Livingston County public transportation department proposes new route to reach underserved populations
The Livingston Essential Transportation Service wants to better serve people in the county who might not have easy access to cars.
Livingston County doesn't have a bus service with a fixed route like you'd find in Detroit or Ann Arbor. Greg Kellogg, the director of the Livingston Essential Transportation Service, said that riders can call their dispatch or use their mobile app to schedule a ride.
"We primarily serve the transit-dependent population, you know, senior citizens, people with disabilities, people who can't travel otherwise," Kellogg told CBS News Detroit.
He said the department is currently working to approve a proposal for a year-long pilot program. It would fund a fixed route for buses to travel between social service providers like The Connection Youth Services, LACASA, Bethel Suites and Kensington Inn.
"This particular proposal is targeted at our homeless population, which is not huge in Livingston County, but they're there," he said.
Kellogg said he hopes that providing a regular route between those services will help to improve health outcomes and get assistance to the people who need it most.
"The goal of the service would be to ensure that they have regular, responsive, and consistent transportation to primarily healthcare needs but also other social service needs," he said.
Amanda Borg, a supervisor within Trinity Health Livingston's Health and Well Being unit, said LETS' goal is in line with their efforts to better reach underserved populations.
"Many households only have one car, or some households don't have a car at all. So the dependability and reliability of the service becomes that much more important for those individuals to be able to get connected to, um, care, health care, social services, work," she said.
