National Center for Mobility Management

Effective Coordination Strategies:
Mobility Ohio
March 2023

The National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM; nc4mm.org) is a national
technical assistance center created to facilitate communities in adopting mobility
management strategies. NCMM is funded through a cooperative agreement with
the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and is operated through a consortium of
three national organizations — the American Public Transportation Association, theCommunity Transportation Association of America, and Easterseals, Inc.
This information brief was prepared by NCMM staff, and is disseminated in the interestof information exchange. Neither the NCMM nor the FTA assumes liability for its content
or use. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the authors
and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of thefederal government.
Comments or questions about this document can be addressed to info@nc4mm.org or
866-846-6400.

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Mobility Ohio is an Ohio Department of Transportation(ODOT)-led collaboration between seven Ohio stateagencies that fund community and human service
transportation (HST). In Ohio, HST is currently provided in a
fragmented and inefficient manner. Several state agencies
invest at least $500 million annually to transport their clientsand customers to jobs, medical care and other destinations.
These journeys make it possible for their clients to leadmeaningful, productive lives. However, each agency has
developed its own programs, policies, and procedures fortransportation independently from other agencies. At thesame time, people often don’t have a way to get to jobs, thegrocery, and other destinations.
Mobility Ohio is consolidating these policies and breaking
down silos to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
HST. The desired outcome is to provide more trips to more
people, more conveniently, for the same dollars alreadybeing spent today. A group of ongoing pilot initiatives
represents the culmination of more than seven years ofcollaboration between ODOT and multiple state-level
human service agencies on reforming HST for improved
safety, quality, and efficiency through coordination.
Seven participating agencies form the Mobility Ohio
Committee, including ODOT; the Departments of Aging,
Developmental Disabilities, Health, Job and Family
Services, and Medicaid; and Opportunities for Ohioans with
Disabilities.

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

In discussions ofMobility Ohio, twowords are frequently
used: coordination andcollaboration. In thisdocument, coordinationrefers to the cooperation of
two or more organizations
at the local level to expand
transportation through joint
action. Put another way,
coordination is cooperatingin the delivery oftransportation services. We
use the term collaboration
to refer to the inter-agency
efforts undertaken at thestate level to change policies
and provide resources sothat local stakeholders cancoordinate transportation
services.

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Background
Transportation coordination was occurring in Ohio wellbefore the federal government’s Executive Order 13330
on Human Services Transportation Coordination or theadvent of Medicaid-funded non-emergency medicaltransportation (NEMT). At least as far back as the 1980s,
Ohio’s local transportation providers and human service
agencies frequently coordinated their activities to meet themobility needs of individuals. In 1991, ODOT developed thefirst edition of the Handbook for Coordinating Transportation
Services as a guide for coordination at the local level. Thismanual was created in the context of government budget
deficits, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act,and the new requirement for Commercial Driver’s Licenses
for operators of vehicles seating more than 16 people. Dueto these and other developments, transportation program
personnel realized that they had to start doing more withless.
At that time, ODOT adopted a policy to coordinate federal
and state transit funding and provide the most efficientand effective services possible while avoiding duplicationof programs and services. The policy said that ODOT
“will cooperate with other federal and state agencies toaccomplish this coordination.” The handbook was updated
twice, in 1993 and 1997. It provided guidance and tools
for coordination that included, for example, templates forvehicle- and trip-sharing arrangements, bulk purchasing
approaches, a method for calculating unit rates based onproviders’ fully allocated costs, and a framework for the
consolidation of providers.
In 1996, the Ohio Statewide Transportation Task Forcewas established to provide leadership at the state levelto facilitate the coordination of transportation resourcesat the state and local levels. Eight agencies weremembers — many of the same agencies involved in
Mobility Ohio today. However, during this period, growth inhuman service transportation (e.g., senior transportation,
medical transportation) meant that state agencies weredeveloping their own policies and funding programs fortheir local affiliates. Policies for transportation under various
departments were documented in different sections of Ohio

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code. This had the effect of creating silos that prevented
local entities from coordinating. For example, senior centers,
supported with Ohio Department of Aging transportation
funds, had difficulty coordinating with providers of day
services for people with disabilities, which used Ohio
Department of Development Disabilities funds, because thetwo programs had different rules.
Changes in ODOT leadership in the early 2000s eventually
led to the dormancy of the statewide task force. The
state agencies did not make any meaningful progress on
addressing the problem of inconsistent rules. Coordination
efforts at the local level continued, but were stymied due
to federal legislation, passed in 2005 and adopted in rulein 2008, which financially incentivized state Medicaid
department to rely on transportation brokerages andmanaged care organizations (MCOs) to administer NEMT. Up
to that point, the state Medicaid department had contracted
for NEMT directly with county Departments of Job andFamily Services.

