Transportation Equity Needs Assessment

In 2022, the Transportation Equity Coalition began planning and designing a two-part Transportation Equity Needs Assessment (TENA) with the guidance of Claire Stoscheck of Golden Aspen Consulting and a planning group comprised of diverse community members. Learn more about the Transportation Equity Coalition

Focus Groups in September 2022

Part one of the assessment included interviews with six key focus groups to get an in-depth understanding of their experiences with Tompkins County’s transportation system. During the summer months, collaborative outreach was aimed at recruiting diverse focus group participants. The outreach was extremely successful as 980 people applied to participate, and 36 diverse community members were ultimately selected. A group of facilitators, moderators, and notetakers from the TENA Planning Group were each trained with best practices for creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for participants to share their thoughts and experiences.

Through these focus groups, the Coalition heard directly from people who often experience the most barriers to transportation, including people with disabilities, seniors, youth, BIPOC, or people with limited access to transportation, such as rural residents with limited income or without the ability to drive or access transit. The information gathered in the focus groups became the basis for the second part of the Needs Assessment, a community survey broadly disseminated to reach a diverse Tompkins County population.

Community Survey in Spring 2023

Outreach was conducted in the spring of 2023 to disseminate the survey to the Tompkins County community. The Yasmine Miller group then compiled the data results and provided to Golden Aspen and other consultants for analysis.

Data Analysis and Final Report in Summer 2023

The TENA  Planning Group will come together in the coming weeks to reflect on and provide insight into the results of the survey and focus groups to inform the final analysis. The input from the TENA planning group will help the coalition understand the results and how the information gathered can inform the work moving forward. In particular, the final report will help educate decision-makers about our community's transportation needs and drive potential solutions.

The final analysis and report of the findings are expected from Golden Aspen by late summer 2023.

If you have any questions about the Transportation Equity Needs Assessment, please email us at info@way2go.org or call Way2go at 607-272-2292.

Last updated August 23, 2023