Elderly Complain About Ride Service

Promising to work out scheduling problems with its fleet of vans, officials from the Valley’s new dial-a-ride service for the elderly and disabled spent more than an hour Wednesday fielding complaints from about 50 patrons.

The elderly and their relatives who gathered at the Valley Storefront senior center in North Hollywood complained that the vans are undependable and the rides long, leaving them stressful and sometimes making them sick.

Patrick A. McNiff, director of operations for Medi-Ride, which took over the CITYRIDE dial-a-ride program July 1, told the group his office is working to correct the problems. Most of the complaints stem from a reduction of the van fleet from 40 to 24 on July 1.

“Yesterday, we started going through the scheduling ride by ride. I want to make sure we’re doing the best job we can with 24 vehicles,” McNiff said, promising to meet with city officials by Friday. “Then we can go before the Department of Transportation and ask for four or five more vans.”

About 16,000 senior citizens in the San Fernando Valley depend on CITYRIDE to get them to meals at senior centers and medical appointments. The fleet of vans was cut to allow the city to add taxicab service to the Valley at no extra cost to the city’s Department of Transportation, which oversees the CITYRIDE program.

While McNiff’s promise to seek permission to operate more vans eased some minds, other senior citizens complained that the drivers are sometimes rude and insensitive.

“I have a feeling you people have your head in the sand,” Bonnie Shoemaker, director of the Alzheimer’s program at the Valley Storefront, told McNiff and CITYRIDE Project Manager Frank Montes. “If we don’t have the people element, it’s not going to work.”