Innovate Memphis – Memphis Flyer

Innovate Memphis is offering a new phone service targeted towards older adults and people with disabilities in Shelby County. The Rides to Resources program will provide these individuals with “reliable transportation options to get to their destinations,” with no mobile app required.

Innovate Memphis says the program can be used for activities “related directly to essential health care and social determinants of health (SDOH)-related services.” The Office of Disease Prevention and Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines these as the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

“We continue to ask ourselves and our nonprofit partners an important question: How can we keep Memphis seniors moving?” said Innovate Memphis executive director Jessica Lotz. “Rides to Resource will increase accessibility to a variety of basic needs beyond primary and urgent health care. Aging adults are encouraged to use this free, reliable service to get them where they need to go — safely and on time.”

For this service, eligible destinations are behavioral health appointments, case management sessions (medical or non-medical) and food access points.

Courtney McNeal is the city innovation director and chief of staff for Innovate Memphis. The 901RideChoice program was launched in 2019 as a free phone service for the aging population and people dealing with disabilities to connect them to reliable transportation options within the city. It was initially presented as a way to address non-emergency rides.

901RideChoice is a phone service program that connects older adults with a variety of transportation options and is funded by the Memphis Area Transit Authority and the City of Memphis through a federal Department of Transportation 5310 grant.

Through this program, callers would receive the best option to procure a ride depending on circumstances.

“We noticed that it was high call volume with the emergency telephone number, which increased the hold time for those who actually had emergencies,” said McNeal. “This was a way for us to focus on that — to decrease the number of non-emergency related phone calls, as well as to address the need of getting seniors to and from different places depending on reliable transportation options.”

It started as a way for the organization to get the word out and connect this population with resources, however as time went on, more opportunities became available for them to form partnerships with other agencies to provide subsidized rides.

The Rides to Resources program is free, and funded by Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Uber Health. Innovate Memphis said that this grant is “meant to help solve transportation barriers in the city as it relates to health care services and detriments of service accessibility.” According to Innovate Memphis, callers can schedule rides to and from health care appointments, homecare provider services, and services that address SDOH.

This service is available for Shelby County residents from Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Rides may not be used for personal purposes, and assistance to and from the vehicle is not part of the resource.

Jackson McNeil, a self-described “transportation nerd,” was named the new Transportation and Mobility Director for Commute Options, a division of Innovate Memphis, last month.

McNeil succeeds Sylvia Crum in the role. Crum, known for advocating for bicycle-friendly attitudes and infrastructure, now works in Seattle for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The role in Memphis encourages system-wide improvements to transit and mobility here with a focus on promoting alternative transportation (i.e. other than cars).

Originally from Jonesboro, Arkansas, McNeil moved to Memphis in 2012. Here, he focused on Urban Studies for his undergraduate work at Rhodes College and earned a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis. He then moved to New York City, working for the city’s Department of Transportation. He returned to Memphis more than a year ago.

We caught up with him as he begins his work here to see what might be on the horizon for Memphis transportation. — Toby Sells

Memphis Flyer: What opportunities do you see here? What challenges do you see in Memphis?

Jackson McNeil: Memphis has been designed in such a way that driving a car is often the most convenient — and sometimes physically the only way — to get around our city. The city’s over 300 square miles and, of course, Shelby County is even bigger. We know that a lot of employment centers and major employment hubs are not necessarily located in super convenient places.

The average Memphian spends about $13,000 a year to own, maintain, and gas up a car to get around. So, in a in a city with high poverty rates, that’s not a good equation.

At Commute Options and Innovate Memphis, we really see transportation as one of the key solutions to a lot of the problems that our city faces. Whether that is inequality, or economic opportunity, safety, or improving the environment, these are things that folks care about and I think that oftentimes transportation isn’t clearly connected to those.

What’s an opportunity — a good change — we can make pretty quickly here?

JM: A moral imperative for our city is the issue of pedestrian safety. We’re consistently in the top five most dangerous cities in the country for pedestrians. That’s due in part to the way that our city has been designed.

I think that making our city more walkable not only increases safety, but it makes our communities more desirable. It helps people have more pride in their neighborhoods and get to know their neighbors. That’s a big piece of the transportation puzzle that we have to work on here.

Transit is also a really high priority. We got to see some big wins for [the Memphis Area Transit Authority — MATA] last year getting dedicated funding from the city and county. But we still have a long way to go to see our transit system adequately funded to provide effective service for all Memphians.

Are there any solutions or examples of things that you saw in New York City that we could implement here?

JM: New York City does a lot of things when it comes to promoting other forms of transportation, partly because they don’t really have a choice. There’s only so much room for cars.

New York City also has a really, really strong transportation advocacy scene. They have a lot of folks that are really passionate about it that help raise it to the forefront to local elected officials.

Another thing is that a lot of the neighborhoods there really take pride and ownership in their city streets. A lot of times Memphians see streets just as things for cars to get around.

I really think that there’s an opportunity to learn from cities like New York to show folks that [streets are] one of the largest public spaces in our city. It’s not just for cars, it’s for people. Streets should, ultimately, serve people and shouldn’t be relegated [just for cars].