The Missouri Public Transit Association (MPTA) will host a virtual panel discussion on Wednesday April 9, 2025 to highlight the results of the 2025 Missouri Transit Needs Assessment Study. MPTA commissioned an update to the 2022 Statewide Transit Needs Assessment Study in January. St. Louis-based Lochmueller Group – a full-service survey, planning, engineering and environmental firm – led the update. The firm examined public transit access across Missouri, identify existing and potential service gaps.
The panel will include Peter Williams, lead consultant with Lochmueller Group, to highlight the study results and responses from Dorothy Yeager, executive director of OATS Transit, and Taulby Roach, President and CEO of Bi-State Development, and Matt Crawford, director of transit at City Utilities of Springfield.
The 2022 study used data from 2015-2019; this update will use data from 2019-2023. Unmet transit need (trips per year) will be estimated for three service types: large urban systems, small city systems, and rural systems. For any unmet transit needs, the cost to meet the demand was estimated.
“Our 2022 Study results demonstrated a gap of more than 39 million rides annually,” commented Kimberly Cella, executive director of the Missouri Public Transit Association. “We want to get a better grasp of the current landscape – have we made a dent in those unmet trips or has the demand grown since 2022. These answers are critical as we work with the Missouri legislature on state transit investment.”
The MPTA will provide the findings to each of the 30 transit providers in the state of Missouri, the Missouri Department of Transportation, state policy makers and others. It will help in the decision-making process tied to transit funding prioritization, programming needs and the establishment of new and revised local services.
Registration for the virtual panel discussion is free, but required.
