Kopke & Associates, Inc.


 

13780 Hummingbird Rd
Fayetteville, AR 72701
Email: Taunya.Kopke@gmail.com

479-409-0416

Taunya Kopke, President

Kopke & Associates, Inc. (K&A) provides consulting services for community and public transportation providers and the agencies, authorities, boards, commissions, local governments and other public and private entities responsible for them.  Since 1996, K&A has completed dozens of projects in the U.S. and Canada.

Core Services

  • Transit Scheduling, Dispatch & Information Technology Implementation
  • Public Transportation Operations Procedures
  • Service Planning, Design & Operation
  • Fixed Route, Route Deviation, Zone Route, Paratransit & Demand Response
  • Call Center Processes
  • Routing, Reservations, & Scheduling
  • Demand, Productivity & Performance Analysis
  • ADA Compliance

Expertise

  • Transit Software & Technology - Development, Procurement & Implementation
  • Scheduling system implementation, review, & procurement
  • Service design, integration, & innovation
  • Scheduling system setup decisions & testing
  • Rural/Small-Urban Transportation Planning & Funding
  • Project management in transit
  • ADA review, scheduling & operation
  • Demand response transit run performance analysis
  • Application and report development
  • Local bus route performance analysis
  • Public policy analysis & legislative priorities
  • Stakeholder participation & coalition building
  • Coordination planning & implementation
  • Non-emergency medical transportation
  • Program evaluation and assessment
  • Needs identification & demand forecasting
  • GIS analysis and mapping
  • Transit Miner dashboard development, using Trapeze and Routematch data.

References/Experience

    • Boston Public Schools, Boston, MA
    • Capital Metro Transit, Austin, TX
    • Central Arkansas Transit Authority, Little Rock, AR
    • Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority, Columbia, SC
    • Chatham Area Transit, Savannah, GA
    • CitiBus, Watertown, NY
    • City of Fort Smith, Fort Smith, AR
    • Clermont Transportation Connection, Batavia, OH
    • Community Transportation Association of America, Washington, DC
    • Concord Kannapolis Area Transit - Rider, Concord, NC
    • Dyntek Services, Inc., Farmington Hills, Michigan, and Virginia Medicaid contractor call centers
    • East Central Arkansas Transit, Forest City, AR
    • Fort Worth Transportation Authority, Fort Worth, TX
    • Greensboro Transit Authority - GTA & SCAT, Greensboro, NC
    • Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA), Kansas City, MO
    • Los Angeles DASH 1, 2 & 3, Los Angeles, CA
    • Loudoun County Commuter Bus, Purcellville, VA
    • Martin County Metropolitan Planning Organization, Stuart, FL
    • METRO Transit, Oklahoma City, OK
    • Metropolitan Tulsa Transit Authority, Tulsa, OK
    • New York State Department of Transportation, Public Transportation, Albany, NY
    • Ozark Regional Transit, Springdale, AR
    • Pima Association of Governments, Tucson, AZ
    • Prangley & Company, Cincinnati, OH
    • Redding Area Bus Authority - RABA, Redding, CA
    • San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), El Cajon, CA
    • TranSystems, Inc., Kansas City, MO
    • Union County Paratransit, Elizabeth, NJ
    • Valley Metro, Mesa, AZ
    • Transdev (formerly Veolia), Transportation Business Technology Group, Lombard, Ill & Paris, France
    • Vine, Napa, CA
    • Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, Metro Access - Capital Heights, Adams Place
    • 2G Transit Solutions, Inc.














    Founder

    Taunya Kopke founded Kopke & Associates, Inc. (K&A) in 1996 to provide community transportation consulting services. Taunya has been working in public transportation since 1986. 

    Taunya earned her BS from Iowa State University. and her MA in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Policy from the University of Northern Iowa, and   

    Past work experience includes: 

    • Deputy Director and Criminal Justice Planner at the Northeast Iowa Area Regional Crime Commission,  
    • Administrative Services Committee staff/analyst at the Iowa Legislative Fiscal Bureau
    • Executive director,and statewide association manager for the Mental Health Association of Iowa.
    Taunya's career in public transportation began when she became the Public Transportation Director for Communities Unlimited, in Fayetteville, where she served as manager of Ozark Regional Transit in Springdale, AR.  She also designed and started up Fort Smith Public Transit, in Fort Smith, AR.   

    She subsequently served as Consulting Division Manager for transit software provider, Trapeze Software Group, Inc.  At Trapeze, Ms. Kopke provided on-site consulting for transit systems with difficult problems; worked in transit service design; directed the development of a prototype for an ESRI (GIS software) extension for transit planning; and worked with developers to add functionality to Trapeze.

    Project & Activities for communities (Examples)

    • Public transportation operations and scheduling software analysis, deployment; setup, training, technical support, documentation
    • Transit Development Plan (TDP) and Transportation Disadvantaged Service Plan (TDSP) development
    • Developing one of the first five successful Job Access and Reverse Commute Programs
    • ADA compliance reviews
    • Assessment of call center support for ADA policy; recommending and supporting modifications in processes
    • Scheduling improvement projects, involving working with transit systems teams to set up, problem-solve, and optimize demand response scheduling systems.
    • Developing a comprehensive human service and public transportation coordination system; including leveraged funds, expanded service, preventive maintenance, driver orientation, radio communications, trip scheduling, Medicaid billing, and vehicles, for human service agencies working in Mental Health, Sheltered/Supported Work, Homeless Shelter, Employment Training, Case Management, Specialized Daycare, and other human services, working in coordination with Public Transportation
    • Managed re-organization of paratransit service for large transit system, assisting in contracting operations to multiple providers and scheduling to a single provider; and in procuring advanced trip planning, scheduling and reservations software (Trapeze) & hardware
    • Neighborhood Connector Project converting traditional fixed routes to service area routes, a system later adopted by Trapeze Software
    • Project converting traditional demand response service to a system using timetable-based zone-routes at Ozark Regional Transit
    • Developing a successful plan and application for a Project ACTION funded One-Stop-Shopping Initiative Project for a transit agency and an agency providing services for developmentally disabled persons to provide travel training, ADA certification review, and vehicle operator training 
    • Evaluating existing demand response runs; preparing demand estimates; conducting focus groups; developing implementation guidelines, budgets, and funding alternatives; and developing software tools to support scheduling trips
    • Completing a transportation plan addressing the transportation needs of elderly non-ADA eligible persons:  assessing existing service, assessing needs; developing alternative service areas; and recommending a pilot area
    • Demographic GIS analysis and coverage development project as subcontractor
    • Developing a plan to provide transit passes for non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) users, including the identification of client subscription trips with both the origin and destination within walking distance of public transit routes
    • Developing a plan to integrate transportation for Head Start into the demand response service operated for ADA clients by a transit authority, including schedule development and reassigning students to Head Start locations based on transportation routing efficiency
    • Consulting on the design of in-house software applications for Flex Route scheduling
    • Development of Microsoft Access applications for transit agencies
    • Ongoing consulting services for several transit agencies
    • Developing specialized medical return service funded by a regional hospital foundation, complementing paratransit runs by handling medical “will call” trips, traditionally difficult to manage
    • Developing a program of local government funding from multiple jurisdictions, to be guided by an advisory board including local government representatives, and driven by a trip-based formula to allocate a total request to each jurisdiction
    • Review of small urban transit systems' service operation, ridership, vehicle needs, ADA service, and the adequacy of maintenance and administration facilities; recommending vehicles and maintenance facilities