Independent Transportation Network

Independent Transportation Network® is a transportation service for older people that is designed to replicate the comfort and convenience of private automobile ownership. Profiled in the PBS documentary "Getting Around", ITN uses both paid and volunteer drivers to provide door-to-door service 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Volunteers carry packages, open doors, and offer a helping hand. Older people who use the service open personal transportation accounts and receive a statement, detailing their rides, once a month. Seniors who use the service may even trade their no longer used automobiles for rides. ITN is an affordable service supplementing reasonable fares with innovative payment programs that involve local merchants, volunteers, healthcare providers, and family. The original ITN® has operated in Portland, Maine since 1995.

The mission of this program is to provide a community-based, and community supported, economically viable and consumer-oriented, quality transportation service for seniors.

ITNPortland™ provides nearly 16,000 rides per year to nearly 1,000 members. Twenty communities in three countries are now in the process of working on ITN replications. In the United States, ITN replications are starting in Santa Monica, California; Orlando, Florida; and Mercer County, New Jersey. In April 2006, ITNAmerica® received a $3.5 million grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to support the national rollout and technology development.