North Liberty's Transportation Assistance Program

On Tuesday, December 22nd, CTC sat down (virtually, of course) with North Liberty’s Special Projects Coordinator, Angela McConville. Just like CTC, she is working to make transportation more accessible and affordable for North Liberty residents. After other efforts to provide traditional public transportation in North Liberty were pared down to just two trips per weekday, the Transit Advisory Committee – chaired by Mayor Donahue – created the North Liberty Transportation Assistance Program (NLTAP) because a gap exists between those with vehicles and those without. The main goal of this program is to provide residents with transportation to their most basic needs such as doctor appointments and grocery stores. The program partners with Yellow Cab to provide rides to and from a cardholder’s address. There are four ways in which North Liberty residents can qualify for a NLTAP card: they do not own a car in their name, they meet minimum financial requirements, they are living with a disability and are unable to drive, or they are experiencing a temporary disability. A person must meet only one requirement to qualify for the program. There are currently around 135 cardholders who call a special Yellow Cab phone number to schedule a $1 ride Monday through Friday, 7am to 10pm and Saturday from 7am to 7pm. The budget for the program is currently $50,000 a year and comes from North Liberty taxpayers. Angela told us that since this program is limited in scope and scale (without much room for leniency or expansion), she is exploring ways to enhance the transportation options in North Liberty with new, creative demand-response programs, so North Liberty can provide user-fee-supported transportation without limitations. To find out if you qualify for the program or to read more, check out their website here: https://northlibertyiowa.org/NLTAP. The Community Transportation Committee would love to see other cities in Johnson County get creative like North Liberty in terms of providing transportation when traditional service isn’t an option.

A sample of what the NLTAP member cards look like.

The NLTAP website.