City Receives Nearly $20,000 Grant for Transit Education Program
Published on July 03, 2025
How to Ride Project to expand transportation options for older residents
“We are here today because the City listened, learned, and, with support from AARP, will deliver the priority services our seniors want and need,” Mayor Gaylor Baird said. “This new funding will make life better for Lincoln’s older adults by making it easier to get to where they need to go – whether that’s a doctor’s appointment, the grocery store, or a family gathering.”
The How to Ride Project will run from July through November and include:
- Six in-person educational training sessions for up to 90 participants at senior centers, cultural centers, and Lincoln Literacy on how to use StarTran and BikeLNK. The program will provide 700 transit passes for post-session bus and bicycle use.
- Instructional videos on StarTran’s website featuring translations in Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, Kurdish, and Karen. The videos will cover topics such as planning a ride, boarding, exiting, fare payment, and paratransit services.
- Updated multilingual documents with tips on riding StarTran buses and BikeLNK bike-share program, including translations in Kurdish, French and Nuer.
Joining Mayor Gaylor Baird and Director Elliott at the news conference were City Councilmember Sändra Washington; Todd
Stubbendieck, AARP Nebraska Director; Randy Jones, Aging Partners Director; and Shirley Portis, StarTran rider.
The City applied for the grant, using Aging Partners survey data to build the proposal. The grant helps make public transportation more accessible, inclusive, and easier to use, especially for older adults and residents with limited English proficiency, Elliott said.
“This effort helps more people stay on the route to food, health care, and essential services. With better education, outreach, and language support, we can make public transportation work better for everyone in Lincoln, no matter their age,” Elliott said.
Stubbendieck said the How to Ride Project shows Lincoln’s commitment to being an Age-Friendly Community.
“We deeply value our ongoing partnerships with the city of Lincoln and look forward to our continued collaboration. Together, we can create a community where everyone, regardless of age, can live, work, and play,” Stubbendieck said.
Jones said the Aging Partners Department used listening sessions and a survey to learn that older adults in Lincoln want access to affordable and free bus passes, more accessible information on how to ride the bus, and greater public awareness of how the bus system works. Community feedback helped determine that transportation should be the focus of the grant request, he said.
“We recognize that transportation is a critical lifeline for healthcare, groceries, social connection, and independence. Older adults, like everyone else, rely on it to access essential services and participate fully in community life,” Jones said.
Portis praised StarTran’s paratransit service, noting the courteousness of drivers and dispatchers, and how easy it is to acquire transit passes.
“I highly recommend that if you don’t want to sit in your apartment and grow old, grab the handivan,” Portis said. “It’s easy to schedule, they’re great guys, and it’s truly the only way I could get out and do anything.”
Washington said the award and transit program not only validate Lincoln as an age-friendly community, they also support its status as welcoming community where nationality or language does not determine how far community members can go or what they can achieve.
“By translating educational materials about public transit into multiple languages, the City of Lincoln provides a key entry point for older adults and newer Americans to boost their mobility and quality of life,” Washington said.