New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 17 - DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION › Chapter VI - Transportation Regulations › Subchapter G - Mass Transportation Operating Assistance › Part 980 - Rural Public Transportation Coordination Assistance Program Rules And Regulations › Section 980.3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
Whenever used in this Part, the following terms shall have
					 the meanings set forth or indicated:
(a) Department means the State Department of
				  Transportation;
(b) Commissioner
				  means the Commissioner of Transportation;
(c) Committee means the New York State
				  interagency Coordinating Committee on Rural Public Transportation as
				  hereinafter described;
(d)
				  Transportation disadvantaged person means any person, who by reason of
				  physical, economic or other circumstance does not have access to private
				  personal transportation or is unable to use private personal transportation,
				  either permanently or temporarily, such as frail elderly persons, persons with
				  disabilities, low-income persons, youth, unemployed or underemployed persons,
				  and other individuals who may need public transportation services.
				  Identification of persons as "transportation disadvantaged" does not change the
				  fact that they are considered as part of the general public.
(e) Public transportation service means a
				  passenger transportation service which, during its hours of operations, is
				  available on an equal opportunity basis to any person, without preference for
				  service availability, eligibility or design being given to any person or
				  population sub-group because of age, gender, race, national origin, creed or
				  agency client status, and which is regularly advertised and marketed as
				  available to the general public. Nothing in this Part shall be deemed to mean
				  that the transportation services operated or provided by human or social
				  service agencies for their clients or programs constitute, in and of
				  themselves, public transportation services.
(f) Transportation provider means any public,
				  private or not-for-profit entity utilizing public funds to provide or contract
				  for passenger transportation services for the benefit of the general public or
				  specific client groups.
(g)
				  Operator of passenger transportation service means the municipal government or
				  public transportation authority which assumes full responsibility for the
				  operation of the service or a common or contract carrier under contract to said
				  government or authority for the purpose of assuming said
				  responsibility.
(h) Coordinated
				  transportation service in a rural county means a passenger transportation
				  service formed by the pooling or sharing, by contract, of funds, facilities,
				  vehicles, equipment and other resources used for passenger transportation for
				  the purpose of improving the mobility of rural residents through increased
				  service levels, so that the coordinated service is under the direction and
				  control of a single operator of passenger transportation having the authority
				  for establishing the service's operating hours, routes, schedules, dispatching
				  and other operating features, with a goal that the resulting transportation
				  service serve more passengers for the same or reduced amount of government
				  expenditure than the previously uncoordinated services. A coordinated
				  transportation service may include an existing public transportation service
				  operating within the rural county. Nothing contained in this Part shall require
				  a transportation provider to participate in a county's coordinated
				  transportation service or to contribute funds or services to it; current
				  providers may participate in whole or in part in the coordinated
				  service.
(i) Coordinated public
				  transportation service means a coordinated transportation service which is
				  predominantly a public transportation service as defined in this Part. Such
				  coordinated public transportation service shall offer service to the general
				  public to at least the same extent and degree, in terms of service levels,
				  operating hours and geographic coverage, as service is offered for clients of
				  human service agency programs, and shall seek to increase service to
				  transportation disadvantaged persons who do not receive transportation from a
				  human or social services agency program.
(j) Rural counties means those New York State
				  counties having populations of 200,000 or less, as determined by the latest
				  Census of the United States.
(k)
				  Services coordinator means the person, authority, agency or corporation
				  designated by resolution of a rural county's governing body to undertake or
				  oversee preparation of the rural county's public transportation service plan in
				  accordance with this Part. Such person, authority, agency or corporation shall
				  be chosen from among those who can fairly and equitably address the needs of
				  all transportation disadvantaged persons and the general public, without
				  preference to any one population sub-group or component of the transportation
				  disadvantaged population.
(l)
				  Coordinated Service Operator (CSO) means the operator of passenger
				  transportation service that will manage and operate the coordinated public
				  transportation service for a rural county, in accordance with this
				  Part.
(m) Public Transportation
				  Authority means one of the following established by State Law having
				  jurisdiction in one or more rural counties: Capital District Transportation
				  Authority; Central New York Regional Transportation Authority; or
				  Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority.
(n) Program means the Rural Public
				  Transportation Coordination Assistance Program established by Article 2-F of
				  the Transportation Law.
(o)
				  Specialized transportation service means a component of a coordinated public
				  transportation service which is specifically designed to serve the needs of
				  persons who, by reason of disability, are unable to use other public
				  transportation services designed for the use of the general public in a given
				  service area. A specialized transportation service shall be available on an
				  equal opportunity basis to all transit disabled persons within a market segment
				  determined solely by the amount of physical assistance needed by passengers.
				  Transportation services ordinarily provided by a human service agency and
				  designed for an agency's clients to access its program are not, per se,
				  considered to be specialized transportation services.
(p) Transit disabled person means a person
				  who, by reason of illness, age, injury, congenital malfunction or other
				  permanent or temporary incapacity or disability, is unable, without special
				  facilities, equipment or assistance, to use public transportation service
				  effectively.