MOBILITY OHIO GOAL:
INCREASE MOBILITY FORPERSONS WITH DISABILITIES,PERSONS OF LOW INCOME,
CHILDREN, OLDER ADULTS
AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

After 2008, some Ohio county-administered NEMT services
shifted away from counties to MCOs and their contracted
brokerages. In many of these counties, public transit
systems had charged county Medicaid departments theirfully allocated costs for NEMT trips. Under the new model,
brokerages were unwilling to pay the fully allocated costs ofpublic transit trips. As a result, transit systems were forced
to use public transit funding to subsidize NEMT services,while the drop in NEMT reimbursement from the brokerages
meant the systems lost critical local revenue to match
their FTA grants. In addition, the brokerages contractedwith many small, independent providers who charged
rates lower than those proposed by public transit agencies.
Even with the extra pool of independent providers, thestandard of service for Medicaid beneficiaries was affected
at times due to inadequate capacity to meet growing
demand as well as the inconsistencies in reliability from theindependent providers. These problems continue today.

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Ohio Mobility
Transformation
In 2011, the Ohio Office of Health Transformation wasestablished to reform Medicaid and improve Ohioans’ healthoutcomes. As part of this effort, in 2015, with a focus onaddressing growing Medicaid transportation costs and highadministrative burden, the Ohio Governor’s office unveiled
the Governance Structure for Mobility Transformation
initiative. The Office of Health Transformation led the effort
by forming the Mobility Transformation Committee,
comprised of directors of Ohio’s state health and humanservice agencies as well as a Working Group. The Working
Group was composed of broad-minded individuals in highlevel agency positions with direct links to client services.
These two groups became responsible for the projectdecisions and work products.
Apprised of the Governor’s Mobility Transformation
initiative, ODOT wanted to ensure that transit was at thetable to advocate for its local systems. ODOT especiallyadvocated for the preservation of local matching funds
for FTA grants derived from providing NEMT trips. The
ODOT Office of Transit Program Administrator contacted
the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) to request an
appointment to the Mobility Transformation Committee, andthe Committee quickly determined that ODOT staff were
the state’s transportation experts. ODOT was also invited
to participate in the Working Group. The Working Groupbegan meeting bi-weekly to determine viable solutions forthe barriers to transportation affecting their clients. ODOT,
realizing the importance of this effort, agreed to dedicate
resources and staff to the effort.
In 2016, ODM hired a consultant to determine the best
path forward for NEMT in response to a $4 million budget
deficit. The consultant recommended that, to save moneyon NEMT services, Ohio enter into a contract with a single
entity who would then broker all NEMT trips (including thosestill managed by counties) for a predetermined annual fee.
Because Ohio public transit agencies were integrated as
major service providers for county NEMT, ODOT recognized
the negative impact this brokerage could have on public
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National Center for Mobility Managementtransportation, based on the experience of other states that
had undergone the transition to a statewide brokerage.
ODOT educated the Working Group on how rural public
transportation operated and its role in NEMT, and throughdiscussion, was able to convince ODM to issue a Request
for Information (RFI) to determine the possible negative
impacts of moving to a statewide brokerage. Both ODOTand the Ohio Public Transit Association provided substantive
responses to the RFI that made the case for considering
approaches other than a statewide brokerage, anddocumented other states’ negative experiences with forprofit brokerage models. In response, ODM paused its plansto adopt a statewide NEMT brokerage, allowing the Mobility
Transformation Committee and Working Group to propose
alternative solutions.
Following the statewide brokerage discussions, theCommittee and Working Group continued to meet ona regular basis through 2018. With the timing ripe forchange, and the involvement of motivated and passionate
individuals who were determined to find solutions, theinitiative began to produce tangible plans for multiple
initiatives.
Mobility Ohio has sought to address four issues, theresolution of which could help pave the way toward morecoordination: 1) transportation standards across agencies,2) regional boundaries that respond to recognized travel
patterns, 3) rate-setting based on fully allocated costs, and4) creating regional trip coordination centers.

