Possible types of costs. As discussed in the "Who Else is Doing It?" section, the costs of starting and operating a children's shuttle program for low-income families can be significant. Costs or cost estimates for existing programs vary from $9 to $22 per ride; total program costs run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to serve 100-plus children. The agency or community group sponsoring the shuttle needs to have an accurate accounting of the estimated costs of the service being proposed, so they will be able to request adequate amount of grant funding and securing local matching funds (if required). Potential costs of starting and operating a children's shuttle service can include the following:

Of course, the costs of starting a children's shuttle program in your community will vary depending on the scale and type of shuttle program that you want to get started, as well as numerous other factors that are unique to your community (such as the size of your community, the location and distribution of schools, childcare facilities, and the number of low-income children in your community). For help in estimating project costs, contact someone who is operating a children's shuttle already or see the Guidebook for Developing Welfare-to-Work Transportation Services in the 'Dig a Little Deeper' section. 

In general, costs will likely be higher in communities where the need for safe and affordable transportation for low-income children is greatest (i.e. in communities with larger number of low-income families and in communities where schools, childcare facilities, and low-income households are relatively dispersed and spread out from one another).

 

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Potential funding sources. Once you have estimated the potential costs of starting and operating a children's shuttle, you can begin identifying potential sources of funding. Two of the three Bay Area children's shuttle programs discussed in the "Who Else is Doing It?" section have received some funding from MTC's Low-Income Flexible Transportation (LIFT) Program. The LIFT Program was initiated by MTC in 2000 to improve transportation services for residents of low-income communities (for more information on LIFT, see What's LIFT Got to Do With It?). The LIFT program has undergone two cycles of competitive funding that awarded grants to Give Kids a LIFT! in Santa Clara County and the Alameda Kids Coach in the City of Alameda (as well as the Solano County Kids Express, which is not currently operating and is therefore not discussed in this profile). In addition, the LIFT Program directed some federal Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) grant monies to fund the expansion of the Children's Transportation Project in Contra County. MTC has required a 20% to 50% local funding match for LIFT funds. The table shows the total budget and funding sources for each of the children's shuttle programs discussed in this profile:

Funding for children's shuttle programs (in addition to MTC's LIFT Program discussed above and the state CalWORKs and federal JARC grants discussed in the "Who Else is Doing It?" section) are available from other sources, including:

For more information on possible costs of starting and operating a children's shuttle program, jump to the 'Who You Gonna Call?' section to contact the people administering existing children's shuttles in the Bay Area. For more information on potential funding sources for starting and operating a children's shuttle, check out the MTC's Low-Income Flexible Transportation (LIFT) website or contact the people listed in the Who You Gonna Call?' section.