Our Story

The Independent Transportation Network® (ITN®) began as a graduate school project at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service in Portland, Maine. Inspired by personal experience when her son was hit by an 84-year old driver, ITN's founder Katherine Freund realized that crashes are not the problem—they are the symptom. The problem is that the transportation system in the United States does not meet the mobility needs of normally aging people. Katherine reasoned that older people who do not have good transportation options cannot make safe transportation choices. She set out to solve the safety problem by addressing the underlying mobility problem. Throughout the two years she studied for her Masters degree in public policy, she looked at sustainable transportation for older people from every conceivable angle.

Older adults urgently need reliable and affordable transportation.

That simple goal — to meet the mobility needs of America's aging population — led to solving problems in resources, logistics, technology and policy. Katherine also realized that if she could effectively solve the problem in one community by creating the Independent Transportation Network, another community could replicate that solution, creating a national non-profit transportation solution for older people who wish to limit or stop driving without losing their independence.

That solution led to ITN becoming the sustainable model ITNPortland, and the creation of the national solution, ITNAmerica in 2003. ITNPortland provides nearly 16,000 rides per year to nearly 1,000 members.