Addressing Diverse
Transportation Standards
Across Agencies
The partners agreed that the next priority was to find asolution to the lack of standardization among transportation
program requirements among state-funded programs. For
any plans to improve cross-sector coordination to work, thisissue had to be resolved. The Working Group immediatelybegan to realigning the service requirements to develop
one set of transportation standards for all of the state health

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and human service agencies transportation programs, aswell as rural public transit.
The Working Group recognized that a new HST structure
must be accepted not only by the state agencies, but by
clients, providers, and agencies at the local level. While
work was underway developing universal HST standards,
ODOT and its consultants conducted studies to gauge theimpact of potential changes in requirements on providers
and agencies. The studies included an industry analysis andan agency study. The results of the industry analysis study
allowed the Mobility Transformation Committee to reachconsensus on key areas for alignment that would allow for
better coordination, reduced regulatory red tape, and moreaccess to mobility. The studies also revealed that moststate agency partners agreed that an aligned approach
to transportation is best implemented through enacting
a uniform
set of Ohio
Administrative
14 STATE AGENCIESDIFFERING POLICIESCode rules thatwould apply
EACH AGENCY WORKS DIRECTLY
to all HSTWITH MULTIPLE PROVIDERS
sponsoring
HUNDREDS OF PROVIDERS
agencies.
INCONSISTENT POLICIESWith thestudy resultsin hand, theWorking Groupdeveloped and
DUPLICATED SERVICE FOR SOME RIDERS;
agreed upon
LIMITED OR NO SERVICE FOR OTHERS.
ten universal
HST standards.
The Mobility Transformation Committee approved thesestandards in 2018. The standards cover the following areas:

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

ONE AGENCYEFFICIENT COORDINATIONHUNDREDS OF PROVIDERS
STANDARDIZED POLICIESCONSISTENT SERVICE FOR ALL RIDERS

Vehicle types and equipment
Driver criminal history and motor vehicle record
Drug and alcohol testing
Driver medical qualification
Driver training
Vehicle maintenance and inspections
Provider insurance

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The Right Regions
In 2017, ODOT created boundaries for Human Services
Transportation Coordination (HSTC) regions based on
the analysis of county-to-county travel movement,
demographic conditions, employment-related travel,and economic conditions in each county. To diminish
disruptions in current service provision and proactively
approach service consistency, ODOT also comparedexisting agency boundaries for Area Agency on Aging(AAA) regions, Medicaid Managed Care Organization(MCO) regions, Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
boundaries, and Rural Transportation Planning Organization(RTPO) boundaries. Based on the analysis of all factors,
it was determined that 10 HSTC regions would mostcompletely meet the goals for the project. Analysis oftravel flow within and between the established regionalboundaries was applied to verify that the ten HSTC regionalboundaries would meet the established goals. The HSTC
regions capture 90 to 99 percent of the intra-regional

4
10a

10c

Pilot Region

10b

The Mobility Ohio pilot is proposedin these counties:

3
5

Tuscarawas
Coshocton

9
Guernsey

2

Muskingum

6

8

1
7

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

Coshocton
Guernsey
Muskingum
Tuscarawas
A subset of Ohio Human Service
Transportation Coordination (HSTC)
Region 9, these four counties havetheir own maze of programs.

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traffic flow. Similarly, the majority of journey-to-work travel
flow between counties occurs within the proposed HSTC
regional boundaries. In addition to travel flow comparisons,the regional boundaries are also largely consistent with
AAA and MCO regional boundaries, which will support
service consistency for many human service agency andpublic transportation system clients. The designation ofcommon regional boundaries with the AAAs and MCOs
should result in an easy merge of information and resources.
Finally, each HSTC region contains at least one MPO and/or RTPO. Regional intergovernmental relationships areoften established and fostered through these entities. This
structure will help to facilitate communication and resource
sharing among organizations within each region.

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

New Phase — New Name
In 2019, the transitionin Ohio’s governorshipprompted a renaming of
the Mobility Transformation
effort to Mobility Ohio. Thischange also demarcateda shift from planning to
implementation. At this time,
the Mobility Transformation
Committee and Working
Group consolidated into
what is now called the
Mobility Ohio Committee.
This Committee focuseson the implementation of
key Mobility Ohio elements,
including a pilot Regional
Transportation Resource
Center in southeast Ohio,
as described later this in
document. The Mobility
Ohio Committee members
include ODOT, Ohio
Department of Aging,
Ohio Department ofDevelopmental Disabilities,
Ohio Department of Health,Ohio Department of Job
and Family Services, Ohio
Department of Medicaid,
and Opportunities for
Ohioans with Disabilities.

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Rate-Setting Based on Fully
Allocated Costs
A common barrier standing in the way of effective sharingof transportation resources is accurate cost allocation.
Hence, establishing a consistent method for setting
transportation rates was a high-priority. ODOT and its
consultants developed an Excel spreadsheet in 2019 toallow all providers (public, non-profit and for-profit) to enter
expense data and easily perform calculations to generate
pricing by unit of service (service hour, service mile, oneway passenger trip, or passenger-mile). This allows costs
to be billed or allocated appropriately to the transportation
user, and facilitates the more efficient use of transportation
resources.
A small group of providers tested the rate-setting tool in2020 to determine the effects of charging human service
agencies based on their fully allocated costs. The tests
demonstrated that cross-subsidization was occurring; forexample, some transportation providers were receiving
reimbursement from human service agencies at rates below
their fully allocated cost and using public transit funding to
make up the difference. By using rates generated throughthe rate-setting tool, providers will seek reimbursementfrom the human service agency funding programs basedon the true costs of each trip. This will eliminate the use of
public transit funding to subsidize human service agency
trips. The rate-setting tool will be used during the Mobility
Ohio pilot project, described in the next section.

National RTAP offers a similar
cost allocation calculator
tool. For more information,
visit nationalrtap.org/
Technology-Tools/CostAllocation-Calculator. Learn
more about developing afully allocated cost modelthrough the National Center
for Mobility Management’s
on-line course, Cost
Allocation Techniques forCommunity Transportation.

INPUTOUTPUT

DIRECT COSTSINDIRECT COSTSCOST PER HOUR
COST PER MILECOST PER TRIP

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The Regional
Transportation
Resource CenterWith ongoing input from the Mobility Ohio
Committee, ODOT plans to pilot a Regional
Transportation Resource Center (RTRC) ina southeast Ohio HSTC region. The RTRC
will be a one-stop hub where clients andcustomers can conveniently schedule
trips by phone or online for multiple trip
purposes. Following a successful pilot,
ODOT and its partner agencies will apply
lessons learned and roll out the newcoordinated transportation model statewide.
As the pilot region’s administrator forcommunity transportation, the RTRC will
broker trips to qualified for-profit, nonprofit and public transportation providers
and ensure compliance with the adopted
safety and quality standards that meet or
exceed the requirements of the individual
funder agencies and federal transportation
regulations. The RTRC will receive
transportation funding from Ohio’s humanservice agencies and pay providers using
rates based on their fully allocated costs.
The RTRC will also house regional mobility
management positions. Beyond thelogistics and at the core of Mobility Ohiolies the relational aspect of mobility, whichis advanced by mobility managers. These
staff, motivated by a focus and commitment

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

to finding solutions, will engage in personcentered problem solving to address
RTRC clients’ and customers’ mobility
issues. Mobility managers will educate
and train individuals on how the RTRC
and transportation providers operate, andhow their needs can best be met. They will
provide travel training, manage a portal
for customer questions, promote RTRC
services, identify unmet needs, and solicit
new providers.

DRIVESThe DRIVES database is being developed
by ODOT and the Ohio Department of
Education (ODE) in 2023 to provide the RTRC
with technology to register transportation
drivers, providers, and vehicles; maintain
up-to-date records on their criminal history
and motor vehicle records; and track thestatus of their compliance with safety
and quality requirements in real time.
The DRIVES database will feed real-time
information to the RTRC scheduling anddispatching system so that customers are
assured of receiving safe, compliant, highquality transportation at all times. The ODE
and ODOT stakeholder and IT teams are
partnering to build this innovative dualagency application solution to replace
the 18-year-old ODE School Foundation
Payment System (SFPS), expanding it
to include public and human service
transportation providers in addition toschool districts.

