Mobility: for a growing number of Upper Valley residents, it's never been more difficult.
As low and moderate-income families in the region struggle to shuttle back and forth from their homes, jobs and other commitments, many are learning that their present modes of transportation are falling short of their destinations.
High costs of living in the Upper Valley have forced thousands of workers to move to more rural and inaccessible parts of the region. While many families have purchased two and sometimes three cars to keep up, poor Upper Valley residents are falling further behind, according to area outreach leaders.
Increasingly long commutes and the lack of sufficient public transportation have added to the problem. Advance Transit, a bus company that operates routes throughout the area, cannot go everywhere. And while community leaders have made concerted attempts at forming large circuits of carpools, unusual working hours keep many of those in need from taking advantage of such services.
"The farther out you go, the more you have to rely on a private car," said Upper Valley United Way executive director Jim Tonkovich. "Sometimes people have to seek work closer to their home, which may mean a lower-paying job ... it becomes a vicious cycle."
Still, progress is being made. Advance Transit, a 15-year old service that receives most of its funding from the Federal Transit Administration, recently eliminated its rider fees, thanks to increased contributions from the College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the municipalities of Lebanon and Hanover. Since October, each month has witnessed an average of 10,250 rides.
Local officials have also devised alternative methods to alleviate workers' transportation difficulties.
Advance Transit coordinates an extensive carpool-matching program dubbed Rideshare that guarantees free transportation to registered participants in the event of an emergency. Nearly 1,000 commuters in the Upper Valley region have registered. Their carpools have reduced automobile travel in the region by over 1 million miles a year, according to Rideshare statistics.
Good News Garage, a program run by the Lutheran Social Services of New England, operates an on-demand transit program that uses donated cars to shuttle those earning below 150 percent of the poverty level and lacking a valid drivers license.
"On average, these people have around $500 in fines that they're unable to pay," said Good News Garage executive director Hal Colston. "Many times, when they were younger and underage, their licenses were suspended."
Some poor Upper Valley residents also need assistance even if they already own their vehicles.
In many cases, low-income workers, a group comprising 30 percent of Vermont and New Hampshire residents, are paying too much to drive unreliable cars, outreach coordinator Robert Chambers said.
Chambers chairs Fannie Clac, a newly-founded organization based in Lebanon that works to make the ownership of cars more available and more affordable.
"You can't exist in rural areas without an automobile," Chambers said, adding that many poor people are tricked by car dealers into paying exorbitant interest rates for bad cars. "If they don't show up for work because their car breaks down ... it can have enormous social costs."
In Grafton County, where Hanover is located, a four-person family qualifies as low-income with a combined annual salary of $40,800.
To get poor workers into their own cars, Fannie Clac places guarantees with banks to ensure that loans are approved, Chambers said. After, Fannie Clac offers financial literacy classes on how so that its clients can begin to rebuild their credit ratings.
"We're enabling them so that they don't have to come back to us next time," Chambers said. "We're also teaching them how to pick the best vehicle -- many of our clients have commutes of 50 or 60 miles."
