Access to Transportation

Transportation access has a big impact on a person’s ability to be healthy, get to a good-paying job, school or the grocery store, access healthcare services, and stay socially connected.
 

An internal staff team has developed three goals for the Department to address:

  • Ensure vulnerable populations have adequate access to transportation that meets their needs
  • Work towards establishing healthier environments through health in all policies and health in planning (e.g. increasing use of active transportation)
  • Strive for safe integration of multi-modal transportation options in our communities

Understanding local transportation issues:

  • The Fox Valley Thrives Transportation Team conducted a series of focus groups to understand user perceptions of the Oshkosh area’s transportation system. These focus groups allow for better understanding of the connections between transportation and health, identify what facilities enhance or impede a person’s ability to use walking, biking, and transit in the Fox Valley, and determine what changes might need to be made in the built environment to improve access to transportation. Link to report: Linking Health and Transportation: Voices of Oshkosh Walkers, Cyclists and Transit Users
  • Student Access to Public Transportation is a flier highlighting the benefits of transportation access and its relevance to public health priorities.
  • "An Evaluation of the GO Transit City Bus Program for K-12 Students in Oshkosh": In early 2023, the UWO Whitburn Center for Governance and Policy Research, in partnership with the Winnebago County Health Department and a community stakeholder team, completed a research project to evaluate GO Transit's pilot program offering no-cost rides to K-12 students in Oshkosh since 2020 and its impact on students and their parent/caretakers.

Winnebago County Public Health staff are involved in many transportation-related steering teams and initiatives including: