Bus Subsidy Loss Could Immobilize Elderly

It’s after 9 a.m. and Nadine Stoops, 76, is ready to do battle with K mart.

When the No. 37 bus that will take her there lumbers to a stop on Euclid Avenue, the Garden Grove widow climbs the three steps, smiles at the driver and helps herself to a seat.

In most cities, Stoops would have been nabbed for ignoring the fare box. But in Orange County, at least for the last 12 years, senior citizens ride free except during rush hours when they pay a discount fare of 35 cents.

The Orange County Transit District’s largess to the county’s seniors comes via a $900,000-a-year county subsidy, one that is scheduled to end in June with the expected loss of a federal grant.

“I’m really not surprised but I don’t like it,” said Stoops when asked about the possibility of having to pay the full 75-cent fare. “It would certainly curtail my going places.”

For seniors like Stoops who live on a fixed income and no longer drive, the bus enables them to shop, get to the doctor or just keep loneliness at bay.

According to transit officials, 280,000 senior citizens ride the bus each month, about 9% of OCTD’s 3.1 million monthly riders.

“There are days I just go to get away from the apartment,” said Stoops, who rode the bus every day last week. “I like to study people’s faces.”

Then, in a whisper, her blue eyes sparkling with a hint of mischief, she added, “Once in a while, I just ride from one end of the line to the other. I think the prettiest ride I ever took was to see my granddaughter in Irvine.”

Like the majority of OCTD directors, who last week urged the Board of Supervisors to maintain the subsidy, some bus drivers are privately rooting for the free and discount fares to continue.

Riders Like Family

“The only time the seniors don’t ride is on rainy days,” said Abbie Olson, who has been driving No. 37’s route from La Habra to Huntington Beach for 10 years. “I hope the supervisors don’t make them pay because these people really need it. . . . Otherwise they’ll be shut-ins, day in and day out.”

Olson, 35, said her elderly riders are like family. She greets many of them by their first names and waves to others she passes on her route.

“We learn about their personal lives,” Olson said. “Not too personal, but personal enough so that they don’t feel alone.”

For Tilly Silas, a Seal Beach Leisure World resident who has spoken out against cutting the subsidy, covering Orange County by bus also can be a frustrating experience.

Have to Learn Patience

“You have to learn to have a lot of patience,” Silas, 70, said. “It’s very time-consuming and tiring. The most popular bus around here runs every 40 minutes to Westminster Mall. So you sort of plan your day. You cannot do more than one thing in a day.” Still, the bus is the only alternative for many of the county’s 291,000 elderly people.

“I prefer to take the bus rather than riding in a car with these--pardon the expression--elderly people,” said Stoops as she headed out of K mart on Katella Avenue with birthday dresses in hand for her twin great-granddaughters.

“I was with a kind soul last week and she made a left turn where there was none. Oh, my!” she said, laughing, her arms raised above her head as if shielding herself from disaster.

At 10:40 a.m., Stoops checks her watch and heads back for the 10:50 bus, having had no luck with a K mart clerk over a disputed sales receipt, nor finding a better price at Sav-on drugstore for the heart medication she bought at Thrifty’s the day before.

She waits alone. Cars filled with younger people whiz by the sliver of sidewalk where she stands. Her eyes are fixed down the long stretch of Euclid Avenue when Stoops spots the No. 37 bus making its way to her, its orange-and-white stripes and large, dark windshield looking like a tired tiger creeping closer.

“People like me would be very restricted in our activities if it wasn’t for the bus,” Stoops said, as she got on board.

“The bus,” she sighed, “is a lifesaver.”