NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Ride Program May Affect the Elderly

Valley organizations serving senior citizens have expressed concern that changes in the city’s low-cost transportation system for seniors will be unfair to those who need it most for daily medical treatment and other essentials.

The worry focuses on the availability and cost of the Dial-A-Ride buses now used as much as three days a week by some seniors for life-saving programs such as kidney dialysis.

Dial-A-Ride buses are operated by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation for people who cannot use a bus. Reservations can be made three days in advance.

Beginning April 1, the department will combine the program with regular commuter buses and a new taxi service. About 100,000 people with disabilities and senior citizens 65 years or older will be eligible to register to purchase discounted vouchers for the new program, dubbed CITYRIDE.

Critics contend that the new program is unfair to some seniors or disabled people because it limits the number of applicants and the amount of discounted vouchers they can buy. The program would allow qualified riders to purchase up to $60, or three months worth, of vouchers for as little as $6. These vouchers could be used for taxi service, bus fares, or Dial-A-Ride.

When the vouchers run out, those who rely on Dial-A-Ride would lose their pick-up priority. So senior advocates want the new program to provide regular service routes for those who now use Dial-A-Ride routinely go to dialysis treatments, meals at senior centers or other services.

“We’ve been talking to our councilman. We’ve been talking to other senior centers,” said Anita Brenner, director of the Adult Day Health Care Center in North Hollywood. “They were talking about establishing some regular service routes. So far, that hasn’t been established.” Brenner said that about half of the 80 seniors in her program can only use the Dial-A-Ride service because they are too frail to use buses and taxis will still cost too much.