Contact Information
Local Alliances Manager
Local Coordinator – Cindy Finley

Call!
Lubbock 806 777 5167
Office 512 451 2634
Fax 512 451 3578

E-mail!
Cindy@JustTransportation.Org

Location/Mail
1000 Brazos St., Suite 201
Austin, TX 78701

Activities
If you are a resident of San Antonio or Bexar/Comal/Guadupe Counties and want to improve your mobility choices, contact us!
The goal organize a viable, self-sustaining, citizen advocate group that can take an active role in the decision-making process.

We want to get people working together for improvements and to elevate the conversation beyond confrontation.

The San Antonio Area Just Transportation Alliance (SAJTA) is currently recruiting citizen advocates and a steering committee for orientation and training.

Everyone is a transportation expert. It‘s knowing how to "achieve the changes and improvements" needed that does not come naturally for most people. We will work with you to develop the skills needed to become a change agent in your community.

Now, it is your turn to create the future. If you nurture it and help it to grow, it will be a success.

News

The South Plains Transportation Alliance Debuts!
And, "Oh Boy!" What a Debut It Has Been! Under federal transportation regulations, transit agencies that serve populations of less than 200,000 are allowed to use federal funds to support the operations of their systems—for example, to underwrite the cost of providing bus or paratransit services. While Lubbock’s public transportation provider, CitiBus, had long used these resources to support and enhance services that it could not otherwise provide, the 2000 US Census in which the population of the Lubbock-Wollforth metropolitan area reached 202,000 jeopardized the traditional use of these funds.

Ironically while CitiBus would continue receiving federal funds as a small urban system, the Census figures meant that CitiBus would face a $700,000 shortfall in operational funding during FY2004. To reserve and ration what leftover federal funds CitiBus could still use flexibly, CitiBus not only severely cut staff, but proposed to cut two routes completely, consolidate two others, and completely suspend all Saturday fixed-route and paratransit services.

It was in this rather contentious context that the South Plains Transportation Alliance debuted! Comprised of many of its regular fixed-route and paratransit users, Alliance members quickly organized more than 100 citizens to testify to the City Council in opposition to CitiBus’ plans in early July. Although not wholly convinced that their efforts would prove successful, the members were thrilled when the City Council not only rejected the proposal, but also directed CitiBus to retain all services and to use the next year (FY 2004) to identify other revenues to respond to the shortfall. What a way to start!

Recognizing that while they might have won the battle, they were likely to lose the war without a proactive response to CitiBus’ continuing financial straits, Texas Citizen Fund and the South Plains Transportation Alliance jointly applied for funding from the Community Transportation Association of America-Easter Seals Project Action to assess the status of transportation in the Lubbock community, to map the gaps in service, and to develop a Community-Wide Priority Plan to respond to these challenges. Critically, the Easter Seals-Community Transportation Association of America evaluators identified the broad base of community support-- as indicated by the more than twenty letters of support-- and the leadership and control that persons with disabilities would assume in the operation of the project as key elements that led to its funding.

While these funds will, no doubt, assist in developing a long-term strategy for CitiBus’ financial help, the South Plains Just Transportation Alliance also applied for and were awarded a grant by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) to educate elected federal officials about the difficulty of CitiBus’ finances. Although the US Congress has waived the enforcement of the federal funding regulation for one year since 2001 for transit systems affected, this year-by-year approach makes planning and investment difficult for transit agencies and communities.

Ensuring that elected officials officials understand that while these year-to-year extensions have been extremely helpful, specifying a time-specific planning window (optimally through 2009) in the upcoming reauthorization of the nation’s transportation legislation would provide certainty and predictability so agencies, such as Lubbock’s CitiBus, could focus on identifying long-term solutions to these financial and operational issues without being distracted by planning for the contingencies if Congress does not grant a one-year extension.
For more information on the South Plains Transportation Alliance, contact the Alliance’s Special Projects Director Cindy Finley at 806 777 5167 or at Cindy@JustTransportation.Org