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Scheduling andDispatching Software
In 2023, ODOT is procuring trip coordination
scheduling and dispatching software thatwill be implemented by the RTRC. Eligible
clients and customers, their caregivers, orsponsoring human service agencies will
request trips from the RTRC. Using thesoftware, the RTRC will assign each trip
to a transportation provider. Open-door
providers will accept any client referredto them through one or more funding
programs; closed-door providers will onlytransport their own clients. The system
will accommodate providers that are both
open-door and closed-door, including thosethat may have specific vehicles or vehiclehours in each category. The software
will allow the RTRC to schedule rides on
dedicated vehicles or vehicle-hours, and to
broker trips to providers with non-dedicatedassets.
The software will provide an interface/portal
for five groups of software users: the RTRC;
providers; facilities (e.g., hospital, doctor’s

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

office); funding agencies; and clients andcustomers. Each interface will allow theexchange of data in order to describe anduse specific parameters for trip booking,bidding, scheduling, matching andassignment, and invoicing and reporting.
The software will also:

•

•
•
•

•

Provide real-time and optimized trip
scheduling based on trip requests,
trip bidding and acceptance, andother parameters such as vehicle
and driver characteristics;
Provide a mechanism for providers tobill or invoice the RTRC;
Provide a mechanism for funding
agencies to enter or update client
eligibility;
Provide on-board driver terminals(e.g., tablets) for communicationof manifests, messaging between
drivers and dispatchers, and trip
monitoring; andMatch each trip with the appropriate
category of provider, driver, andvehicle depending on the needs ofthe client, using the Mobility Ohio
safety and quality standards.

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What Are the Ingredients to
Success in Cross-Agency
Collaboration?
Thoughtful approaches to inter-agency
collaboration were central to thedevelopment of each piece of the Mobility
Ohio initiative. ODOT’s experience includes
many lessons learned that can be appliedby other State DOTs in their efforts to foster
the coordination of public and humanservice transportation at the local level.

A top-down
approach isnovel—andworks
The difference in the success of the current
Mobility Transformation initiative and pastefforts was that ODOT finally received
commitment and understanding fromhighest-level leadership at Ohio’s humanservice agencies that a collaborative
approach was necessary to addressinconsistent transportation standards andimprove safety, quality, and availability of
HST. The Governor issued a directive to thestate’s human service agencies to pursue
change. A new crop of forward-thinking,open-minded administrators at theseagencies were more open and receptive
to innovation than previous personnel.
Actual decision makers came to the table
and attended meetings consistently, andkept their Cabinet-level Directors informed,

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

obtaining their input when needed. Thisset the stage for a years-long effort willcontinue for the foreseeable future, as
ODOT implements the pilot RTRC (slated for2024), then rolls out the model statewide.
The partner agencies are committed
for the long haul because their highestlevel leaders recognized the benefit andcommitted resources early in the process.

Run productive
meetings thatparticipants
value
Mobility Transformation was a cross-agency
effort to align transportation policies. For
eighteen months, the group held bi-weekly
meetings to identify policy differences anddetermine workable solutions every agency
could accept. The focus was on improved
safety and quality of service, a goal all could
get behind. ODOT’s investment of resources
and staff time in this process reduced
the burden on the other state agencies,
allowing them to focus on digesting theinformation and negotiating standards thatwould work for everyone.
At the beginning of Mobility Transformation,
the participating state agencies started
with creating tangible deliverables, such

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as proposals for revised transportation
safety and quality standards that would beconsistent across human service agencies.
The inter-agency meetings were focusedon producing deliverables, and participantsvalued the meetings because they were
productive. ODOT and its consultants
continually returned to the human service
agencies to illustrate that progress. It wasand continues to be important to show
human service agencies how Mobility Ohio
makes things easy for them, and how theefforts will ultimately reduce administrative
burden while improving the quality ofservice.

See things fromyour partners’
points of view
ODOT is focused on the general missionof public transit while other agencies havedifferent goals. For example, ODM’s aim is
to provide healthcare coverage for lowincome Ohioans, whereas the Departmentsof Aging, Developmental Disabilities,
Health, Job and Family Services are mostconcerned with what is important to theirconstituencies. While all are trying to
improve quality of life for Ohioans, their
immediate objectives are very different.
During Mobility Transformation, ODOT
made a distinct effort to understand andfocus on what was important to the statehuman service agencies when it cameto their transportation programs. One
common struggle among the agencies
was the staff time and effort it took toadminister transportation. ODOT had
success in engaging the Ohio Departmentof Medicaid (ODM) because they attempted
to recognize what concerns drove theirdecision making, which were primarily to
reduce costs and simplify administration.
ODOT’s chief concerns are very different.
ODOT’s immediate objective was topreserve local match revenue for ruraland small transit agencies, which was
threatened when ODM began to movetoward shifting some NEMT from county
Departments of Job and Family Services tomanaged care organizations (MCOs), which
relied on for-profit transportation brokeragecompanies to manage transportation.
When the effort transitioned from Mobility
Transformation to Mobility Ohio under
the new administration, ODOT assumed

