How well do existing transportation services meet the needs of older adults, individuals with disabilities and people with low incomes?

Are there destinations that are impossible to reach without a car? What improvements should be made to transportation services and the transportation system?

The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency is seeking answers to these questions to update its Coordinated Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Plan for Northeast Ohio.

To help gather these answers, NOACA is holding public sessions across the region, including one that will be 10 – 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Morley Public Library, 184 Phelps St. in Painesville.

This plan was created with input from the public in early 2008 to develop strategies and priorities to improve transportation for the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and people with low incomes, as well as the general public. NOACA staff wants to know whether needs and priorities have changed since the plan was created, and if so, whether strategies should be revised to meet the current needs.

“The best way to find out about gaps in service is to ask the people who use those services,” said Sara Byrnes Maier, senior transportation planner at NOACA. “By including the viewpoints and opinions of all interested parties, we can find better solutions that will meet people’s needs.”

For more information about the meetings, call Gayle Godek, senior communications specialist at NOACA, at 216-241-2414, ext. 283, or e-mail her at ggodek@mpo.noaca.org. People who cannot attend but wish to comment may submit their remarks to Gayle by Friday by phone, e-mail or by mailing them to NOACA, 1299 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44114-3204.