Back in March, voters in the Town of Londonderry approved the use of $35,000 to help supplement the town’s Cooperative Alliance for Regional Transportation (CART), and a discussion was had at the June 5 Town Council Meeting about ways to use the program and the funds more efficiently.
One suggestion was for the program to work alongside the Green Cab Company, and it was established at the meeting that a 60-day trial period in which the Green Cab Company and CART cooperate would be put in place over the summer. The trial period began on July 1, but at the August 14 Town Council Meeting, Councilman Joe Green, who is also the council liaison for the Senior Resources Committee, mentioned that there was little community involvement in the trial period.
According to Green, the phone number for CART posted on the town website and used in all their communications was incorrect, and has since been corrected, but the flyers were never delivered to the library or distributed.
“I’m not really sure how many people were able to get [service],” said Green, and suggested that they extend the trial period further because of the miscommunication about the phone number, as well as a lack of users for the program.
“Whenever we have a problem with a pilot when we’re doing a project and it didn’t work right, we extend the pilot,” said John Farrell, Vice Chairman of the Town Council.
“You can’t get proper data to make a proper decision if the pilot wasn’t done correctly,” he continued.
“I just want to make sure that people understand that we are trying to get the right information out there and that everything has been updated,” Green said after the Council decided to extend the trial period.
The CART program has now been extended through October 31 “to assess the transportation needs of Londonderry Seniors and other Londonderry residents eligible for transportation on CART,” according to the town website.
The CART program serves the towns of Londonderry, Chester, Derry, Hampstead, and Salem, and was established by the New Hampshire legislature to meet the need for reliable public transportation. CART began in October of 2006 and has since provided more than 100,000 rides for area residents, according to their website.
There are multiple services CART supplies, the most common being the Curb-to-Curb service that is available to any resident of the five service towns, especially seniors. This service accommodates the needs of individuals with disabilities and wheelchair lift-equipped vehicles are available if needed.
They also offer the Shuttle, which is a “Shopping, nutrition, and medical transportation shuttle and route deviation service” that runs in Derry and Londonderry. This service is a collaborative effort of CART, Rockingham Nutrition Meals on Wheels, and Easter Seals New Hampshire.
CART’s platform is that they “keep people on the move by offering choice, freedom, mobility, increased opportunity, and a better quality of life.”
In Londonderry, if CART can’t accommodate someone, they will notify the Town and the Town will arrange a ride through Green Cab, which is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Until the pilot program ends on October 31, the Town will pay the full fair for all riders who need to be accommodated through Green Cab.
To schedule for a transportation, call CART at 603-434-3569.