Mobility Services for All Americans (MSAA)
What It Is
MSAA is a U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems research initiative. Currently human service transportation provisions are tied to specific programs, and are available only to specific population groups. This has created a complex, duplicative and inefficient web of transportation services. The MSAA initiative aims to bring all users, service providers and funding institutions together in a coordinated effort, and introduce technological solutions to simplify access and improve cost-effectiveness of human service transportation. The goal of this initiative is to establish scalable and replicable models of ITS-enhanced human service transportation systems that provide efficient, accessible, and quality transportation services to all, by integrating the transportation disadvantaged community and the general public.
The MSAA initiative enables the United We Ride (UWR) national campaign to implement the Executive Order on Human Service Transportation Coordination (#13330) issued by President Bush in February 2004. The Executive Order requires all relevant federal agencies to plan for a coordinated transportation system.
Current Status
It was recommended in the MSAA Foundation Research report and in the 2005 UWR Report to the President that MSAA and UWR initiatives conduct a joint demonstration to test the technical and institutional feasibility of an enhanced and coordinated human service transportation system. The demonstration adopts a two-phased approach: system planning and design (Phase 1) and system deployment (Phase 2). Through an open competitive Request for Proposals (RFP), the USDOT announced in January 2007 the selection of eight locations as the Phase 1 sites. The eight sites are Aiken, SC; Atlanta, GA; Camden County, NJ; Fitchburg, MA; Kent, OH; Louisville, KY; Orlando, FL; and Paducah, KY. The Phase 1 demonstration is scheduled for completion, with eight detailed system designs, by summer 2008.
In the system deployment phase (i.e., Phase 2), MSAA intends to select at least two sites from Phase 1 to implement scalable and replicable models of coordinated human service transportation systems utilizing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies.
Concurrent with the demonstration, the USDOT is leading an effort, with active support from a stakeholder working group, to develop a comprehensive stakeholders’ outreach and knowledge transfer plan. The outreach plan will serve as an integral part of the MSAA initiative and guide USDOT in addressing priority outreach and knowledge needs.
FHWA-JPO-08-020 ITS EDL 14090
For more information go to: www.its.dot.gov/msaa.
Updated
October 9, 2008 4:11 PM
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