Report says 40 percent of Americans who depend on public transportation live in rural areas

Nearly 40 percent of Americans who depend on public transit, including senior citizens, the disabled and those with low incomes, live in rural areas, which typically lack public transit, according to report from Reconnecting America, a nonprofit group that promotes public transit. The reports says rural transit agencies operate much differently than urban transit providers. As many as 86 percent of providers offer demand-response service, which operate more like taxi services than big-city buses. Despite the challenges, investment in rural transit is improving, the report finds, and says communities that prioritize services are seeing economic results.

Meanwhile, Angie Schmitt writes on DC.Streetsblog.org about an innovative funding program in rural Allendale, S.C., where the University Transportation Center, Sisters of Charity, Allendale County, Allendale Alive (a non-profit rural development organization), the South Carolina Department of Transportation and the Lower Savannah Council of Governments chipped in to provide adequate money and services where needed.