” capacity enhancement using
taxi cab service. Even with these additions, the rate of unmet need
has remained steady. Trip requests are increasing at the same rate
that we are able to increase in our existing programs. In addition, we
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are concerned that we will soon be entering a period of faster growth
in the population over the age of 60 and we will not be prepared to
expand services as quickly as the rate of demand increases.
To begin the process of preparing for increases in demand, we would
like to add paid driver and vehicle capacity to meet our known unmet
need. We have developed a partnership with Enterprise Rent-A-Car
that will allow us to purchase low-mileage, gently used sedan
vehicles at a cost of approximately $15,000 per vehicle, but we will
also explore lease options as an alternative to purchase. These
vehicles will be strategically coupled with increased driver hours as
well as placement at programs that could increase volunteer
participation and lower operating costs per mile by diversifying their
fleet to include sedans.
Driver hours and vehicle placement will be in programs that serve
older adults and people with disabilities. Programs must also operate
at least one accessible vehicle to qualify to have a sedan placed with
their program. Service provided must be door-to-door at a minimum,
but can also be door-through-door or escorted. Both volunteers and
paid drivers may be used in the provision of service. The estimates
for paid driver hours are calculated to meet unmet need. We will
focus on recruiting volunteers to help meet latent (unknown) demand
increases. Latent demand is likely to become known as reliability of
service increases/the perception of scarcity decreases and customers
do not self-select out of requesting trips, and communicate by wordof-mouth to potential new customers.
In addition, we will be adding 1 FTE IT Specialist per year to provide
support to partners and establish technology-based efficiencies to
ensure that the transportation capacity added through this proposal is
effectively coordinated.
Ride Connection will continue to market services through community
organizations, forums and residential communities, through
distribution of brochures and informational materials and through
collaboration with our partners. To best promote the availability of
new capacity, we will also expand our marketing to additional area
health clinics, mental health services and through our expanded
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partner network that currently participates in our Fare Relief grant
program.
Do your program activities preserve existing service and/or
provide new service? (describe how the project preserves existing
service or provides new or expanded service) (limit 200 words)
This is an expansion of existing programs to augment capacity. This
service expands the capacity of the Ride Connection network through
the inclusion of sedan vehicles to provide diversity and cost
efficiencies for the fleet, and the addition of paid driver service hours
to increase the reliability of service for customers.
The requested funding will provide paid driver service hours to be
provided in sedans purchased at a cost of approximately $15,000
each. An additional .5 FTE scheduler will be added to Ride
Connection Service Center staff to provide scheduling support for
additional trips. We also anticipate that we will be able to add 2,700
volunteer driver hours per year.
Do you coordinate between providers to avoid duplication?
(describe what level of coordination between partners is done and
how duplication is avoided) (limit 200 words)
Paid driver service hours will be coordinated by Ride Connection and
allocated to partner programs using the same system we currently
use to coordinate our on-call drivers to increase program capacity
where needed, throughout the region. Transportation Coordinators
will work with the Ride Connection Service Center to request driver
time in cases where capacity may be reduced due to illness,
vacations or other unforeseen circumstances. If drivers are not filling
in for partner programs, they will be utilized to provide trips that would
otherwise be turned down/remain unscheduled by either partner
programs or programs directly operated by Ride Connection. Service
in Clackamas County will be coordinated through the Clackamas
County Consortium system.
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Additional Sedans will be coordinated by the Ride Connection Asset
Manager. Vehicles will be placed based on partner Transportation
Coordinator and Ride Connection Transportation Coordinator
requests. In some cases, they may be traded to right-size minivans
and then minivans will be re-assigned to an area of need. Programs
will apply to receive sedans and will indicate projected trips, volunteer
hours and paid driver hours to be provided in the vehicle, so their
requests can be quantitatively evaluated.
Is your program cost- effective? (describe average cost per ride,
cost per mile and cost per hour) (limit 200 words)
The trips provided by this capacity increase are often longer-distance
or trips that are very difficult to share with other trips. While they are
likely to not be the most cost-effective trips in the network, ensuring
reliability of service for customers may help with the bottom-line of
programs by increasing customer satisfaction and retention – which
will hopefully increase the rate of participation in group or shared trips
by these same customers.
While accessible vehicles will always be the foundation of our fleet,
the purchase or lease of sedans is extremely cost-effective. Our
arrangement with Enterprise Rent-A-Car is providing vehicles at a
cost that is much less than the cost of an accessible minivan. This is
a significant capital cost savings that allows our fleet to be expanded
at a greater rate than if we were purchasing accessible minivans.
