Introduction
BRPC inventory of transportation services

Transportation services in the Berkshires are sometimes described as both scarce and confusing.  A first step to improving transportation access is understanding what services are available.  These services assist people who have limited means of getting around and they provide options for the rest of the population.  The purpose of this publication is to gather into one source information on all Berkshire County on-road transportation options.  It will be distributed to agencies that may be asked for referrals and it will be used for transportation planning purposes.

We apologize if some programs were inadvertently not included or the information is in any way incorrect or misleading.  Also, note that not all the programs listed are open to the general public. You are invited to improve the Inventory by filling in the update form on the last page and mailing it to BRPC or otherwise providing input.  The Inventory will be fully updated and republished periodically.  This information is provided for the public good.  Please do not use for commercial purposes that may aggrevate participating agencies.

In the process of public review of the draft document, we were asked to include as many services as possible even if they only serve particular populations.  At this point, the Inventory includes services that address particular needs, such as for people with handicaps or job training programs.  It does not include wholly in-house transportation services, such as residential facilities with a van only for transporting people who live there.  We have been asked to develop an inventory of school vehicles to provide a sense of how many publicly funded vehicles exist in the Berkshires, with the knowledge that most are not currently available for other uses.  This has been started for the northern Berkshires and may be expanded in future updates (see 5.  Start of School Vehicle Inventory).

On the next page is an alphabetical list of all transportation services included in this Inventory.  The main body, however, is broken up into four categories of services.  Programs that provide more than one type of service are listed within each appropriate category.  The categories are:

• Direct providers of transportation services – Non-profit (such as Berkshire Regional Transit Authority) and for-profit services (such as taxis)
• Agencies that contract for transportation – Some programs have transportation associated with them, which is provided through various vendors.  For clarity, the programs are listed here even though they do not directly run vehicles.
• Volunteer programs – There are various volunteer associations that match people willing to drive with people in need of rides.
• Agencies that provide referrals to transportation services and/or provide BRTA tickets – These are agencies that do not provide transportation services but which try to help people find the transportation services they need.  Some of these agencies also distribute reduced cost bus tickets, passes or other BRTA services.