(a) Department means the State Department of Transportation;

(b) Commissioner means the Commissioner of Transportation;

(c) Committee means the New York State interagency Coordinating Committee on Rural Public Transportation as hereinafter described;

(d) Transportation disadvantaged person means any person, who by reason of physical, economic or other circumstance does not have access to private personal transportation or is unable to use private personal transportation, either permanently or temporarily, such as frail elderly persons, persons with disabilities, low-income persons, youth, unemployed or underemployed persons, and other individuals who may need public transportation services. Identification of persons as "transportation disadvantaged" does not change the fact that they are considered as part of the general public.

(e) Public transportation service means a passenger transportation service which, during its hours of operations, is available on an equal opportunity basis to any person, without preference for service availability, eligibility or design being given to any person or population sub-group because of age, gender, race, national origin, creed or agency client status, and which is regularly advertised and marketed as available to the general public. Nothing in this Part shall be deemed to mean that the transportation services operated or provided by human or social service agencies for their clients or programs constitute, in and of themselves, public transportation services.

(f) Transportation provider means any public, private or not-for-profit entity utilizing public funds to provide or contract for passenger transportation services for the benefit of the general public or specific client groups.

(g) Operator of passenger transportation service means the municipal government or public transportation authority which assumes full responsibility for the operation of the service or a common or contract carrier under contract to said government or authority for the purpose of assuming said responsibility.

(h) Coordinated transportation service in a rural county means a passenger transportation service formed by the pooling or sharing, by contract, of funds, facilities, vehicles, equipment and other resources used for passenger transportation for the purpose of improving the mobility of rural residents through increased service levels, so that the coordinated service is under the direction and control of a single operator of passenger transportation having the authority for establishing the service's operating hours, routes, schedules, dispatching and other operating features, with a goal that the resulting transportation service serve more passengers for the same or reduced amount of government expenditure than the previously uncoordinated services. A coordinated transportation service may include an existing public transportation service operating within the rural county. Nothing contained in this Part shall require a transportation provider to participate in a county's coordinated transportation service or to contribute funds or services to it; current providers may participate in whole or in part in the coordinated service.

(i) Coordinated public transportation service means a coordinated transportation service which is predominantly a public transportation service as defined in this Part. Such coordinated public transportation service shall offer service to the general public to at least the same extent and degree, in terms of service levels, operating hours and geographic coverage, as service is offered for clients of human service agency programs, and shall seek to increase service to transportation disadvantaged persons who do not receive transportation from a human or social services agency program.

(j) Rural counties means those New York State counties having populations of 200,000 or less, as determined by the latest Census of the United States.

(k) Services coordinator means the person, authority, agency or corporation designated by resolution of a rural county's governing body to undertake or oversee preparation of the rural county's public transportation service plan in accordance with this Part. Such person, authority, agency or corporation shall be chosen from among those who can fairly and equitably address the needs of all transportation disadvantaged persons and the general public, without preference to any one population sub-group or component of the transportation disadvantaged population.

(l) Coordinated Service Operator (CSO) means the operator of passenger transportation service that will manage and operate the coordinated public transportation service for a rural county, in accordance with this Part.

(m) Public Transportation Authority means one of the following established by State Law having jurisdiction in one or more rural counties: Capital District Transportation Authority; Central New York Regional Transportation Authority; or Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority.

(n) Program means the Rural Public Transportation Coordination Assistance Program established by Article 2-F of the Transportation Law.

(o) Specialized transportation service means a component of a coordinated public transportation service which is specifically designed to serve the needs of persons who, by reason of disability, are unable to use other public transportation services designed for the use of the general public in a given service area. A specialized transportation service shall be available on an equal opportunity basis to all transit disabled persons within a market segment determined solely by the amount of physical assistance needed by passengers. Transportation services ordinarily provided by a human service agency and designed for an agency's clients to access its program are not, per se, considered to be specialized transportation services.

(p) Transit disabled person means a person who, by reason of illness, age, injury, congenital malfunction or other permanent or temporary incapacity or disability, is unable, without special facilities, equipment or assistance, to use public transportation service effectively.