Expanding Access Through Transportation (2026)

A new investment in mobility, opportunity, and connection across Clark and Floyd counties

Reliable transportation can shape nearly every part of daily life.

It can determine whether someone can get to work on time, make a medical appointment, reach a grocery store, attend a training program, or stay connected to the people and services they depend on.

That is why the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana (CFSI) is investing $2.45 million to support the expansion of affordable public transportation throughout Clark and Floyd counties.

Through this two-year initiative, CFSI is partnering with Blue River Services and its Southern Indiana Transit System (SITS) to expand transportation options for residents across both counties.

The program is designed to provide safe, reliable, affordable, and accessible transportation while creating stronger connections between rural communities, cities, jobs, healthcare providers, and other essential destinations.

What will the program include?

The expanded Southern Indiana Transit System will focus on two types of service designed to provide both flexibility and reliability for residents traveling throughout Clark and Floyd counties:

On-Demand Transportation

On-demand service allows riders to schedule transportation based on where and when they need to travel.

This option can provide greater flexibility for residents who may need transportation to work, medical appointments, training, shopping, or other destinations at specific times or locations.

Deviated Routes

Deviated routes operate along established routes and schedules while allowing limited flexibility to pick up or drop off riders away from designated stops.

This option combines the predictability of a regular route with additional flexibility for riders who may not live or work directly along it. It may work well for a regular commuter, an older adult who has difficulty reaching a designated stop or someone making recurring trips who values a predictable schedule but needs additional flexibility with where they are picked up or dropped off.

Together, these options are intended to create a transportation system that can respond to the different ways people move throughout our community.

Who can use the service?

The program is designed for the general public.

Riders will not need to qualify through Medicare or Medicaid, meet a specific income threshold, or belong to a particular population to use the service. That means the expanded system can serve workers, older adults, veterans, people with disabilities, students, families, and anyone else who needs an affordable transportation option.

For trips within the service area, one-way fares are expected to range from $2 to $4, depending on distance.

The expanded SITS fleet will also include ADA-accessible minibuses operated by trained and certified drivers.

Built around the way our community actually travels

Before expanding routes and services, Blue River Services spent time gathering information directly from the people who live and work in Clark and Floyd counties.

Residents were asked about:

• Where they travel most often
• The destinations that matter most to them
• How far those destinations are from home
• How they currently get where they need to go
• What transportation challenges they experience
• Which types of service would be most useful

Blue River Services also connected with local governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and community leaders to help ensure the planning process reflected a wide range of perspectives.

That information is helping shape where routes are located, how services operate, and where expanded transportation can make the greatest difference.

Why transportation?

Transportation has repeatedly surfaced as an important community issue in CFSI’s research and community listening efforts.

In Priorities for Progress in Southern Indiana: 2025 Update, produced by the Indiana University Southeast Applied Research and Education Center, residents and local service providers described transportation as a barrier to employment, healthcare, workforce training, and other everyday needs.

In the accompanying community survey, 45% of respondents identified improving public transportation as a priority.

The listening sessions told an even deeper story.

Participants repeatedly described the need for affordable, reliable transportation – particularly for employment and training. Some residents envisioned a system similar to a work on-demand transportation network, providing on-demand transportation so that not having a vehicle would not prevent someone from accepting or keeping a job.

Those conversations helped demonstrate that transportation is about much more than moving from one place to another.

Transportation isn’t the destination. Access is.

A transportation system is valuable because of what it connects people to.

For one person, that may mean a dependable ride to work. For someone else, it could mean making a medical appointment without relying on a family member’s schedule. It could mean reaching a grocery store, participating in workforce training, attending a community program, or simply having greater independence.

Transportation can also strengthen our regional economy by helping employers connect with workers and making it easier for customers to reach businesses and services throughout Clark and Floyd counties.

In that sense, transportation supports many of the same priorities our community works on every day: economic opportunity, health, education, quality of life, and community connection.

An opportunity to build something sustainable

This initiative is about more than expanding transportation for two years.

It is also an opportunity to better understand what works.

During the grant period, Blue River Services will be able to study ridership, identify the routes and services residents use most, adjust based on demand and gather real-world data about transportation needs across Clark and Floyd counties.

That information can help community partners demonstrate the long-term value of expanded public transportation and pursue the partnerships and funding necessary to sustain the service beyond the initial grant period.

The goal is to use this investment not simply to provide transportation today, but to help create a stronger foundation for transportation in Southern Indiana for years to come.

Turning community input into action

This project reflects one of the most important roles CFSI can play as a community foundation:

• We listen to the people who live here.
• We study the opportunities and challenges facing our region.
• We bring organizations and community leaders together.

And when the right opportunity emerges, we help connect resources with ideas that can make a meaningful difference.

This transportation initiative grew directly from that process.

Our community identified a challenge. Local research helped us understand it more clearly. Blue River Services brought the experience and infrastructure necessary to respond. And funding through Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT IX) initiative gave our Foundation an opportunity to make a significant investment in a potential solution.

For CFSI, this is community philanthropy in action.

Help make the next opportunity possible

Projects like this are possible because people throughout Southern Indiana choose to invest in the future of our community.

CFSI’s Community Impact Fund gives our Foundation flexible resources to respond to emerging needs, support promising opportunities and invest in projects and programs that strengthen Clark and Floyd counties.

Because the fund is unrestricted, gifts can be directed where they can make the greatest difference as needs and opportunities evolve. When you give to the Community Impact Fund, you’re helping CFSI continue listening, responding and investing in the people and organizations working to make Southern Indiana stronger.

Support the Community Impact Fund and help create the next opportunity for our community.