Title: Planning for future successes among rural volunteer driver programs: Understanding local preferences of prospective users and drivers

摘要

Many rural citizens depend solely on their automobiles to meet their needs, but the health effectsof aging can make driving impossible over time. Volunteer driver programs can be a solutionwhere no alternatives exist, yet available tool-kits offer limited guidance for community datacollection, analysis and interpretation of results, making success difficult to predict. The TRBAP060 Paratransit Committee at the TRB Annual Meeting in 2007 proposed a national researcheffort in this area to study “the factors…contribut[ing] to the success of volunteer driverprograms in different settings”.This paper presents stated preferences from prospective users and volunteers regardinganticipated factors critical to the success of a rural volunteer driver program focused on medicalappointments. An extensive engagement campaign among a rural area of 21,000 in NewBrunswick, Canada returned 68 positive responses to involvement with the program (28 as usersonly, 7 as drivers only, 17 as volunteers only, and 16 with multiple roles). Most respondentswere female and aged 25-65. The majority (82% and 79%) of prospective users felt it wasimportant or very important to access local and regional medical appointments, respectively,while 40% felt the same for shopping trips. The majority (59%) of prospective drivers felt it wasimportant or very important to be paid for mileage, while 23% felt the same about receiving acharitable receipt for their donation. Next steps include further research to predict ridership andvolunteer supply, trip preferences, and policy development to address operational concerns, suchas insurance.