employment related support services such as childcare, job readiness, training and retention service program s. Senior Shopper Express Senior Shopper Express is a service for the elderly or people with disabilities. This service operates from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm , Monday through Friday . Fares ar e $1.00 per round trip and $0.50 extra for additional stops. The service will pick eligible passengers up at their home and take them shopping, banking, to the library and senior centers in the area. Participants must call 48 hours in advance to book a ride. RVTD’s Senior Shopper service provided 5,628 trips during fiscal y ear 2001-2002, an increase of nearly 17% over the 4,813 riders during 2000-2001. TransLink TransLink is a centralized ride reservation, schedu ling, m anagem ent reporting, and financial reporting center m anaged by the Rogue Valley Transportation Di strict (RVTD). At its startup on Septem ber 4, 2001, RVTD/TransLink began handling ride reservations, scheduling, and agency payment tracking for about 70,000 non-em ergency OMAP-eligible (Oregon Me dical Assistance Program ) clients in Coos, Curry , Douglas, Jackson and Josephine Counties. Tr ansLink’ s custom er service representatives record rider data, and origin and destination inform ation for each trip m ade using this service. The representatives use software to store and retrieve inform ation each tim e an eligible user calls to schedule a ride, increasing the efficiency of service scheduling. Both volunteer and paid drivers provide rides, and every driver has undergone a crim inal history check and drug testing. It is the goal of RVTD to have each driver equipped with a “hands free” cell phone or other com munication link for ready contact with the reservation center to m aximize the efficiency of vehicle routing and, consequently , the cost- effectiveness of TransLink’ s transportation services. Ultim ately , TransLink is expected to handle m any types of rides utilizing m any funding sources. TransLink allows m ultiple funding sources to be pooled in a central coordinating and scheduling agency increasing efficiency and reducing costs for every one. During its first y ear of service the RVTD/TransLink service has becom e enorm ously popular for non-em ergency medical rides. Between October 2001 and October 2002, TransLink provided a bout 325,000 rides in its five-county service area. Fare Structure The current bus fare is $1.00 for full pay ing passengers. A reduced fare of $.50 is available for seniors and y outh (10-17 y ears old). Children under 10 y ears of age ride free. Additionally fares in Ashland are free as the City reim burses RVTD for the cost of this service. Regular fixed route m onthly passes are $38 for full fare and $19 for reduced fare. Valley Lift is $2.00 per trip every where except within the City of Ashland where it is also free. To encourage Valley Lift custom ers that can use the bus under certain circum stances, no fare is charged if those patrons ride the fixed route sy stem . Group pass program s are available for Rogue Community College (RCC) and Southern Oregon University (SOU) students, which are valid for one year. Group passes are also available for Bear Creek Corporation em ployees during five m onths of the y ear (Septem ber through January ). Ridership Statistics During fiscal y ear 2001-2002, RVTD carried about 848,000 fixed route passengers and nearly 70,000 paratransit passengers. This represents an increase of approxim ately 7.6% over the 788,000 carried in 2000-2001 and 47% over the 575,000 carried in 1999-2000. Between 1999 and 2002, there have been only minor service changes (e.g. changes to destinati ons served, service frequency , hours of operation). It is likely that this consistency in service has been a m ajor factor behind ridership increases. Based on 1999 passenger counts, approxim ately 56% of all RVTD trips either started or ended in Medford. When applied to ridership for 2001-2002, that translates to 474,900 trips. Medford Transportatio n System Plan 3-30 Existing Conditions

Transportation System Plan 2018-2038