Survey Hopes To Improve County’s Transportation System

By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – Living Well in Wabash County sponsored a Wabash County Transportation Project luncheon for potential project steering committee members on Wednesday in the Wabash Chamber of Commerce meeting room. The purpose of the luncheon was to discuss community leadership’s interest in participating in a grant Living Well in Wabash County received from the National Rural Transportation Assistance Program (RTAP) which will study the transportation needs of county residents and, hopefully, provide more access to a soon-to-be improved transit system.

There will be three surveys disseminated in the community as to collect data points so as to discover the unmet transportation needs of county residents. The three separate surveys will target current transit riders, employers and community members as a whole. County residents are asked to fill out the surveys which can be found at livingwellinwabashcounty.org or on yournewslocal.com. While the entire study will not be completed for eight months, the surveys will only be available for residents to take for two weeks starting today. While Living Well is encouraging members of the public to take the surveys online, hard copies will be available at the Winchester Senior Center. Current transit riders will also receive a hard copy.

There were approximately 40 potential project steering committee members at Wednesday’s luncheon, representing local community colleges, nursing homes, political leadership from both Wabash and North Manchester, special needs groups and the media. Erika Miller, Transportation Manger for Living Well, told MiBash News that they are hoping 20 individuals will join the steering committee, made up of both community leaders and average citizens. Rob Tassinari, Senior Technical Director of the National RTAP, on the 40 individuals who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

While the study is being funded by RTAP, Ohio-based RLS and Associates will be compiling the all numbers and crunching the data. Julie Schafer, Consultant for RLS, spoke and the luncheon, describing the possible outcomes of the study and asking for input from the potential steering committee members in the room. Schafer on the length of the study and its potential benefits.