Milford – Pike County residents respond to a survey by saying they would like more transportation, but not if it meant higher taxes.

Ed Abrams, of Abrams-Cherwony & Associates, gave the final results of the Pike County Transportation Study, funded by PennDOT, to the Pike County Commissioners. The results were compiled from a Resident Mail Survey that was sent out to 1,700 Pike County households. Approximately 25% of the households responded to the survey. The big message was that Pike residents did not want anything done with the transportation system to cause tax changes. Abrams said, “This is the strongest response I’ve ever seen in seven surveys.”

Abrams said that the results showed 54% said that public transportation was very important or important, but 38.9% said that public transportation was not important. This was the highest percentage out of eight surveys that Abrams has completed. Most, 23.3%, responded that they would use public transportation to go shopping and, 18.5%, recreational/social events. About 33% of the responders felt that direct mailing was the best way to get them information

Most of the responders who use the Area Office of Aging Transportation felt that the one thing that needed to be changed was the telephone reservation system. The biggest issue with this group was that they get a busy signal, 50%, or no answer, 39.6%, when they called the first time. In response to this issue, Donna Falconi, Transportation Manager, said that they will work to improve the menu system so that Seniors and others who try to make phone reservations will have more choices then those used presently

Falconi also wanted to let Pike residents know that 85% of the funding for this service comes from PennDOT through the Pennsylvania Lottery.

County Commission Chairman Harry Forbes said they will look for additional sources of outside funding to pay for any transportation enhancements.