What's happening
This bill amends the elder law to establish and fund a five-year pilot program for on-demand senior transportation services in select New York counties.
Why it matters
Targets rural or less-populated areas. By restricting the pilot to counties with populations under 300,000 (or pairs of small, neighboring counties), the program focuses on regions where seniors often lack reliable transportation options, addressing a major barrier to independence and social participation.
Public funding with accountability and reporting. Providers must submit detailed annual reports outlining participation rates, implementation challenges, steps toward self-sustainability, and ideas for expanding the service. This ensures ongoing oversight and helps policymakers understand what works before considering broader rollout.
Emphasizes long-term sustainability. The program is capped at five years of public funding per provider, after which providers are expected to continue operations without state support, encouraging the development of models that can survive on fares, volunteers, and local backing.
Expands service expectations. The amendment specifies that transit must be on-demand and operational during at least normal business hours, setting a baseline for service reliability that could significantly improve seniors’ ability to attend appointments, shop, and remain engaged in their communities.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand Senior Transit Pilots
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to aging
- Referred to aging
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8229
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 2, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. LUPARDO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Aging
AN ACT to amend the elder law, in relation to an economically sustainable transportation demonstration program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivisions 2 and 6 of section 223 of the elder law, as added by section 3 of part J of chapter 57 of the laws of 2006, are amended to read as follows:
2. The director shall establish the economically sustainable transportation demonstration program for the purpose of enabling seniors to remain independent and mobile in their community. The program would provide an on demand transit service for seniors [that would use] establishing, at a minimum, operational hours during normal business hours using automobiles driven by volunteer and paid drivers to transport seniors to where they need and want to go. [After a period of five years, the program would no longer be eligible for state funding and would be completely self-sustaining, relying on consumer fares and voluntary community support to remain operational.]
6. [Within amounts appropriated, the] The director shall establish a pilot program within amounts appropriated therefor, in up to five counties, each with not more than three hundred thousand persons as of the two thousand ten United States census, or a collaborative project of two contiguous counties that each do not have more than three hundred thousand persons as of the two thousand ten United States census. The director shall make grants available to qualified economically sustainable transportation providers of no less than fifty-five thousand dollars per grantee [in the first year of the operation of the program]. Each provider shall be required to submit a report to the director within one year of the implementation of such pilot program which shall include, but not be limited to, documentation of participation rates, any imped-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04890-04-7
A. 8229 2
iments to implementation encountered, steps taken to ensure sustainability of the program and proposals for expansion to other service areas. Such providers shall be eligible to receive funding under this section annually for up to five years. After such time, providers must be able to provide economically sustainable transportation services without receiving further public financial assistance for operating or capital expenses.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.