Enhance and expand rural transit opportunities.

Rising demand in rural areas is creating an increasing need for more transit service in rural America.

• In 2008, almost one out of eight people aged 65 and older lived in rural areas. This elderly population exceeds 9.6 million people.

• Congress has nearly doubling the size of the rural transit program from $1.18 billion to $2.18 billion between 2004 and 2009.

• Nearly 57,000 vans and buses provide service to rural populations, including 1,700 over-the-road buses providing rural Intercity service.

Rural Transit Demand on the Rise

Two counties illustrate the growth in ridership demand taking place:

In rural Grant County, New Mexico, the rural transit system handled 19,000 passengers in 2001. In 2008, it carried 38,000 and is on track to serve more than 50,000 riders this year.

Corre Caminos Transit, which operates the system throughout Grant County, serves a large elderly and disabled population that would have no other means of travel to doctor’s appointments, the grocery store, or other essential errands without the buses provided by the transit system.

Similarly, the state of Nebraska has a growing rural population and an increasingly large number of people 65 years or older, outpacing national trends. The challenge for rural transit is to be able to provide the transportation needed to allow elderly residents to remain in their homes. Without these services, many older residents would have to move, becoming residents of assisted living facilities and nursing homes. To solve this problem, one of the programs implemented by the Nebraska Department of Transportation is a “twenty-four-seven” rural transit service that enables individuals to get to early-morning dialysis and other necessary medical treatments.

For more information and for detailed examples by state of needed capacity on both the National Highway System and the Interstates, go to http://ExpandingCapacity.transportation.org.

More information on AASHTO’s authorization programs can be found at http://AreWeThereYet. transportation.org.