The Underutilized Public Transport in the Oklahoma County - Term Paper Example

 Impact of a Weak Transport System on Healthcare in Oklahoma According to the 2010 census, the city of Oklahoma was made up of about 471671 people. Interestingly, this figure has risen by about 139000 as of 2013 (Gates & Cooke, 2011). This implies that the city of Oklahoma is experiencing tremendous growth. As a result of the rapid population growth in Oklahoma County, the public transport system has become underutilized. Consequently, a weak public transport system has a negative effect on healthcare. This paper will evaluate and analyze the effect of a weak public transport system in Oklahoma County on health care. Furthermore, relevant solutions and strategies will be highlighted. Oklahoma County was given a D+ by the 2013 America’s infrastructure report card for transit availability. This means that the county of Oklahoma has an inefficient public transport system. Improving the public transport system will in turn make it easier for residents to access public health services. Access to efficient, affordable, quality and safe transport is a very critical issue in regard to the utilization of healthcare facilities. The distance to healthcare centers is often great in Oklahoma county. This physically isolates individuals from the healthcare providers. As such, those who travel for long distances to get the relevant medical facilities find it costly. Also, lack of an efficient public transportation system makes it impossible to reach the healthcare services especially for people living in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, those individuals with low income, those with disabilities and non workable communities lack access to an affordable quality healthcare service as a result of a weak public transport system. Transportation is a critical component when it comes to accessing health care facilities especially in areas where alternative modes of transport are less prevalent (Sierpiński, 2011). This is mainly because a weak public transport system constrains individuals from comfortably utilizing public health services, emergency services, dental services, and primary care services. Therefore, their overall mental, social and physical status deteriorates. The county of Oklahoma has many elderly individuals who need medical attention due to their chronic critical conditions. Thus they require frequent visits to the outpatient healthcare facilities. Since transport services in the county are often inefficient, these patients may decide to postpone their appointments or visits to healthcare facilities due to the cost and time spent to reach or access these services. Furthermore, some people may prefer to forego the healthcare service due to unavailability of an efficient or strong public transport system. Due to the weak transportation system in Oklahoma, patients with hospital appointments might miss some of the scheduled appointments. Also, the healthcare personnel, or the patients themselves may delay getting to the hospital in time. In extreme cases, this could result in the demise of an individual especially if he or she was in a critical condition that needed emergency care and attention. Additionally, those individuals who miss a trip to the healthcare facilities which was meant to treat a preventive ailment will find it more costly to treat the disease once it becomes critical. Due to lack of efficient transport, the residents cannot access emergency services and pre-hospital care. Since healthcare providers are supposed to provide a wide range of services to all individuals with a variety of medical issues, including the critically ill or injured patients, they waste a lot of time on the road especially if they are providing home based care and visits. This decreases a patient’s positive outcome. Thus, an efficient public transport system in Oklahoma will enhance easy and quick access to medical health facilities or services. People with disabilities also face a critical challenge as they cannot drive (Aday & Andersen, 1974). Thus, they rely on public transport to access hospitals (IEZZONI et al, 2002). However, the public transport system in Oklahoma is often weak and inefficient. This implies that it is unreliable in some instances. As such, this inhibits their utilization of healthcare facilities. Further, it is also a hurdle for children to utilize the public transport system in order to access healthcare, as it is stressful and tiresome. In most cases, parents may prefer to forego some hospital services such as check-ups for the child in order to avoid the costs and difficulty experienced while using public transport. Moreover, the transportation policy in Oklahoma generates a lot of public health problems as it does not favor those with low income. Strategies to Improve Public Transport in Oklahoma Despite the increase in ridership in Oklahoma, the state still remains mostly transit thin. As such, when compared to other cities, Oklahoma had fewer bus service hours per capita. To improve the public transport system in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City agency should revise its transit routes. Also, the Oklahoma City agency should increase its bus frequency in order to accommodate the increase in ridership. This plan would require a funding of about 1 million dollars. Also, the city bus system should commence operating on Sundays and weekdays after 7:30 PM. The Oklahoma County should adopt a streetcar rail system so as to improve its public transport system (Latham, 2008). This street car system would be required to extend its services to most areas of Oklahoma including the downtown regions. The street car system will improve access to health care facilities. Since the project is capital intensive, an estimated funding of about 130 million dollars.to cover all areas in Oklahoma, future extensions of the street car rail system would need to be undertaken. Additionally, since the time between buses stops is greater in Oklahoma, a rapid bus system will need to be adopted. A rapid bus system will improve public transport system since the buses would make fewer stops while making more trips when compared to the local buses. All these projects meant to improve the public transport system in Oklahoma are time consuming. On average and with proper funding, the projects might take between 2 to 10 years for them to be fuly implemented or commenced. For instance, the process of acquiring new buses for the rapid transit system might take about one and half years. Funding is a fundamental aspect to the development of the public transport system in Oklahoma. Without funding, projects meant to improve access to healthcare would not take place. As such, funding form these projects can be sourced from the Oklahoma department of transportation (ODOT). The ODOT will provide the technical and financial assistance to implement these project or programs. Moreover, state and federal grants can support the improvement of public transport in Oklahoma (Poole, 1996). Additionally, the transportation providers can use fares to fund some of their projects such as increasing the number of buses. A strong transport system in Oklahoma will go a long way to help the elderly and people with disabilities. In fact, it sometimes might be their only means of transport or mobility to access health care. References Aday, L. A., & Andersen, R. (1974). A framework for the study of access to medical care. Health services research, 9(3), 208. Fortney, J., Rost, K., & Warren, J. (2000). Comparing alternative methods of measuring geographic access to health services. Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology, 1(2), 173-184. Gates, G. J., & Cooke, A. M. (2011). United States census snapshot: 2010. IEZZONI, L. I., DAVIS, R. B., SOUKUP, J., & O’DAY, B. O. N. N. I. E. (2002). Satisfaction with quality and access to health care among people with disabling conditions. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 14(5), 369-381. Latham, G. B. (2008). Rail Transit: An Oklahoma Economic Opportunity. Millman, M. (Ed.). (1993). Access to health care in America. National Academies Press. Poole, R. W. (1996). Defederalizing Transportation Funding. Reason Foundation. Sierpiński, G. (2011). Travel behaviour and alternative modes of transportation. In Modern Transport Telematics (pp. 86-93). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Read More