From an operating cost standpoint, providing an episodic trip for a
single, ambulatory customer is more cost effective in a sedan. Some
of the sedans we are able to purchase or lease also are hybridelectric vehicles, which provides additional fuel cost savings.
Does your program address one or more of the strategy
recommendations in the Tri-County Elderly and Disabled
Transportation Plan (EDTP) or improves service coverage as
recommended in the EDTP? (describe activities) (limit 200 words)
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While this is an expansion project, it does enhance existing services
and programs, ensuring they are better able to address increased
demand for services moving forward. This directly addresses the subgoal of “Improve the Service Foundation” of the first guiding tenant of
the EDTP.
This project is designed to directly address the concerns expressed
on page 4-6 of the EDTP.
 Ride Connection and their network receive more requests for
rides than can be filled. Many ride requests that are received
cannot be filled, and are turned down. Customers are called
back two days prior to their scheduled ride and told if the trip
can be provided.
 Ride Connection and transit agencies/providers do not have
enough drivers and vehicles. As a result of growing demand,
some trips are prioritized and others are turned down.
 People get discouraged if they have not received the service
they need and stop requesting rides; therefore, the demand for
services is greater than would be indicated by trip denials or
turndowns.
This is also an innovative method of providing adequate capital for
replacements (figure 6-1, page 6-3). While this is not a 1:1
replacement project – it is an expansion of the fleet – the
diversification will allow Ride Connection to better manage existing
accessible minivans and prolong their life by providing capacity in
sedans for trips that do not require an accessible vehicle.
The availability of sedans also offers the opportunity to increase the
capacity of existing volunteer programs by providing a vehicle option
for volunteers who may not be comfortable driving a larger accessible
vehicle. It also is an extension of the back-up driver pool concept that
increases the number of available Ride Connection on-call driver
hours. (figure 6-1, page 6-4)
III. Budget and Ridership Information
8
A. Budget Information
-- Ride Connection Organizations, complete Form A Measurables
and Form B2 Condensed Budget Information below and the detailed
electronic budget worksheet provided by Ride Connection.
Form A. Measurables
Ride Data FY17 (projected)
FY18 (projected)
FY19 (projected)
STF
STF
42,999
Program
Total
42,999
334664 334664
343992
343992
353584 353584
8
8
8
8
8
8
27,181
27,181
28,013
28,013
28,870
28,870
2700
2700
2700
2700
2700
2700
$16.33
$16.33
$17.18
$17.18
$17.17
$17.17
1743
1743
1791
1791
1841
1841
STF
One way
rides
Total
miles
Miles per
trip
Total paid
driver
hours
Total
volunteer
driver
hours
Cost per
trip
Number of
individuals
served
41,833
Program
Total
41,833
44,198
Program
Total
44,198
Staffing data: (please identify positions supported with STF
Discretionary funds and the amount of FTE per position)
Position
Driver
Scheduler
Specialist
FY17
(projected)
13 FTE
.5 FTE
1FTE
FY 18
(projected)
13 FTE
.5 FTE
1FTE
9
FY 19
(projected)
14 FTE
.5 FTE
1FTE
Form B2. Condensed Budget Information
ESTIMATED STF DISCRETIONARY Amount
% of
PROJECT COST
total
1.
STF
Project administration expense
2. Personal services (wages and
$237,424
10%
benefits)
3. Facility (rent, janitorial, utilities, etc.)
4. Professional services*
5. Insurance, services and supplies (IT,
travel, office expense,
telecommunications, etc.)
6. Other (list):
$12,216
1%
Item - Overhead
7. Item 8. Item 9. Operations expense
10. Item – Capital Purchase 13 Sedans,
$195,000
8%
yr one
11. Item – Insurance
$87,750
4%
12. Item – Personal Services (wages &
$1,751,735
74%
benefits)
13. Preventative Maintenance expense
14. Item – Preventative Maintenance 13
$92,300
4%
sedans
15. Item Grand Total:
$2,376,425
*For amounts over $5000, please provide an explanation of
services rendered. Limit 300 words.
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2. Personal Services –1 FTE IT Specialist
6. Overhead costs at agency average of $1.90 per hour
10. Purchase of 13 Sedans at $15,000 each
11. Vehicle Insurance at $2,250 per year
12. Personal Services – 13 Drivers
14. Preventative maintenance on 13 vehicles
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