California Air Resources Board

Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program
Community Transportation Needs Assessment

Fresno Area Express (FAX) | Clean Transportation Needs Assessment for the Three Palms Mobile Home Park and RV Park

December 2020 – August 2021

Project Details

Fresno Department of Transportation / Fresno Area Express (FAX) community transportation needs assessment focused on the Three Palm Mobile Home Park and RV Park in Fresno, California. The process used a variety of methods such as quantitative and qualitative bilingual surveys, virtual meetings, social distanced gatherings, and educational materials to engage and outreach to the community members. The grant partners also held a focus group to help guide the community engagement process, gather information, and engage with other residents. The project team used gift card raffles to encourage attendance or participation in all of the outreach events and surveys.

Project Highlights

• The quantitative surveys gave insight into the demographics of the residents. We initially received only a handful of quantitative surveys due to the length of the surveys. As a result, our team went door-to-door with iPads trying to assist residents with taking the survey and offering gift cards upon completion, which resulted in the completion of additional surveys.
• The qualitative surveys provided greater insight into clean mobility options that the residents were more likely to use. We also ended up going door-to-door to obtain responses to the qualitative surveys.
• In order to increase survey responses and community engagement, we held a focus group, offering gift cards for those that attended, as well as a $200 gift card raffle at the end of the meeting. The focus group provided the deepest insights and created community cohesion around the project. We were able to use the survey and focus group results to begin crafting the summary report and provided an overview of the summary report to the community at the last in-person community meeting.
• More residents came to the later events, showing that the project gained steam as it moved forward over time. The gift cards and food were important components, as well as the door-to-door visits and conversations. All materials were provided in both English and Spanish, and all meetings were held in English and Spanish, building trust with the community.   

Lessons Learned 

• Providing free food and music was the most effective way to get community attendance, especially attendance by families with young children. When children were welcomed, families showed up. Raffling the smaller gift cards off in the middle of the event and the larger gift cards off at the end of the community meeting was an effective way of keeping the families at the event and keeping them engaged during the meeting, providing greater opportunities for feedback.
• Holding events outside (even in 100 degree weather) generated more attendance than virtual meetings. We advertised the in-person meetings with the request to wear masks during the meeting. We provided free masks at the meetings and found residents more than willing to wear their masks outside during the entire meetings.
• Residents were intimidated by the length of the quantitative survey. Future surveys should be shorter.

Funding Details

Voucher Total: $48,430

Resource Contributions: Approximately $145,290

By the Numbers

Community Engagement Activities

• 1 Quantitative survey (10 responses)
• 1 Qualitative survey (20 responses)
• 4 Community meetings, 2 virtual (13 total participants) and 2 in-person (98 total participants)
• 1 Focus group (12 participants) 
• 65 Gift cards (total value of $1,920)
• 50 Tote bags with CMO logo distributed
• 50 T-Shirts with CMO logo distributed
• 4 Proposed solutions
• 3 Evaluation surveys submitted

Estimated Quantifiable Benefits

• Direct Jobs: 1
• Indirect Jobs: 1
• Induced Jobs: 1

Community Details

The project was focused in the small community of the Three Palms Mobile Home Park located in central Fresno. The mobile home park contains approximately 100 mobile home lots wedged between the 99 Highway, the Clinton Avenue exit ramp, railroad tracks, and Golden State Blvd, with the future High Speed Rail tracks coming soon. Nearly one-third of the adults who reside in the census tract containing Three Palms have not graduated from high school. Over 60% of the residents of the census tract identify as Latinx and over half do not speak English at home. Nearly half of the families have incomes below the federal poverty limit, with a median household income of $22,428. The targeted area has very poor walkability and lacks infrastructure for safe paths to food, schools, and connecting transit. Three Palms residents often travel lengthy distances on foot due to inadequate access to the public transit system nearby, and the fact that many families do not have access to a personal vehicle.

Community Benefits

The main goal was to assess and address transportation concerns of a community that is primarily minority and low-income. Given the infrastructure barriers surrounding the community (freeways, rail, high speed rail, and industrial land uses), FAX is unable to add additional fixed route transit services closer to the area. The project explored potential clean mobility transportation solutions that could meet the unique needs of the Three Palms Mobile Home Park residents.

Outreach & Engagement Strategies

• Focus groups
• Pop-up community events
• Gift card incentives
• Telephone and video meetings
• Multi-lingual surveys
• Advisory group

Target Populations

• Bilingual quantitative and qualitative surveys
• Community meetings (virtual and in-person)
• Focus group
• Gift card incentives
• Outdoor gatherings
• Food trucks and kona ice trucks
• Free giveaways (t-shirts, tote bags with the CMO and CCI logos as well as the project partner logos)
• Door-to-door visits to encourage responses to the surveys and attendance at the meetings and focus group gathering
• Some social media (limited due to demographics of area)

Partnership Structure

Voucher Recipient 

Fresno Department of Transportation / Fresno Area Express (FAX) has been the transit operator for the City of Fresno since 1961. FAX functions within the City of Fresno's Department of Transportation, and is governed by the Fresno City Council. With 18 fixed routes and a fleet of over 100 buses, FAX is the largest transit provider in the Central Valley region, providing roughly 10.5 million unlinked passenger trips per year. FAX consistently performs public outreach events, including pop-up events at transit stops and workshops throughout the City.

Project Partners

• Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability 
• Inspiration Transportation 

Contact

Carolina Ilic | (559) 621-1499 | FAX