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U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater Jan. 4 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Urban League President Hugh Price, furthering their joint commitment to advance transportation by promoting educational opportunities, employment, job training, safety and environmental justice, and furthering an agreement Slater and Price signed in 1998.


"The innovative activities that will flow from our agreement today will help ensure that America’s transportation system leaves no one behind," Slater said in a prepared statement.


One result of the agreement would be the formation of entrepreneurial transportation projects through Community Transportation Association of America’s (CTAA) Joblinks program, which addresses transportation gaps in low-income areas.


A separate but concurrently signed MOU would expand transportation resources to increase job accessibility.


USDOT plans to add National Urban League to Federal Transit Administration’s Joblinks National Leadership Council, which will help plan and monitor the Joblinks initiative.


FTA and CTAA, under another Joblinks demonstration, funded a project with Greyhound Lines Inc. and Federal Express Corp. through the state of Mississippi providing express bus service for employees to access Memphis jobs.


National Urban League and FTA also plan to confer on transportation employment issues and develop a research program addressing those needs.


And the two groups plan to create an entrepreneurial transportation project through the Joblinks Employment Demonstration Program, which would build on a previous Joblinks, and Job Access and Reverse Commute program-funded project in Maryland. This project brings together YWCA and county social services teams to train welfare recipients to operate vans providing transportation for low-income people who are not served by existing county transit.