2021

Tribal transit programs can play a critical role in tribal communities by providing access to essential services, and by increasing access for those with limited mobility such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and youth. These services are even more important in rural areas where long distances, compounded by road safety conditions, contribute to low accessibility to essential services needed by tribal communities. Previous research has outlined guidance for developing, operating, and sustaining tribal transit programs. Common traits of successful, sustainable tribal transit programs that were identified included planning, local leadership, cooperation, and coordination, trained key staff, and diversified funding (Stoddard III et al., 2012).

In order to assess if these traits have changed over time or if new traits have emerged since the initial research, a series of focus groups and interviews were conducted, which were comprised of tribal transit experts who have worked within the study area of the Small Urban, Rural and Tribal Center on Mobility (SURTCOM) at Eastern Washington University (EWU). The SURTCOM study area consists of 71 federally recognized tribes across nine western States. Using qualitative coding, a review of the information collected from this focus group identified several recurring themes that contribute to the longevity and efficacy of tribal transit programs. These themes can inform tribal transit providers about the best practices for developing effective transit programs to meet their community’s needs and to maintain these programs well into the future.

Alaska has hundreds of communities that are not "on the highway system." 　Some of these are small cities and villages, sometimes called "rural hubs." Typically these have an asphalt runway and some local highways. However, in these hubs and all the smaller communities, the road system is limited, and automobiles and small trucks share the few available roads with ATVs and snowmachines. In the winter, the rivers are used by snow machines and often ATVs and sometimes highway vehicles. The hubs generally have Alaska State Troopers or local police while the smaller villages and communities have Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs) or no formal law enforcement presence. Thus in rural areas both the nature of crashes and their reporting are likely to vary from the standard. Common areas and discrepancies between crash reporting injury/fatality reporting systems were analyzed for select Alaskan communities and villages using standard crash reporting system used by the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) and　 non-standard data through the Alaska Trauma Registry, police reports, and local newspapers and media where available.