Countywide : Dial-a-Ride Proposal Fuels Petition Drive

Upset that the county plans to cut back dial-a-ride service for everyone except the elderly or handicapped and organized groups, a Costa Mesa woman has begun circulating a petition to prevent the cutbacks.

“Many low-income families use it to take kids for doctor care, mental health services, speech therapy and other appointments,” Jeanne Thorpe said. “Try walking three children, a stroller and a diaper bag to the bus stop in the rain.”

The board of the Orange County Transit District tentatively voted Monday to limit the door-to-door service in a one-year pilot program. Board Chairman Roger Stanton said the plan will allow OCTD to improve dial-a-ride for those who really need it rather than those who use it as a convenience.

But Nellie Kaniski, coordinator of a support program for single mothers who attend Rancho Santiago College and receive government aid, said that some students use dial-a-ride because they can’t afford cars and don’t feel safe waiting for a bus.

Irene Armstrong, a Fullerton School District board member who also opposes the OCTD plan, said she thinks it is unfair to shut out the occasional user who takes dial-a-ride when a car is unavailable and a bus is inconvenient.

Dennis Cain, a spokesman for the Orange County chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, said members don’t want to be treated differently.

“In the days when the county should be thinking about improving public transit service and getting people out of their cars, they’re thinking about cutting back dial-a-ride,” Cain said.

Although dial-a-ride’s hours of operation wouldn’t be cut, the number of people served would be. A transit district spokeswoman estimated that only about half of those using dial-a-ride are elderly or handicapped. Most don’t have cars and about half have incomes of $20,000 or less, she said.

Stanton said he has heard mostly praise for the plan, which would retain Saturday service and service for groups that contract regularly with dial-a-ride, such as Headstart.

“We had one complaint from a woman who said that she takes dial-a-ride to go to Wild Rivers and didn’t want to walk to the gate from the regular bus route,” Stanton said. “I mean, come on, I don’t think the general public has sympathy for devoting this system to people who have choices.”

But board member William Farris, who voted against the plan along with Richard B. Edgar, said he wants to increase the service hours and keep dial-a-ride open for anyone who wants to use it.

Thorpe said she hopes to gather thousands of signatures by the time the plan returns to the board with final details next month.