Mobility management

Mobility management is a customer-focused approach to connecting riders with transportation services so that older adults, people with disabilities, low-income workers, and youth can access the trips they need to get to jobs, services, and community life.

Learn about mobility management strategies and resources in Massachusetts.

What is a mobility manager?

Mobility managershelp people get where they need to go, using all transportation resources in a community. Mobility managers:

• Are knowledgeable about a variety of transportation services in the area
• Help individuals plan trips and arrange rides
• May also work with transportation providers to help them meet riders’ needs and encourage them to coordinate with each other
• Advocate to policymakers on the importance of community transportation, mobility, and access

You can be a mobility manager. Anyone helping older adults, people with disabilities, and others find and use transportation options is doing mobility management - whether or not your title is "Mobility Manager."

Tools and resources

If you work with older adults, people with disabilities, or others who lack access to transportation, check out these tools and resources so you can offer mobility management services to your consumers:

Learn about community transportation

• Ride Match - use this online, searchable database of public and private transportation options to find services near you
• Find transportation resources near you
• Training on community transportation and mobility management in Massachusetts for aging and disability service providers
• Training on mobility management from the National Center for Mobility Management
• Community transportation terminology

Build partnerships

• Regional Coordinating Councils - fostering collaborative relationships between transportation providers and human service agencies
• Coordinate community transportation

Create solutions

• Funding opportunities
• Human service agencies and community transportation - programming that community-based organizations can implement to support consumers in accessing mobility options
• Transportation directories, service inventories, and trip planners

More resources

• National Center for Mobility Management
• Mobility manager job descriptions
• MassMobility reports

Examples of mobility management

• TRIPPS - initiative of the Brookline Council on Aging to offer mobility management to older adults in Brookline
• Find more examples in the monthly MassMobility newsletter

Mobility Management in Massachusetts: A virtual forum held February 3, 2022

View transcript 

Skip this video.

You skipped the video, Mobility Management in Massachusetts - A Virtual Forum.

Description

Navigating community transportation options can be confusing for older adults, people with disabilities, and others in need of a ride. Through using mobility management strategies, you can facilitate mobility - by working directly with consumers to help them become aware of and learn to use the options available to them, and/or by working with transportation providers and other stakeholders to coordinate and expand mobility options. Held February 3, 2022, this forum featured examples of how local agencies integrate mobility management into their work.

Speakers

• Welcome & introduction – Rachel Fichtenbaum, MassMobility
• Mobility management in a transition program – Sherry Elander, Westfield Public Schools
• Mobility management at an Area Agency on Aging – Ruth Lindsay, SeniorCare
• Mobility management at a Council on Aging – Maria Foster, TRIPPS, Brookline Council on Aging
• Mobility management at a transit authority – Angie Constantino, Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA)
• Mobility management at the national level – Judy Shanley, National Center for Mobility Management and Easterseals
• Funding for mobility management – Jenna Henning, MassDOT

This virtual forum was co-hosted by MassDOT Rail and Transit, the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, and MassMobility.

Massachusetts Regional Mobility Management Study - 2023

Some states have a system of Regional Mobility Managers where the state is divided into regions, and each region has a Mobility Manager available to help individuals navigate transportation options, and/or help bring organizations together to collaborate to fill gaps in the transportation network. In 2023, MassDOT conducted a study to look at this model and whether it would be beneficial for Massachusetts. Thanks to everyone who participated in the study through interviews, focus groups, or an online survey. Read the study.

In summer 2024, MassDOT received an Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility grant from the Federal Transit Administration to hire a Statewide Mobility Lead to make progress on the next steps outlined in the Regional Mobility Manager study, as well as take other steps to increase transportation coordination statewide so that older adults, people with disabilities, and low-income individuals have an easier time navigating transportation options. The Statewide Mobility Lead will also support community-based organizations to collaborate to fill gaps in the transportation system. To inform and guide their work, the Statewide Mobility Lead will convene a statewide Working Group on Access and Mobility to facilitate conversations about transportation among agencies such as the MassAbility (formerly the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission), Executive Office of Aging and Independence (formerly Elder Affairs), and others - inspired by the national Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility convened by FTA.

Access and Mobility Working Group

Some states have a system of Regional Mobility Managers where the state is divided into regions, and each region has a Mobility Manager available to help older adults, people with disabilities and other individuals navigate transportation options, and/or help bring organizations together to collaborate to fill gaps in the transportation network.  

In 2023, MassDOT conducted a study to look at this model and whether it would be beneficial for Massachusetts. Through a process that included 60 1-1 interviews, 3 focus groups, and a survey, the study revealed that Massachusetts stakeholders and practitioners did think this model would be beneficial for the state, and identified potential advantages including: 

• enhanced regionalization & coordination of services
• additional local and credible source of information focused on the breadth of transportation services in an area (public, municipal, nonprofit, and private)
• an increase in access and reduction in barriers to transportation services  

The MA Access and Mobility Working Group is an interagency group that is helping develop an implementation plan for this system of Regional Mobility Managers. It is also an opportunity for practitioners from aging and disability services to learn from and connect with community transportation providers and discuss transit gaps and challenges. 

The working group kicked off in fall 2025 and anticipates meeting through spring or summer 2026, with an implementation plan targeted for late fall 2026. Past meeting dates: 

• September 11, 2025: Presentation by Bill Wagner, Director and Kayla Kasanova, Program Coordinator from CCAM-TAC
• October 30, 2025: Presentation by Steve Workman from Transport, NH on the development of the New Hampshire system of regional mobility managers
• December 4, 2025: Group discussion of job functions of Regional Mobility Managers

Current members include: Executive Office of Aging & Independence, Executive Office of Veterans Services, Human Service Transportation Office, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, MassAbility, Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, Massachusetts Councils on Aging, Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, Massachusetts Statewide Independent Living Council, PCA Workforce Council, Regional Transit Authorities, Regional Planning Agencies, community transportation providers, and transportation consumers. MassDOT continues to conduct outreach to additional stakeholders. For more information contact Maria Foster, Statewide Mobility Lead at [e-mail]