top down
potential gap in mutual understanding

bottom up
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leadership of the effort, with the transit
administrator chairing the meetings. For
the first year or two of the effort, theagencies had met at ODM’s offices.
After that transition, ODM reduced
their level of engagement, and theeffort lost some of the momentum it
had toward aligning policies and practices
between ODOT and ODM.
While ODM was most concerned about
costs and administration, other agencies
voiced their concern that their focus on
customer service not be lost in a broadertransportation project. For example, theDepartments of Aging and Developmental
Disabilities have continually voiced the needfor Mobility Ohio to place customer care asa foremost value.
As ODOT educated ODM and the otheragencies about public transit, using theright vocabulary was important. At theagencies, there was a disconnect from,and lack of understanding of, public
transportation. ODM had to be educatedabout how transit services work, the amountof and rationale for their costs, the local
match requirement for FTA funding, andservice delivery limitations (for example,
operating during published hours or
avoiding trip purpose prioritization). This
education provided information necessary
for the group’s decision making.

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

Adapt, be flexible,and create backup plans
Expect situations and dynamics toconstantly evolve. ODOT has had tocontinually develop contingency plans.
Avoid taking it personally when things don’t
go your way. Ultimately, the effort has to bea win-win, benefiting all who are involved.
A key challenge that has caused ourteam to pivot are Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS) rules that
effectively prohibit public transit brokerages.
Under existing rules, it is not feasible toassign a regional public transit operator
with the responsibility of brokering trips
to other providers, in spite of the benefitsof that model. In some areas, the public
transit system is the only organization withthe experience and technical capacity toserve as the RTRC, whose central activity is
to schedule, dispatch and broker HST trips
within the region. It has taken significant
time to develop creative solutions andcontingency plans for the structure of thesoutheast Ohio pilot RTRC. Tentatively, it
will involve a partnership of a non-profit
organization with by-laws revised to fit theneeds of the pilot, one or more public transit
operators, a regional planning organization,
and an Area Agency on Aging. While thisstructure may be more complex thanwe’d prefer, and may not elevate the roleof public transit as much as we’d like, theadopted model will conform to CMS rules
and be more likely to be accepted by local
stakeholders.

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Find small wins tocelebrate along
the way
Mobility Ohio is now starting to demonstrate
how different pieces of the initiative, evenon their own, will move the needle on
coordination. The RTRC model will allow
for the sharing of trips between clients ofdifferent funding sources. It will also:

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Lower the administrative burdenof offering human service
transportation
Ease the scheduling of all trips,
regardless of eligibility, by offering a
one-stop shop
Improve quality and safety
Increase availability of service
due to increased number ofparticipating providers
Provide adequate oversightof conformance with safety andquality standards
Implement a cost structure that will
work for all funders
Develop software that allows forscheduling of dedicated assets andbrokering
Incorporate provider and customer
input

To fulfill these objectives, Mobility Ohio
will implement multiple, interconnected
initiatives that each make coordinationeasier in their own right. The RTRC will serve
as a one-stop reservations, schedulingand dispatching hub for multiple funding
programs. The DRIVES database will allow
any provider of Ohio HST to have instantaccess to real-time driver and vehicle
safety and qualification status. DRIVES

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

will leverage the state’s existing tools for
efficiency, including the Ohio Attorney
General’s Rapback criminal history status
notification system and the Department of
Education’s SFPS database for school bus
drivers and vehicles. The RTRC schedulingand dispatching software will provide
replicable technology to implement
the coordinated trip brokering model in
any Ohio HSTC region. The rate-setting
spreadsheet tool will allow any provider todetermine a unit rate based on a consistentmethodology that considers their fully
allocated costs. And, each time ODOT and
its consultants go back to the agencies,
they demonstrate the progress they havemade toward these initiatives, maintaining
engagement and buy-in.

