Transit Tax Most Helpful to Disabled and Elderly

If you live in Arcadia, you can telephone Arcadia Dial-a-Ride and a van will come to your door in a few minutes to take you anywhere in the city for 50 cents.

If you live in Duarte, you can catch a free bus that circulates through every neighborhood in the city every hour.

If you live in La Verne and are 55 or older, you can ride Southern California Rapid Transit District buses free; the city will shoulder the cost of monthly passes.

All of these programs are financed by Proposition A, the half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in 1980. The measure gives San Gabriel Valley cities more than $9 million a year for public transportation, and they are spending the money in a variety of ways. Some cities are subsidizing taxi fares. Others are running dial-a-ride vans or fixed-route buses. And some are putting most of their money into bus stop shelters and park-and-ride lots for the RTD.

City officials say the strongest demand for public transit has come from the elderly and handicapped. Several cities had dial-a-ride programs for senior citizens and the disabled before Proposition A was passed, but the new money has brought expanded service.

Fares Range to 50 Cents

Alhambra, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Covina, El Monte, Glendora, La Verne, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Pomona, Rosemead, San Dimas, San Gabriel, South El Monte, South Pasadena, Temple City and West Covina all offer dial-a-ride to the elderly and handicapped at fares ranging from nothing to 50 cents. A few cities operate their own systems, but most contract with cab companies or minibus operators. The county offers the same sort of service in many unincorporated areas and La Puente will start a dial-a-ride for the elderly and handicapped next month.

Arcadia, Claremont and Monrovia offer dial-a-ride service to everyone.

The program costs Arcadia $1 million a year, drawing on state and federal transit subsidies as well as Proposition A funds. Steven Bocian, assistant to the city manager, said 250,000 trips are made in a year and the passengers represent a cross section of the city’s residents.

Vans pick up passengers at their door, usually within half an hour of being called, and will take them anywhere in the city limits. In a typical hour during one recent weekday afternoon, the passengers included an elderly woman going home from shopping, an elderly man going home from lunch, a man in his 30s going to get his car out of a repair shop, six high school students and a 29-year-old architectural draftsman returning from a job-hunting trip. The draftsman, like all the others, said he did not have access to a car or he would have used it.

Bus driver Pamela Morgan said some riders leave cars at home because it is easier to take the dial-a-ride, but most passengers do not have that option.

Encouraging people to leave their cars home is one goal of Pasadena’s Shopper Shuttle. The city uses Proposition A funds to pay the RTD to run buses along Colorado Boulevard and South Lake Avenue every 10 minutes from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

‘Trapped’ Without Cars

Dave Barnhart, Pasadena traffic and transportation engineer, said one reason people often give for not taking the bus or car-pooling to work is that they “feel trapped” during the day when they can’t use their car to go to lunch or run errands. The Shopper Shuttle, he said, gives downtown Pasadena workers access to restaurants and shops at midday without using their cars.

The shuttle, which began in November, is not yet a success, however. It is averaging 180 riders a day, which Barnhart said is half the ridership needed to make the service worthwhile. The city has contracted for the shuttle to continue on a trial basis until Aug. 3.

City Director Rick Cole has suggested using Proposition A money to build and run a trolley line along Colorado Boulevard and South Lake Avenue. Developer John Wilson is seeking city approval to build a trolley line around the Pasadena Marketplace project in Old Town, but he has not asked for any subsidy from Proposition A funds.

Cole said he believes that a trolley line could be enough of a tourist attraction to justify the cost, although what it would cost to build and run the line is not yet clear.

SH Matter of Guesswork

Duarte City Manager Ken Caresio said figuring out what will work in local transportation is sometimes a matter of guesswork. He said Duarte decided to run a shuttle bus through the city partly because it is cheaper than dial-a-ride. Also, Caresio said, he had heard that dial-a-ride systems can get flooded with requests during rush hours, resulting in angry and frustrated passengers.

Caresio said the city decided to take a chance on shuttle service even though “we didn’t know whether anybody would use it. The public wasn’t clamoring for it.”

