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Genesee County's Mass Transportation Authority General Manager/CEO has been nominated for a White House award.
Ed Benning has been nominated for this year's White House Transportation Champions of Change Award in the category of "Beyond Traffic: Innovators in Transportation," according to a news release from the MTA.
Benning said being nominated for the award is a great honor.
"It's an honor just to be nominated," Benning said. "It's not necessarily just about me. I have the opportunity daily to work with a great team. They're so focused on really making this a great community and we're doing everything we can to make sure that people have a great transportation system. It's really kind of special being nominated and it's an honor to think that people recognize what we're doing in this kind of way."
The White House Champions of Change Program highlights the stories and examples of citizens across the nation who are leading projects and initiatives that move their communities forward, according to the release. The innovators are chosen for demonstrating leadership and developing strategies, and also for pioneering mobility management, developing safety programs for communities for minority, older adults, limited English proficiency or other at-risk communities and strategizing to limit greenhouse-gas emissions and facilitating change that positively impacts sustainability.
Benning said the MTA has been the leading effort at the local, state, and federal levels on the emerging need for non-emergency medical transportation. The Your Ride Plus program is done in conjunction with Your Ride and providing service with the new PACE program.
"That's one program where we're providing non-emergency medical transportation and that program will scale up to 225 seniors that are being transported daily just to go to that program," Benning said. "In the community we are partnering with the hospitals, like the Valley Area Agency on Aging. We are providing transportation for the most frail seniors to go to medical appointments.
"What's happening around the country is that people are just having a difficult time figuring out how to do this. We are, what I think, in the midst of one of the greatest growths in medical-related transportation needs that we've never had anything of this magnitude. Under the Affordable Health Care Act, there are thousands of people that now will be able to go to medical appointments and they need transportation. We're stepping up to that and doing those services. We'll even be doing much more of that as we move along."
The number of vehicles used in the Your Ride Plus program will be increased, Benning said, because the need is so strong.
Benning has also worked to develop the strongest, most diverse alternative fuel program in the Midwest, according to the release. His innovation of "theme buses" has also been noted nationally. He came up with a Pink Bus to recognize the growing number of people affected by cancer, as well as a theme bus to honor veterans.
More recently, Benning established Rides to Groceries to help those in the community have access to food after a number of grocery stores closed in the Flint area. Benning said with this initiative, the MTA plans to go a step further and begin picking people up from their homes if they can't make it to bus stops.
"It's important to us to provide these special services that are now emerging in our community," Benning said.
The innovators chosen will attend an invitational event at the White House on Oct. 13. Benning said he will find out in late September if he will be making the trip.