The Innovation in Transportation Award was presented to the Mass Transportation Authority at the Howell Chamber Annual Meeting held on Thursday, January 26th . The award was given in recognition of the partnership that has formed between the various partners and the counties. The Chamber identified 300-400 new employees that have started jobs in the Howell community as the result of this new transportation program. Additional employers are working with the MTA to expand service further and address the needs of several hundred workers from the Flint/Genesee area that will commute to Howell/Livingston County daily.
In December 2015, business, nonprofit and transportation officials partnered to connect job needs in Livingston County to Flint residents who were willing to work, but had no vehicle to get to the job location. The public-private partnership is something that the Mass Transportation Authority has been involved since the agency started regional transportation. Since 1997, the MTA has transported workers to jobs in different counties. As the counties demographics and jobs change, the need for regional transportation continues to grow. “It’s my estimation that within the next year our work related commuter services, now serving 7 counties, will grow to 5000 unique riders per day and 10,000 individual trips, generating 2-3 million work related trips annually,” Ed Benning, MTA General Manager/CEO, said. “The Howell Chamber has been a great partner in this new service expansion and we appreciate this opportunity.”