• Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21)

• Call A Ride for Seniors (CARS) Website Goes Live

• Protecting Civil Rights and Addressing Environmental Impacts on Transit Riders and Communities

• Save the Date for AAATCI Meeting - October 18 

• Survey Shows  3 out of 4 Americans Want More Transportation Options 

 

 

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) Overview

President Obama recently signed into law P.L. 112-141, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) that will fund surface transportation programs over $105 billion for fiscal years (FY) 2013 and 2014. It is the first long-term highway authorization enacted since 2005 and represents a milestone for the U.S. economy. 

The act transforms the policy and programmatic framework for investments to help guide the growth and development of the transportation infrastructure by creating a streamlined, performance-based, and multimodal program that address

challenges such as improving safety; maintaining infrastructure condition; reducing traffic congestion; improving efficiency of the system and freight movement; protecting the environment; and reducing delays in project delivery.

Highway, transit, bike, and pedestrian programs and policies established in 1991 are improved upon:

• Highways  - principal arterials not previously included and the preservation of highways are incorporated 
• Efficient use of of Federal funds -  increased accountability and transparency; improving performance-based planning and programming.
• Job creation and economic growth - the authorization of $82 billion in Federal funding for FYs 2013 and 2014 will provide road, bridge, bicycling, and walking improvements and provisions that improve freight movement
• Supports safety improvements - continuing the successful Highway Safety Improvement Program, doubling funding for infrastructure safety, strengthening the linkage among modal safety programs, promoting reduction in highway fatalities by building on other aggressive safety efforts, such as highlighting the extreme dangers of distracted driving, that is using cellphones and texting while driving: http://www.distraction.gov/content/faces/index.html.
• Streamlines Federal highway programs through consolidation into a smaller number of broad core programs.  

For more information on MAP-21, please visit: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/summaryinfo.cfm.

Detailed information on individual providers, each of which will have autonomous pages that visitors and callers can link to within the collective website, will also be available. Maintaining autonomy is an important part of the CARS coalition, since it means continuing to enhance community partnerships that each nonprofit has nurtured for nearly 30 years of individual operations. 

The CARS website promotes local partnerships with the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) Department of Bexar Area Agency on Aging (BAAA), the Alamo Service Connection (ASC), a Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) providing referrals to seniors and people with disabilities, Presa Community Center, and the City of San Antonio's Supportive Services for the Elderly Project (SSEP). 

How to Form a Volunteer-Driver Organization

The group's recent effort to promote specialized transportation was highlighted at the recent Texas Conference on Aging. CARS directors formed a panel to present "Forming Call A Ride for Seniors (CARS) - a Coalition of Four Non-profits Providing Escorted Transportation in San Antonio, Texas."  The presentation marked the first public outing by CARS directors, a first of many to come.

The presentation provides the public with a first-person account on the formation of Southeast Community Outreach for Older People, formed in 1996 by Terry Milligan who ran it alone for nearly 13 years; Jefferson Outreach for Older People, which began in 1984; Northeast Senior Assistance (NESA), and Southwest Outreach for Older People (SWOOP), which began in 2011 with the assistance of BAAA. Details of each nonprofit's history working with BAAA is described, including the process of formalizing the CARS coalition. View Presentation.

For more information on CARS, to become a volunteer driver, or for suggestions to improve website, please call (210) 477-3275 or visit www.callarideforseniors.org.