UNION COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — When you think of public transportation in Pennsylvania, what comes to mind? Maybe taking a train to work in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh? Or in our part of the state, maybe a bus?

When these little buses pull up to WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, they don’t usually have leaders like State Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) on board. They often have people like Shawn Ocker, who is legally blind.

“Without shared ride, I’m isolated, and thankfully we have those services here, and they are affordable for me as a member of this community,” Ocker said.

Ocker travels with her service dog aboard rabbittransit’s Stop Hopper service, which is kind of like an Uber, Lyft or taxi, in that it takes you door to door, but is kind of like a bus, in that rides cost $2 and are free for registered people 65 and older.

“From our perspective, if the only takeaway from today’s event is that there is public transportation in every county in Pennsylvania, that’s a win,” rabbittransit’s community relations director, Kristin Paradise, said when asked about having the event.

Yaw’s answer to our question about whether service like this could help get a deal done between Democrats, who tend to favor public transportation spending, and Republicans, who tend to see that spending as a big transfer of money from rural areas to urban ones.

“When a hospital closes and somebody has to go, in the northern part of my district, they have to go 45 minutes to get maternal care, that’s a big deal,” Yaw said.

“Reliable transportation helps ensure that patients can keep appointments, manage their chronic conditions and receive care before small issues become large issues,” WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital President Allen Fasnacht said.

But reliable transportation requires reliable funding.

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“The cost share that’s involved for a rider is generally about 15% of the cost,” Paradise said.

Meaning the majority has to come from somewhere else, which in that regard, makes this a lot like big-transportation.

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