| Jennifer Cohan
Traffic Technology International July/August 2019 013
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
Jennifer Cohan reveals how DelDOT is
investing in to help less mobile citizens
get equal access to transportation
The locals sometimes say,
‘Well, you’re just trying to get
tourists to the beach quickly and you don’t
care about us!’. For us, it’s a balancing act
Everyone’s talking about
mobility on demand
and Mobility-as-a-
Service, but we’re providing
something very unique in
Delaware: Mobility as a
Right. The Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) requires
that anywhere you have a
fixed route transit, within
three quarters of a mile, you
have to offer paired transit.
In Delaware, for people with
a disability, we’ll pick them
up and offer them a doorto
door service. It’s very
expensive to deliver, but we
do it because we want
these people to be able to
have an impact on their
society, rather than being
stuck at home with limited
access, or not being able to
be a part of a workforce.
With Mobility as a Right,
they’re able to give back.
I sincerely hope that this
concept catches hold with
other DOTs because there’s
a whole group of sensitive
populations with needs,
who are not paid
enough attention
at the moment.
Above: Delaware’s Mobility
as a Right project ensures
citizens with disabilities
have the same access to
transportation as able
bodied counterparts
possible, even in the face of unforeseen
circumstances.
With a mean elevation of 60ft (18m),
Delaware is one of the lowest-lying states in
the country. “So this crazy weather – the
wettest two consecutive seasons in 125 years
– has created tremendous flooding issues,”
Cohan says. “We’re trying to get our projects
done while taking into consideration climate
change and rising sea levels, which are
impacting us significantly.”
Fortunately for Delaware, the DOT resides
in the same building as the Emergency
Management Agency. “We’re in constant
contact with them,” says Cohan.
In addition to disruption to transportation
networks, flooding in the state’s geographical
set-up presents other unique challenges.
“In Delaware, we have the ocean on one side
and the bay on the other,” says Cohan. “If we
get a huge storm and a high tide, the waters
meet and that causes not only infrastructure
damage, but environmental habitat damage
too, because the salt water and fresh water
have mixed.”
Delaware’s geographical set-up also
creates logistical challenges for DelDOT as
it strives to meet the needs of both tourists
and residents.
“One of the things we struggle with is
having a lot of congestion in the north of the
state, and in the south we’ve got our beaches
and resort areas,” says Cohan. “So in the
north, the locals sometimes say, ‘Well,
you’re just trying to get tourists to the beach
quickly and you don’t care about us!’ For us,
it’s a balancing act.
“We’re trying to make just as many
operational improvements to help our locals
get around. It’s something we’ve always been
doing, but now we’re making more noise
about it and essentially wording our
promotional materials better.”
Prioritizing the right projects
As with many things in life, money often
helps to get the ball rolling. When Cohan was
appointed as Secretary, she managed to get a
revenue package approved for DelDOT from
the governor, dedicated to progressing
5
The number of years
that Cohan has been
Secretary of DelDOT
Mobility as a Right
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