Comprehensive transportation website for Berkshire County

Berkshire County’s New Transportation Website: www.berkshiret.com

Last year Berkshire Co-Act, Inc. began an assessment of transportation access issues for Berkshire County. Input from 14 managers and caseworkers in the health and human services field showed the need for a user-friendly transportation website that would list all transportation options in one place. Eighty percent of those surveyed wanted to expand the scope of the site to include recreational travel, thereby encouraging wider participation of the site and the possibility of acquiring promotional partners. The following were some of the comments related to transportation issues in Berkshire County:

• There is a significant need for transportation access for social service clients so that they can keep appointments.
• There are challenges to arranging after-hours transportation, particularly for late shift workers.
• Easy access to alternative transportation information is lacking.
• There is a need for innovative funding to support health and human service transportation volunteers, including covering vehicle costs.
• There is a need to develop more neighborhood connections and trust for community ride share, i.e.: Ride Buzz and Mass Rides.
• Some organizations require CORI checks for transportation providers, which involve additional processes, and complication, for ride board participants.
• Tt is time consuming to locate affordable transit; easy access to information would streamline this process.
• A web feeder mechanism would help by providing access to transportation information options.
• Youth involvement could be achieved by hiring “Attendants” on busy bus routes to assist riders when needed.
• There is a need to perceive transportation as an “empty seat resource” and perhaps provide rewards for participating in ride share or public transportation.
• Positive comments included the progress of Berkshire Regional Transit Authority’s (BRTA) new buses and routes.
• This survey provided the framework that our Co-Act team used to develop a mock web page, which we then used to solicit feedback to refine the website.

We developed the website design criteria keeping the following parameters in mind:

The website should:

• Be easy to access and view and quick to download.
• Address social service needs.
• Have a user-friendly design.
• Include disability access.
• Consider a wide range of travel needs.
• Be marketable to search engines.
• Serve as a transportation link resource.

The preliminary design was set up as a non-active site to use for discussions and further input. This was a user-friendly way to display the findings of our work and allowed for further input, as opposed to providing the information in report form. We chose to use icons rather than photos or other displays because of quick download and easy identifiability.

Altogether, we received input from 32 managers and case workers in health and human services, who directly serve our target audience and are well aware of the range of transportation issues for Berkshire County. Some of their changes have been added to the site, including expanded categories and a map of Berkshire County. They helped address issues such as Paratransit delineation, which we ended up separating into three tabs entitled: Special Mobility Services, Seniors, and Social Service Transport.

Once the scope and the major categories of the site were identified, the demarcation of the transportation information was clearer. Each sub-page has its own unique layout consistent with the overall design criteria and the population served and information needed.

Our team gathered information from various existing websites and other sources in order to populate the various sub-pages with the necessary data. There are, for example, many taxi services in Berkshire County and much recreation information. When there are existing websites with helpful information, those websites will be linked from the www.berkshiret.com website. In other cases, as with the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, we were able to directly provide their schedule information onto the www.berkshiret.com website through the use of interactive buttons, allowing choice of route, direction, and day. This greatly simplifies information access, allowing the user to remain on the www.berkshiret.com website.

Please go to www.berkshiret.com to see the current incarnation of the website. REMINDER: This is a design tool; it is not a working site. We have not yet listed all of the transportation information for each category on this site.

We are still soliciting input from anyone who has ideas and suggestions to offer. Contact Paul Deslauriers, Executive Director of Berkshire Co-Act, Inc. at 413-232-7888 or paul@co-act.org.