Officials Again Delay Transit Coupon Program

Los Angeles city officials have again postponed the citywide expansion of a program to provide senior citizens and the disabled with coupons to pay for transportation, delaying its start from Jan. 1 to at least April 1 or perhaps later.

The start-up had earlier been postponed from last July.

The program, aimed at replacing a patchwork of subsidized transit systems throughout the city, will give beneficiaries universal transit scrip--coupons that could be used like cash to pay for taxi, dial-a-ride and bus services. It has been delayed due to administrative snags and requests by some Los Angeles City Council members to change the program to improve service to their constituents, city transportation officials said Monday.

“We have just played around with the thing so long that we let it slip,” said Phyllis Moats, transportation deputy to City Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council’s Transportation Committee.

City transportation officials said they have been receiving many angry calls from senior citizens and the disabled.

“We understand it is a frustrating thing, but the public should understand that this is a controversial issue and the council doesn’t like to make snap decisions on a controversial issue,” said a city transportation official who requested anonymity.

The scrip program has been in high demand in the San Fernando Valley, where more than 23,000 senior citizens and individuals with disabilities are registered to participate in city-subsidized transportation programs. Throughout the city, 77,000 senior citizens and disabled riders use such services.

In the mostly upper-income hillside areas of the Valley, senior citizens and the disabled are allowed to use city transit coupons for taxi rides because the Valley’s dial-a-ride vans are unsuitable for steep, winding hillside streets. But the elderly and disabled who live on the Valley floor must use dial-a-ride, which requires making an appointment a day ahead of time.

In June, city transportation officials said the program would not start July 1, 1992, as planned because of a decision by the City Council to seek new bids from taxi and other companies, in order to attract minority-owned companies to serve South-Central Los Angeles and Watts. They said at the time that the program would start no later than Jan. 1.

The most recent delay is due partly to an error that will require the city to reissue a request for contractors in the Valley, city officials said. Moats said city officials decided to issue a new request for bids after a transportation provider, who failed to get a city contract, complained that he did not understand the guidelines for submitting a bid.

Other reasons for the delay include requests by some council members to make changes, said Moat and other transportation officials.

Councilman Mike Hernandez had requested the program guidelines be amended to allow city transportation officials to regularly evaluate whether it provides adequate service for senior citizens. But a Hernandez spokesman said the amendment should not have delayed the program.

Under the current program, the city is divided into six regions. In each, the city provides either taxi coupons or dial-a-ride services or a combination of the two. The new program will replace the patchwork system by distributing a universal scrip that senior citizens and the disabled throughout the city can use like cash for transportation purposes, not only for taxi and dial-a-ride services but also on Southern California Rapid Transit District buses.

Those eligible for the program--who are at least 65 or disabled--will be able to buy a book of transit scrip for $15 that will be good for $60 worth of transportation services. The current program is a better bargain, providing $72 worth of transit programs for only $6, but transit officials said the increased costs of extending the program citywide will reduce benefits.

The present program costs the city about $21 million a year, with funding provided by Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 1980. The new program would cost $23.7 million annually.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas has raised several questions in recent weeks about the new pricing schedule, suggesting that eligibility requirements be altered to favor the poor. He also voiced concern about a plan to reduce the operating hours for dial-a-ride services in East and South-Central Los Angeles, said Lou Collier, a transportation consultant to the councilman.

“We are just trying to make sure we are getting the best service available,” he said.