ADRIAN — When Kate Daisher first came on board as executive director of what is now known as the Lenawee Public Transportation Authority (LPTA) in July 2021, it wasn’t long before she had to oversee the merger of Dial-A-Ride and the Lenawee Transportation Corp.
Finalized in October 2022, the merger of the two former transportation services, one which served Adrian and one the rest of Lenawee County, only made sense. For example, before the merger “you could go to Meijer on Dial-A-Ride, but if you wanted to go to Wal-Mart, which is just across the street, you’d have to take Lenawee Transportation,” Daisher said.
The Michigan Department of Transportation had been encouraging the merger, Daisher said, because “we had to do duplicate accounting, and that didn’t make sense.”
Like the separate entities it replaced, LPTA provides door-to-door service, unlike a fixed-route service that would involve people having to stand at a bus stop, wait for the bus to come along, and get off the bus only at designated stops.
The city of Adrian previously provided funding for Dial-A-Ride and Lenawee County helped fund Lenawee Transportation. Now, LPTA receives funds from both governmental entities. Other funding for the roughly $1 million budget comes from a variety of sources: the federal and state governments; partnerships with entities including the Lenawee Community Foundation, WellWise Services Area Agency on Aging, the Lenawee County Department on Aging, and Family Medical Center in Adrian; and individual riders’ insurance coverage in some cases.
Fares cover only a small percentage of the budget. Current fares are $1.50 for senior citizens and people with disabilities and $3 otherwise, with children under 1 riding for free. Exact change is required. Riders can also purchase tokens from the driver or at the LPTA office at 377 Logan St., Adrian, at a rate of $30 for 20 $1.50 tokens.
A possible countywide millage to help offset costs, improve employee wages, and potentially increase hours and services is being discussed. Such an additional source of funding “would probably allow me to have more of a coverage area around the county,” Daisher said.
LPTA currently employs 14 drivers, two full-time dispatchers, an operations manager, a mobility manager, and Daisher herself, who came to the authority after working in the athletics departments at both Adrian College and Siena Heights University, where her duties included scheduling teams’ transportation needs. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in organizational leadership from SHU.
Since the merger, LPTA has expanded and modernized its vehicle fleet, with 16 large buses that hold up to 24 people and smaller handicapped-accessible vans, two of which are brand-new.
Three new large buses sport a striking paint scheme featuring the LPTA logo. “They’re generating buzz,” Daisher said.
Daisher is committed to increasing ridership and keeping LPTA’s services accessible to anyone who needs them.
“Forming the authority was a lofty goal,” she said. “Now I want to move that forward.”
Ridership and overall miles driven have both increased since LPTA was formed. Last fiscal year, the fleet traveled 255,000 miles, up from 174,000 total for the two separate entities before the merger. Ridership went from a monthly average of 5,200 rides to 6,800.
More people seem to ride in the summer, which Daisher said surprises her because she would have expected ridership to go up when the weather is cold or snowy and people don’t want to walk. What’s not surprising to her, given that about two-thirds of the people who utilize LPTA are senior citizens or persons with disabilities (or both), is that ridership increases on the third of the month when people’s payments arrive.
Office hours are currently 6:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with buses heading out to outlying parts of the county — Tecumseh, Blissfield, Morenci, and the Rome/Hudson area — at 6:30 a.m. and then making their way into Adrian, arriving about 8:30 a.m. Daisher said that riders needing other transportation are encouraged to call after 9 a.m. if possible, since before that “we’re busy getting people to work or school.” Last call for rides is 3:30 p.m.
Many of LPTA’s services involve non-emergency transportation to and from doctors’ appointments and hospitals. Some insurances cover transportation to medical appointments outside the county, such as to facilities in Ann Arbor, and LPTA also has agreements with a number of agencies such as the Department on Aging and the Family Medical Center regarding transportation costs for their clients.
Residents also use LPTA to run the kind of routine errands people have to do, such as doing their shopping, picking up prescriptions, and even taking their pets to the vet. Several area facilities such as Gaslight Village, other nursing homes, and the Pathways preschool also use the buses as a shuttle service to take people on outings. Daisher said LPTA has also considered how it could add service specifically between some of the local apartment complexes and area shopping.
One area Daisher is working hard to improve is efficiency. LPTA has already taken huge steps in that area by installing dispatch software that has greatly boosted efficiency. That software “is the key to the whole thing,” she said.
Besides such technological improvements, creative solutions occasionally need to happen. Daisher herself has been known to jump into one of the minivans to help get people home.
“I hope we’re doing a better job” when it comes to getting people where they want to go on time, she said, and certainly “we don’t get nearly the [number of] complaints anymore.”
Technology may soon allow people to book rides without making a phone call to LPTA. Daisher plans to add an app so people can schedule rides and get the bus’s estimated times of arrival online. That would appeal especially to younger folks who are accustomed to doing business in ways other than talking on the phone.
Daisher said she wants all the improvements to change the traditional perception of public transportation as serving a certain clientele. “Public transportation is for all,” she said.
LPTA rides can be booked by calling 517-265-4444. The authority’s website is lptami.gov.