But ridership has been so high (up to 400 passengers a day) that Duarte is going to trade its 22-passenger bus for one that seats 40.

Other cities also are looking at fixed-route buses and shuttle services. South Pasadena is running a shuttle bus in its commercial areas temporarily because of construction on Fair Oaks Avenue. Azusa is developing a bus line.

Combined Features

West Covina and La Puente are considering a system that combines features of dial-a-ride and fixed-route buses. Passengers would call for service, but would be picked up and let out at established checkpoints instead of at their door.

Although the county Transportation Commission has encouraged cities to work together on transit programs, most have been unwilling to devise joint systems. Gus Salazar, West Covina community services director, said cities do not want residents to shop outside the city limits because of the loss of sales tax revenue, so they will not pay for buses to take passengers across city boundaries.

Nevertheless, in the Pomona Valley, four cities are working together. Pomona, Claremont, San Dimas and La Verne have long cooperated on Get About, a dial-a-ride service for the elderly and handicapped, and have now formed the Pomona Valley Transit Authority to run a joint transit system.

Eleanor Cohen, a former Claremont councilwoman who is interim manager of the authority, said the proposed system includes a shuttle bus service operating through the four cities, a local shuttle bus and dial-a-ride in Claremont, a limited dial-a-ride in Pomona and a checkpoint dial-a-ride in San Dimas. La Verne is considering a community shuttle, a dial-a-ride or both.

Start in November

The four-city shuttle buses would run from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays on a 17-mile route stretching from downtown Claremont to Cal Poly Pomona. Cohen said the transit plan still must be approved by the cities but could be in operation by mid-November.

Changes in regional transportation plans and an upcoming RTD fare increase have led to uncertainty among officials in several cities over how and when to spend Proposition A money.

San Gabriel Valley residents have been riding RTD buses in increasing numbers, with daily boardings rising from 75,000 to 121,000 a day in four years. But no one knows how many bus riders may go back to their cars when the RTD basic fare rises from 50 cents to 85 cents July 1. Some cities are considering using their Proposition A money to subsidize RTD fares in order to maintain bus passenger levels.

In addition, Supervisor Pete Schabarum has proposed that San Gabriel Valley cities create a transportation zone, divorcing themselves from the RTD. Mike Lewis, Schabarum’s chief deputy and a former chairman of the RTD board, said the cities could retain the RTD for some regional lines, but could probably save money by hiring private companies for many services. The savings, he said, might be used along with some city Proposition A allocations to help build rail transit or other innovative programs.

CITY TRANSIT BALANCE SHEET

Chart shows revenue and expenditure of Proposition A funds for 1984-85 fiscal year and the expected surplus at the end of the fiscal year, June 30. Surplus includes Proposition A funds remaining from previous years. Sources are Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and city governments.

City Revenue Spending Surplus Alhambra $621,439 $450,000 $350,000 Arcadia 427,082 370,000 100,000 Azusa 295,149 240,000 0 Baldwin Park 506,203 475,000 416,000 Bradbury 7,652 0 20,000 Claremont 307,607 81,830 410,000 Covina 353,064 93,800 800,000 Duarte 175,485 173,000 0 El Monte 798,666 109,769 1,197,187 Glendora 359,863 345,628 202,989 Industry 6,350 6,350 0 Irwindale 9,449 229 22,420 La Puente 286,123 170,000 500,000 La Verne 232,394 100,000 400,000 Monrovia 287,299 250,000 160,000 Monterey Park 526,169 364,149 700,000 Pasadena 1,123,285 300,000 2,600,000 Pomona 942,042 492,000 1,400,000 Rosemead 406,065 775,000 153,000 San Dimas 239,633 50,000 470,000 San Gabriel 284,003 880,000 0 San Marino 122,287 160,000 100,000 Sierra Madre 96,994 N/A N/A* South El Monte 163,234 91,782 N/A South Pasadena 211,305 200,000 467,000 Temple City 274,931 57,600 500,000 Walnut 136,397 9,000 N/A West Covina 795,514 150,000 1,600,000