The purpose of the connecting communities proposal is to reduce the travel cost of transit (in terms of travel time transfers convenience fares etc.) by evaluating orbital route alignments that…

The Federal Transit Administration awarded Pioneer Valley Transit Authority $166,889 on February 3, 2026, under the Metropolitan Transportation Planning and State and Non-Metropolitan Planning and Research program (CFDA 20.505) to develop the Connecting Communities planning initiative.

The award funds spatial interaction modeling, stakeholder engagement, and scenario planning to evaluate orbital transit route alignments that provide direct connections between key neighborhoods and suburban centers without routing through existing city center hubs. Work includes defining and analyzing transit accessibility metrics, testing scenarios that minimize travel time differences, identifying and engaging stakeholders on scenario planning recommendations, and finalizing action plans. The initiative targets 47 census tracts within Pioneer Valley Transit Authority's service region in Massachusetts that experience persistent poverty with poverty rates exceeding 20 percent. Expected outcomes include reduced travel times through decreased service miles and hours, improved transit reliability, and mode shift from single-occupancy vehicles to transit ridership.

The period of performance runs through July 1, 2026. Work is performed in Massachusetts.

Activities

The following activities will be performed:spatial interaction modeling - define and analyze metrics of transit accessibility refine metrics isolate key indicators and quantify baseline differencestest scenarios that minimize differences in travel timesstakeholder engagement - identify and engage key stakeholders engage stakeholders on scenario planning and recommendations scenario planning - define scenario planning strategy and goalscreate and prioritize transformation initiativesfinalize scenario recommendations and document action plans

Expected outcomes

Pvtas connected communities proposal will evaluate orbital routes that directly and quickly connect cities and other key neighborhoods and suburban centers without routing through existing city center hubs. This will reduce travel time by reducing the service miles and hours traveled by buses to connect neighboring communities while also avoiding city centers which tend to have more congestion. The proposal is also expected to improve transit travel times and reliability which would attract more riders creating mode shift from single-occupancy vehicles to transit.

Intended beneficiaries

Individuals of various backgrounds and income levels make up the majority of pvta riders constituting about 67% and 62% respectively of customers surveyed in 2019 and 2020. 52% and 48% respectively of population within 0.25 miles of pvta bus stops according to the 2015-2019 american community survey (ACS) 5-year data. Furthermore according to the 2014-2018 ACS 47 of the 129 census tracts in pvtas service region includes areas of concerning income level. Pvta also serves a large of volume of spanish vietnamese chinese filipino haitian portuguese and russian speakers who are sometimes no represented in public engagement conversations. A key goal of the connected communities study is to engage in focused community outreach by partnering with communities of different backgrounds and experiences to ensure their travel needs are duly incorporated in the planning process. One of the project objectives is to go beyond online surveys and invite regions residents into the planning process through focus groups.

Subrecipient activities

Pvta will partner with pvpc and prof. Eleni christofa in the civil and environmental engineering department at the university of massachusetts - amherst. Most of the funds will go towards funding a umass graduate student who will be doing a large portion the work and the in-kind match will come from the umass professors and pvta planners time. We will also partner with organizations in the area including the towns of amherst northampton holyoke chicopee palmer and springfield.pvta will partner with pvpc and prof. Eleni christofa in the CEE department at umass. We will also partner with organizations in the areas of persistent poverty shown below. We are requesting $150000 in grant funds to conduct the research project over 18 months. Most of the funds will go towards funding a graduate student who will be doing a large chunk of the work and the remaining will be applied towards marketing materials and incentives for the stakeholder engagement. The in-kind match will come from the umass professors and pvta time.