Dial-a-Ride Service Boosts Would Bring New Bus Riders, New OCTD Study Says

Although two county supervisors say door-to-door dial-a-ride transit is being abused, a new study recommends increasing the service to help attract riders to future Orange County Transit District bus routes.

Adding 20,000 dial-a-ride service hours in areas not served by OCTD buses, including service on “local streets, on commuter lanes and transitways,” would “lay the foundation for future fixed-route (regular OCTD bus) service, thus generating additional ridership,” the report stated.

No specific neighborhoods or service areas were identified, but OCTD spokeswoman Joanne Curran said the study was focusing on new communities such as Rancho Santa Margarita, where potential ridership is not yet high enough to establish a regular OCTD bus route.

Moreover, the report said, “The use of Dial-A-Ride to support the fixed-route system allows the district to provide a transit alternative to many (people who are dependent on public transit) at a lower cost than would be possible through conventional fixed-route service.”

Sustained Growth

The report further noted that there has been sustained growth in dial-a-ride use in recent years, in contrast with “a national trend of decreasing transit ridership.”

Dial-a-ride vans, which about 1.4 million people board annually, are provided by private companies under contract to OCTD. Anyone can ride, by appointment, but trip distances are limited within the boundaries of small zones, each covering a few square miles. Fares range from 50 cents for senior citizens and the disabled at all hours to $1.50 for others during peak commuting periods.

The district’s study, which was conducted over six months by OCTD staff, proposes service changes that would reduce contract costs below the $7.05 million once included in district’s 1987-88 budget to about $5.73 million. The district board voted in June to defer spending the higher figure, pending results of the study released this week.

The study--and new recommended service levels--will be considered during Thursday’s board meeting at the agency’s headquarters in Garden Grove.

General Manager James P. Reichert plans to recommend adoption of the suggestions and findings in the staff study, but with a proposal to limit the percentage of district resources spent on dial-a-ride, spokeswoman Curran said Tuesday. She said the limit would probably be 7.1% of district resources, a level that would be reached by 1990 with the service levels recommended in the staff study.

“The idea is that dial-a-ride would never go above that percentage as a matter of policy,” Curran said.

Dial-a-Ride Critics

Two critics of dial-a-ride--supervisors Roger R. Stanton and Don R. Roth--declined comment Tuesday on the OCTD study. Aides said the supervisors had not had time to review the report.

Both supervisors, who serve on the five-member OCTD board, complained last spring that dial-a-ride was providing young people and others with subsidized “luxury” transportation to record and video stores.

During one heated exchange in June, Board Chairman William E. Farris noted that poor people, some of whom work as housekeepers, use dial-a-ride to get to their jobs in wealthy residential neighborhoods not served by regular bus routes.

Stanton replied that anyone employing a maid was obviously wealthy enough to provide transportation.

Roth and Stanton also suggested that service be restricted to seniors and the disabled, a move that Stanton estimated could save $3 million or more.

Both supervisors said they were troubled by figures indicating that the cost per dial-a-ride passenger trip is $5.03, just 13.32% of which is recovered from fares. Regular bus service costs $2.16 per passenger trip, of which about 21% is recovered from the fare box.

However, the OCTD study shows that dial-a-ride’s cost per vehicle, for each hour of service, averages about $29.17, contrasted with $55.09 for regular bus service.

Farris said Tuesday he is not surprised that the study recommended slight service increases in addition to the 20,000 hours earmarked for areas that might eventually support regular bus service.

“If you’re not going to have demand service (appointments available to the general public), then you might as well do away with the whole program,” Farris said.