“I know I’ve been dying for the 2010 Census numbers to come out,” said Joel Tuttle, the executive director of Senior Life Service of Morgan County, an agency that provides seniors with rides to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg, the local senior center and other destinations. “In a growing county, to still be working with numbers from 2000, it’s tough.”

Carol Crabtree, another participant in the summit, said government officials in Charleston often overlook that sentiment. The Gateways Transportation Initiative organized the summit.

“In so many counties in West Virginia where the population is decreasing, they have their own problems,” said Crabtree, the executive director of the Eastern Panhandle Regional Planning and Development Council. “The fast-growing counties here — Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan are 1, 2 and 4 — mean we have a huge need to put in place infrastructure to keep up with the growth, but it’s easy for those elsewhere in the state to dismiss our issues. ‘Oh, boohoo, we’re growing.’ Actually, though, our growing pains do present major issues.”

Some of the caucus-goers suggested West Virginia start allocating available transportation dollars based not on historic population numbers but on prospective ones.

“They’re doing that now with schools, and it’s really helped the growing counties,” Tuttle said. “Why couldn’t it be done for other parts of the government, too?”

Following the Oct. 19 gathering at the Holiday Inn in Martinsburg, organizers hosted a second session in Wheeling on Oct. 21 and will host another Oct. 23 in Clarksburg. The caucuses continue next week in Huntington and Beckley. After those, a statewide summit is planned for November.

The goal of the caucuses is bring together users of public transit, government officials, employers, transportation providers, citizen activists, advocates for people with disabilities and others to talk about the roadblocks that keep West Virginia from offering a greater range of public transportation.

Trouble getting around keeps many West Virginians from holding down a job, taking a class, getting involved in community events and spending money at local stores, said Daria Jones of the Center for Excellence in Disabilities in Morgantown, the group overseeing the caucuses.

“For West Virginia, it’s truly an economic development issue,” Jones said.

Jack Stewart, the assistant director of the CED, told the Martinsburg caucus that the issue of reliable, affordable transportation isn’t one that affects only seniors, those with disabilities and those unable to afford a car of their own.

“In so many communities, we have young people who want to go to the library or a church event or to see a counselor or take part in some other activity, but they can’t because they don’t have any way of getting there,” he said.

Along with Jones and Stewart, moderators from the Washington, D.C.-based Community Transportation Association are attending the caucuses around the state. Rex Knowlton, who from 1989 to 2006 headed a Philadelphia group that provides rides to doctors’ appointments and for other needs, led the discussion in Martinsburg.

The effort began three years ago when a federal grant was awarded to the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services to create Gateways, a program aimed at employing more West Virginians with disabilities.