Be prepared forthe impact ofpolitical changes
on your timeline
In 2019, the governorship changed hands,
resulting in new people moving into agency
top-level staff positions, impacting thedepartments commitment to Mobility
Ohio. For example, ODM’s lead staff for
Mobility Transformation moved on, whichremoved the one ODM staff person mostfamiliar with the project. Without staff who
were experienced with the project, ODM
engagement decreased. Four regularmeeting participants from ODM dwindled
to one. Across the partner human service
agencies, participation shifted to staff
members with lower position levels thanthe previous team, although they have still
been able to secure input from leadershipas needed.
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It is critical to be politically savvy enoughto know when to adapt your initiative’stimeline. There were key moments when
ODOT and its consultants knew thatthey had to “strike fast” to be effective.
Institutionalize and fund what you can,when you can. Once government funding is
obligated, it is almost always there to stay.
At key points over the project, ODOT and its
consultants have taken action even when
they were concerned that conditions were
not yet totally right. Don’t want for a “perfectworld” to move aspects of your project
forward.

Engage withlocals toremain in sync,
and bring state
employees along
Mobility Ohio has taken more time thananyone anticipated. There have been manybumps in the road and course corrections.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant
impact. During the Mobility Transformation
period, ODOT engaged local stakeholders
in southeast Ohio to plan for a pilot RTRC
to test the model. These stakeholders were
motivated to make progress, and took
some actions that conflicted with ODOT’s
intended approach to pilot implementation.
In hindsight, ODOT should have more
carefully planned its engagement withlocals. It is critical to reveal plans andinformation, and commit funding, tolocals at an appropriate pace. Locals areaccustomed to “bottom up” or grassroots
efforts; Mobility Ohio’s top-down approach

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohiois new. When engaged to implement a topdown initiative, locals should be provided
with clear expectations for deliverables.
One of the lessons learned was to engage aprofessional and impartial communications
team. ODOT brought on a public affairs
consultant in 2021 to support our outreachand engagement with local stakeholders.
This support has been critical in realizing ourown blind spots and improving receptivity toa high-impact, top-down change effort thathas, at times, raised skepticism and evenfear at the local level.
A comprehensive communications
strategy supports DOT staff at all levels
working together, diminishing the chanceof misunderstandings due to inadequate
communication. Mobility Ohio is aninnovative, groundbreaking project thatis not simple to communicate. It involves
new, “outside of the box” approaches thattake time to digest. State DOT personnel
need to thoroughly understand thistype of project, which may take multiple
briefings and frequent, regular updates.
This is especially important when staff
make funding decisions. Project awards
should not conflict with the goals of thecoordination initiative. Award selection
criteria should be developed to ensure that
this does not happen. This is especially
important for local projects related tomobility management, one-call/one-click
resources, and technology. In southeast
Ohio, local organizations received funding
for and implemented efforts in theseareas that made it more difficult later todevelop the Mobility Ohio pilot. In addition,
in Ohio, multiple regions (both urban andrural) are implementing locally-funded
coordination efforts outside of the Mobility
Ohio framework. ODOT will monitor theseprojects and make efforts to remain in

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communication with the locals, with an
aim toward consistency and collaboration
between state and local stakeholders.
Project partners need to be managed.
ODOT engaged RLS & Associates and acommunications consultant to provide
project planning and implementation
support. Four regional organizations(a public transit system, a non-profit, aplanning organization, and an Area Agency
on Aging) are partnering on pilot RTRC
implementation. With seven organizations
involved, maintaining consensus andconsistent external communications is
a continual challenge that requires timeand intention. In the absence of strong
communication, individual partners may
take their piece of the project in their own
direction, derailing the initiative and causing
backtracking and delays.

