State of the State: Transportation
Coordination Efforts in Nebraska

January 2020

About the National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM)
The National Center for Mobility Management is a national technical assistance center funded through acooperative agreement with the Federal Transit Administration, and operated through a consortium of threenational organizations—the American Public Transportation Association, the Community Transportation
Association of America, and Easterseals Inc. The mission of the Center is to promote customer-centered mobility
strategies that advance good health, economic vitality, self-sufficiency, and community.

1Overview
The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT), along with a broad range of partnering
agencies, initiated the Statewide Mobility Management Project in December 2015 with the goal ofimproving travel options for residents and visitors of the state. Through this statewide approach to addressing
mobility needs, alternatives that fill in service gaps were identified, and an implementation plan was initiated.

Figure 1 - The Vision for Mobility Management in NE. Source: Mobility Management Project Update – July 2019

To better address the diversity of the state, six regions were organized along county boundaries - Northwest orPanhandle, Southwest, North Central, South Central, Northeast and Southeast. In each region, a RegionalCoordination Committee (RCC) was established to help understand transit needs and overlaps. Each RCC is aforum for bringing transportation providers, human service agencies, and other stakeholders together on aregular basis for:• Sharing information and experiences that are likely to help in mutual learning and seeking advice• Creating opportunities for partnership and seeking coordination ideas that help in economically efficientpublic transportation in the region• Discussing and addressing mobility needs in the region• Serving as an advisory body to the NDOT about the local mobility issues in the region and the identified
coordination strategies
Complementing the RCC’s is a Statewide Coordination Committee (SCC). This group was formed to bring
together representatives from various agencies and stakeholder groups providing or supporting services that
include client mobility. The SCC has been organized as an advisory group to the NDOT and is not a policy-making
body. The committee, while made up of agencies with budgets that include transportation service, does nothave the ability to develop its own funding mechanisms, nor operate a transit system.

2Figure 2 - Coordination Organization Structure for NE's Mobility Management. Source: NDOT Mobility Manager Handbook

Nebraska Statewide Mobility Manager
The role of Nebraska’s Statewide Mobility Manager is to provide statewide services including travel training, trip
planning, marketing and coordination. The position also involves evaluating the need for mobility managers ineach of the 6 identified regions. The statewide mobility manager will facilitate coordination among the 6 regions
across the state.
In addition to the position, the mobility manager is tasked with the continued development of Nebraska’s
Mobility Management Vision. This includes establishing specific goals and objectives for consistent messages for
all levels of outreach, from state elected officials, transit agencies, and transit riders. Increase community
awareness of Mobility Management program statewide. Incorporate in statewide vision – Mobility as a Service
in Nebraska.
Purpose, Role and Responsibilities of Mobility Managers in RCC’s
The position is responsible to improve business and community support for the hosting transportation
organization. It will require development and distribution of information that explains how to utilize theavailable resources in meeting the diverse travel needs of the market it serves. The purpose of the position
includes:•••To create partnerships between multiple agencies and organizations, including taxi and other privatetransportation providers to provide more transportation options.
To promote a customer-driven, market-based approach to transportation that provides customers witha variety of transportation options through individualized trip planning.
To offer support for trip planning and travel training.
3•To help establish, improve and/or expand the mobility management activities by developing future
expansion of transit options across municipal boundaries• To serve as a liaison between the NDOT and the SCC or RCC to share ideas and recommendations forcoordination and other successful mobility management practices.
• To bring unrepresented transportation gaps and needs to the table for RCC and SCC discussions.
• To represent the jurisdictions without transit service and the regionally organized human service
agencies that might be affected by coordination strategies.
• To direct design, production and distribution of marketing materials directed at the public, employers,
employees, human service agencies and other entities.
• To make public presentations on the benefits/costs of mobility management for the community
According to the Mobility Manager Handbook, the mobility manager will be responsible for:•

