Section 5316 Job Access and Reverse Commute Program (JARC)
Job
Access Reverse Commute (JARC) is a program under the Federal Transit
Administration of the US Department of Transportation. The purpose of the JARC grant program is to
assist states and localities in developing new or expanded transportation
services that connect welfare recipients and other low income persons to jobs
and other employment related services. Job Access projects are targeted at
developing new or expanded transportation services such as shuttles, vanpools,
new bus routes, connector services to mass transit, and guaranteed ride home
programs for welfare recipients and low income persons who are unemployed or
underemployed. These grants are designed to serve persons at or below 150% of
the federally-defined poverty level. Reverse
Commute projects are generally not constrained by end-user income level and provide transportation services to suburban employment
centers from urban, rural and other suburban locations for all populations. Eligible
applicants under both the Job Access and Reverse Commute segments include
private non-profit organizations, state or local governmental authority, and
operators of public transportation services including private operators of
public transportation services.
Eligible
activities for Job Access grants include capital, operating and planning
expenses of services, equipment, facilities, and associated capital maintenance
items related to providing access to jobs. Eligible projects include, but are
not limited to:
o Late-night
and weekend service;
o Guaranteed
ride home service;
o Shuttle
service;
o Expanding
fixed route mass transit routes;
o Demand-responsive
van service;
o Ridesharing
and carpooling activities;
o Transit
related aspects of bicycling;
Also included are the costs of promoting the use of
transit by workers with nontraditional work schedules, promoting the use of
transit vouchers, and promoting the use of employer-provided transportation
including the transit benefits. In addition, mobility
management activities are an eligible capital expense. These eligible expenses
are defined as short-range planning and management activities and projects for
improving coordination among public transportation and other transportation
services providers. For Reverse Commute grants, the following activities are
eligible—operating costs, capital costs and other costs associated with reverse
commute by bus, train, carpool, vans or other transit service.
Eligible
activities for Reverse Commute grants, include (with specific applications
similar to those described for Job Access grants) operating costs, capital
costs and other costs associated with reverse commute by bus, train, carpool,
vans or other transit service.
As
designated by the Governor of the State of
Arizona
, the City of Phoenix Public Transit Department administers
JARC funds for large urbanized areas (population over 200,000) within the
Maricopa
County
region of the state. All projects funded under this
program must be derived from a locally developed, coordinated public
transit-human services transportation planning process. Federal funds provide
for up to 80 percent of capital projects and 50 percent of operating projects.
The Federal funds are available for the year appropriated plus two years (total
of three years).
Joint Job
Access Reverse Commute / New Freedom Application (Word Document) / (PDF Document)