Evaluate agency
and workforce
impacts andshare the results
The Mobility Transformation Working
Group industry and agency impact
studies investigated the current state oftransportation workforce conditions and thepotential consequences of implementing
consistent, statewide uniform provider
standards across funding programs. A
workforce survey, conducted in one urban
region and one rural region, was distributed
by ODOT and its consultants to 957
transportation providers serving the tworegions. Provider focus groups followed.
After an analysis of current practices anddiscussion of best practices from the

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohiotransportation industry, the Working Groupreached consensus on key areas for policyalignment to allow for better coordination,
reduce regulatory red tape, and increase
access to mobility. These areas included
driver qualifications, training requirements,and vehicle standards. It was determinedthat uniform standards would not be ahardship to the majority of providers andthe availability of statewide databases andtraining opportunities would be beneficial.
The providers were clear in their desire forone set of state rules across human service
programs.
ODOT deployed a state agency survey
determine the impact of regulatoryalignment efforts on the administrative
burden of oversight agencies and gain abetter understanding of the rule changes
needed to bring all agencies to thesame level of compliance with aligned
policies. The survey was also used asa method to identify the strategy stateagencies preferred for policy alignment
implementation. Survey responses
revealed that most state agency partners
agree with policy alignment implemented
through a single-agency approach: one
agency primarily responsible for enacting
all standards through uniform Ohio
Administrative Code rules applied to allparticipating agencies.
Following the Mobility Ohio pilot, theMobility Ohio Committee will assess
the existing rules for each program andrecommend changes.

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Tie this workto other DOT
initiatives
In 2018, ODOT began to focus on regionaltransportation mobility management andcoordination. Mobility Transformation
took place at the same time ODOT was
increasing mobility management efforts
throughout the state. At the time of the
Mobility Transformation final report in late
2018, Ohio funded 23 mobility managers
in 40 counties. The agency funded two
regional pilot projects, one rural and one
urban, with regional planning commissions
as the subrecipients and lead agencies.
Today, there are 40 mobility managers
serving 69 of the state’s 88 counties. These
projects have a major focus on intercounty
transportation solutions. The grantees andstakeholders in these projects will play arole in the statewide rollout of the Mobility
Ohio model following the southeast Ohio
pilot.

Find the rightpeople and act
at the right time
Mobility Transformation began in earnest
in 2016. While similar attempts had been
made in Ohio over the previous 40 years,
those efforts did not progress beyond the“great idea” phase. A big lesson learnedin Ohio is not to give up despite setbacks
and discouragement. In the past, manystates have created state-level interagency
transportation councils, or sponsored efforts
to coordinate transportation at the local

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohiolevel, without success. This has sometimes
led to discouragement and cynicism. With
new people involved, or a new brand,
you may have a different experience. The
current appetite for change among the
Ohio state agency leaders is the primary
foundation for the current vision to move toimplementation. The top-down nature ofchanged leadership is novel in comparison
to previous efforts. This appetite for change
may be driven by necessity due to changes
in program funding for some, while forothers it is the opportunity to enhancemobility and safety for transportationdisadvantaged Ohioans.
ODOT has invested hundreds of hoursof time into the project for more thansix years. ODOT contracted with RLS &Associates for the duration of the projectat significant expense due to the numberof hours required. It has been criticalto involve consultants with expertise inpublic and human service transportationand years of coordinated transportation
planning experience. Mobility Ohio’s
progress has depended on having the rightpeople involved at the right time. Eachindividual involved has brought the rightmix of experience, knowledge, passion,connections, and personality traits to theeffort. An RLS Senior Associate’s previous
experience in directing a public transit
operation and managing human services
has been critical. She was able to see theissues from both points of view, translating
concepts between ODOT and the humanservice agencies where there was nocommon understanding.
RLS consultants were nonthreatening to theparticipants. They did not dictate solutions
or present themselves as having all of
the answers. They used their knowledge
and expertise to research the background

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information and present findings to the Working Committee,
so the Working Committee could make informed decisions.
Similarly, ODOT’s transit administrator was new to theposition in 2016, and brought a high level of passion forimproving mobility. His openness allowed him to ask
many questions that the committee worked together toanswer. He was not threatening to the partner agencies.
His relationship skills and can-do attitude helped establish
rapport.

Conclusion
Sometimes, compromises may be in the best interestof the ultimate goal. It’s important keep egos in check.
Have humility. Your own solution may not actually be
implementable — and an implemented solution is morevaluable than an ideal solution. It also doesn’t hurt whenothers think the solution is their idea — even when you’ve
done 95% percent of the development.
Initiatives like Mobility Ohio have a grand vision for aparadigm shift. Emphasizing the larger vision in every
communication can overwhelm and confuse people. Theymay “fill the gaps” in their understanding with ideas that are
well-intentioned but counterproductive. Think through yourcommunications, and know what to say, when — and what
to save for later. Give people small bites instead of the fullmeal.

Effective Strategies: Mobility Ohio

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