Creating partnerships between multiple agencies and organizations, including taxi and other privatetransportation providers to provide more transportation options.
• Enhancing the rider’s transit experience by making information about transportation options easily
available in an accessible format (including transit services information on agency and Nebraska Transitwebsite).
• Seeking input from RCC and SCC members for prioritizing coordination strategies and pursue thepromising ones by providing regular coordination strategy updates to the coordination committees (viaemail or at the RCC/SCC meetings).
• Identifying, discussing with RCC/SCC, evaluating, and making recommendations on mobility issues.
• Providing advice to the NDOT on changes in public transportation policies, procedures or forms that arelikely to improve mobility management.
• Assisting the NDOT with any training or education tasks need to be completed at the regional or statelevel.
• Ensuring maximum feasible coordination of public transit services addressing the transit gaps andoverlaps.
• Providing appropriate technical assistance to the transportation providers to help in interagency
coordination as well as efficient transit operations.
• Ensuring that the coordination strategies are complying with the federal regulations for funding
program requirements.
• Providing marketing and advertising assistance to transit agencies including travel training to target
populations in their service area.
• Facilitating communication between the transit providers, the NDOT, and the RCC/SCC.
• Providing periodic updates on mobility management for the Nebraska Transit website(www.nebraskatransit.com)• Serving as a resource to other mobility managers for sharing experiences, tools, and expertise toenhance mobility management in the state.
• Staying in touch with other mobility managers (via email/phone correspondence) for regular mobility
management updates in-between consecutive RCC/SCC meetings. Email listserv or customized email
recipient list can be prepared for easy information dissemination.
• Discussing potential updates to the RCC, SCC and Mobility Manager handbook with the NDOT,
coordination committees and other mobility managers at the RCC and/or SCC meetings.
Geographic Scale: Statewide coverage, broken down into Mobility Management Regions (see below)

4Lead Agency: Nebraska Department of Transportation, under “GoNEWhere” Mobility Management Initiative
Establishing Authority: Nebraska Department of Transportation
Funding Sources: Section 5311, not 5310 because there are 60 5311 transit agencies who cover the rural areas
and are open to the public. 5310 agencies in Nebraska are siloed and have trouble coordinating with one
another.
Current status of network (July 2019): The Nebraska Department of Transportation launched Phase 3 of theMobility Management Project in July 2019. The Mobility Management initial phases began over 10 years ago.
Over the next three years, strategies will be implemented across the state. Leading and assisting many of theprojects is Bill Bivin, Nebraska’s first Statewide Mobility Manager. Bill has worked extensively withtransportation providers across the state, along with the NDOT Transit Division staff. His role is to understandtransportation needs and challenges across the state and provide a perspective for the upcoming mobility
management projects.
The project is focused on improving mobility in rural areas addressing the needs of the elderly, disabled and lowincome population which forms most of Nebraska’s rural population. Currently, there are 13 counties in thestate without any public transportation service and another 13 counties without rural area service. Through thisstatewide approach to addressing mobility needs, it is anticipated that alternatives that fill in service gaps can beidentified and implemented.
Phase 3 – Stage 1 of the Mobility Management projects are underway. The goals are as follows:•To ensure successful outcomes for each of the 7 priority NDOT projects:
oGrand Island/Kearney/Hastings Intercity Bus StudyoLincoln/Omaha Intercity Feasibility StudyoNorfolk Flexroute Feasibility StudyoNortheast Region Mobility Management/Coordination

oStatewide Mobility Management Public Relations
5•oStatewide Mobility ManageroTechnology Project

To engage key community stakeholders for realistic sustainable projects/services.

Current hurdles:
Resources:
For this information, NCMM corroborated with the following stakeholders in Nebraska:•One state-level stakeholder at Nebraska Dept of Transportationo William Bivin, Statewide Mobility Manager
Web links
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Nebraska Transit – Mobility Management Page
Nebraska Statewide Coordination Committee HandbookNebraska Regional Coordination Committee Handbook
Nebraska Mobility Manager Handbook
Nebraska Statewide Coordinated Plan
Nebraska Mobility Management Active Projects

The National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM; www.nationalcenterformobilitymanagement.org) is a national technical assistance center created to facilitatecommunities in adopting mobility management strategies. The NCMM is funded through a cooperative agreement with the Federal Transit Administration, and is operated
through a consortium of three national organizations – the American Public Transportation Association, the Community Transportation Association of America, and Easterseals.
Content in this document is disseminated by NCMM in the interest of information exchange. Neither the NCMM nor the U.S. DOT, FTA assumes liability for its contents or use.

6