A group of southeastern Minnesotans may start an organization to address transportation barriers. 

The organization, called a transportation management organization (TMO) or transportation management association (TMA), can comprise public and private partners who provide and promote “efficient, reliable, and affordable transportation options within a particular region or jurisdiction,” according to a statement from SE MN Together. The organization aims to address transportation, housing, and economic development issues. 

SE MN Together is seeking a TMO after a 2018-2019 study found the region needed a “holistic” and comprehensive approach to address transportation issues impacting workforce mobility, access to services and post-secondary education, and quality of life in southeastern Minnesota. 

Organizers don’t specify what initiatives they plan to offer, because they want to learn about the region’s transportation needs, said Joel Young, project manager, in an email to Project Optimist. The fact-finding phase, which includes a survey, focus groups, and an online form to solicit ideas, is underway and funded by a $350,000 appropriation from the 2023 legislative session. Organizers plan to present their findings before a steering committee later this winter. 

If organizers decide to move forward with a TMO, planners will prepare a report on the organization’s structure, budget, and funding sources by June.

What are TMOs?

Association for Commuter Transportation Executive Director David Straus says TMOs vary by location, but they all strive to encourage people to get around by modes other than driving, either through education, ride matching, incentives, or advocacy. They are often funded by public and private entities. 

“The programs and services that they put out there are based on the needs of the community that it's located in,” Straus said in a phone interview. He said TMOs can foster carpools, administer subsidy programs to encourage people not to drive, or advocate for bicycling, pedestrian, or public transit improvements. He likened it to a chamber of commerce that fosters economic development activity. 

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Though TMOs exist in rural areas, Straus added they might not necessarily be a good fit. “It can be difficult in a true rural setting where there may not be any large employment basis to support the organization, but at the same time in those cases, the real question would be, what are the transportation challenges that you’re trying to address in those communities?” Straus said. 

“TMAs stretch to more rural, suburban areas all the time,” he said. "That may focus more heavily on carpooling and vanpooling. Depending on the situation and what’s around, they may look at trying to build support for a more flexible mobility-on-demand service, kind of an on-call public transit service that can be put in place. It’s just a matter of being able to have the resources to support it.”

A TMO/TMA in action

One such TMA serving rural communities in Vermont and New Hampshire is the Upper Valley Transportation Management Association, convened in 2001 between Dartmouth College and local nonprofit Vital Communities.

Funded by dues from local communities and employers based on size, the organization, which transit agencies and planning organizations also participate in, educates people on what they can do without a car. For example, the Upper Valley TMA partnered with a local senior center to teach the elderly how they can get around if they can no longer drive, and offered biking workshops. 

Vital Communities also administers the “Emergency Ride Home” program for commuters who live on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley. Such programs exist across the nation to help commuters who don’t drive to work get home in an emergency by reimbursing their vehicle rental, or taxicab, Uber, or Lyft ride.

However, the program hasn’t gotten any use, because the region doesn’t have many ridehail options. “Some of our towns, there’s no cabs. There’s really no Lyft or Uber. Hanover (N.H.) maybe has one driver sometimes, so there's just not a lot of other options to get home,” Vital Communities program manager Ellen Hender said. 

Even though the program doesn’t get much use, they keep the program because it doesn’t cost them anything to run and want to provide an option for residents living on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley. 

Vital Communities gauges success of their TMA by measuring engagement and participation satisfaction. “Effectively, do their individual organizations feel supported by the TMA and is it worth their effort to participate,” Hender said in an e-mail. Membership continues to grow and engagement is “consistent," Hender said.

TMA opens doors to new partnerships

Vital Communities also leads their own transportation programming outside the scope of the TMA and involves TMA members as partners. 

In one such program, they helped local residents and employers discover e-bikes. Vital Communities provides an e-bike subsidy program, which is funded by a $31,500 Vermont Agency of Transportation mobility grant. 

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Initially a first come, first served program to persuade middle-income people to purchase an e-bike, Vital Communities changed the program to help those who need a form of transportation based on “social determinants of health or socioeconomic touch points,” said program manager Anna Guenther. The program has helped jobseekers, students who are the first in their family to go to college, people who live without a car or not near a public transit stop, as well as neurospicy individuals who get overstimulated by riding public transit. 

“Owning this valuable and useful item is a real, great stepping stone for them, a bit of security and independence and freedom,” said Guenther. 

How can a TMO succeed in southeast Minnesota?

Straus, Association For Commuter Transportation’s executive director, said a TMO needs collaboration and support from private and public entities to work. 

The effort in Southeastern Minnesota has the ingredients.

The Minnesota Legislature has funded the study. Eight of the region’s employers, who have deployed employee shuttles, vanpools, and carpools, believe help in crafting commuter plans and programs would be a “significant benefit,” according to interviews conducted by SE Minnesota Together. And, dial-a-ride transit agencies said serving rural parts of the region is expensive and time-consuming, though some are already working with local businesses to transport the elderly to medical appointments, as well as children to school. 

“Successful TMAs require that collaboration between public entities and the private sector to make it successful,” Straus said.  “The state, the (metropolitan planning organization), they need to be supportive of the formation of the TMAs and helping them succeed, and the private sector needs to be able to see that support and contribute and buy into the organization, and ultimately the organization needs to be empowered to be able to work with and represent those stakeholders that are there.” 

This story was edited and fact-checked by Jen Zettel-Vandenhouten.