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COMMENTARY

Being a Mobility Services Provider Means Providing Mobility for ALL BY ROBBIE MAKINEN, President & CEO, Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Kansas City, MO

For myself, I use the term “diversibilities” in place of disies. In my opinion, the word “disability” has too negative a feel to it. Diversibility allows the transportation industry to place an emphasis on the abilities of our paratransit community and what they can do with our services when we give them freedom.

I lost my vision six years ago and, prior to becoming president and CEO at KCATA I was a paratransit user. Nothing has changed; I still use our paratransit services. When I started using paratransit, I quickly learned that the services and mobility options we provide are limited. We had to change that. Mobility can’t be an option for only one segment of our population—at KCATA we believe in mobility for all.

As a public transportation agency, our job is to provide services to the region we serve. Ridership challenges and differing opinions on the future of public transportation will not hinder us as we push forward. We must remember that change comes at the end of our comfort zone—and if you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not doing it right.

When we rebranded our paratransit services, we chose to include “Freedom” to reflect a more customer-centric focus, with a goal of providing freedom through enhanced mobility services.

Our first major improvement was our premium, on-demand service, RideKC Freedom On-Demand. The service delivers an app-based, Uber-like experience—not only for our paratransit users, but for all riders. Riders in the region without “diversibilities” can use the app to summon a ride just like other services out there. When a non-paratransit rider uses the app, a portion of the rider’s payment goes back to the community and helps subsidize the costs for our paratransit users.

There are challenges, to be sure, but I firmly believe that the team here is engaging the region. We’re listening and we’re driving partnerships with local and regional stakeholders to create solutions that move the region forward.

Our Veterans Pass is another example, allowing veterans in the region to ride at no charge. Through a partnership with the Greater Kansas City ­AFL-CIO, Veterans Community Project and Department of Veterans Affairs, we’re able to offset costs of the program. The program has been in place for a little over a year and we recently celebrated our one millionth trip!

At RideKC, we’re listening to the local business community as well and helping them get in the driver’s seat. As a public transportation agency, we have a responsibility to our citizens and visitors, as do our community and business stakeholders.

I tell my staff, “We’re open for business,” and every day here in Kansas City I’m feeling that come to life. Business leaders are reaching out, developers are wanting to partner with us and city and county leaders are asking us how we’re doing it.

A recent example is the expansion of service that connects people from the region’s urban core to new jobs in southern Johnson County, KS. These workers would not be able to participate in the regional job growth if it wasn’t for this route expansion. This was one of the fastest implementations of new service ever—start of study to wheels on the ground in 10 months.

Another way we’re increasing our revenue stream is by seeking partners for development of real estate we own across the region.

KCATA is becoming a change agent in the public transportation arena. The team here is constantly looking at various challenges and how to overcome them. Instead of being disrupted, we’ve become the disrupter. Our team isn’t just going to allow changes to public transportation to happen to us, we’re going to be part of the change. And as we do, we’ll see ridership, revenue and relationships grow.

I can tell you that when it comes to providing mobility options for all in our region, we’ve stumbled, we’ve fallen and we’ve failed. But if you’re not willing to fail, how can you ever really know what success is? You have to be open to failure and pick back up where you left off to remain relevant in the emerging transportation landscape.

We all should push the envelope and know that our growth must include everyone in the communities we serve. RideKC is proving that we are no longer your grandfather’s bus company.


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