IRVINE : Special Bus Service May Get a Reprieve

You can’t get there from here--at least not without a car, Phyllis Collier has learned.

The two Orange County Transit District bus lines running through Irvine provide limited access to the city, especially for those in wheelchairs, Collier said.

So when Irvine proposed a 50% cut in the city’s door-to-door bus service for the physically disabled and senior citizens, she and many of the other people using the service were upset.

“If they cut this program, they cut out people’s lives,” said Collier, who uses the city’s TRIPS van service and also serves on the advisory board that recommends how the service should operate.

The TRIPS service is one of several cuts proposed in the city’s 1991-93 budget, which is up for review by several city commissions before reaching the City Council for final action next month. The Community Services department suggested cutting $183,000 from the TRIPS programs’ two-year budget as part of overall reductions. The cut would reduce bus service by about half, said Marsha Burgess, a Community Services superintendent.

When Collier heard that the program faced a cutback, she worked with other bus service users to lobby commissioners for support and begin a letter-writing campaign to council members. The TRIPS service is vital because many seniors and the disabled can’t get to neighborhood bus stops, and services like Dial-A-Ride don’t operate later at night or on weekends when residents need rides home from work or school, she said.

Without TRIPS, in fact, she would be unable to attend city meetings to fight for the service, Collier said.

So far, the lobbying has paid off. Monday night, the Finance Commission voted to recommend that the City Council restore the transportation service. The Community Services Commission made the same recommendation last week.

The six-vehicle transportation service allows up to about 300 senior and disabled residents to request transportation in and around Irvine for $1 to $3 each way, depending on distance. The drivers are available to assist riders into the vans and help them at their destination, Burgess said.

Residents use the service to get to work, school, doctors’ appointments, the senior center and to go shopping, Burgess said, as well as just getting out of the house to visit friends. A hundred people are on a waiting list for the service.