O.C. Agency to Eliminate Dial-a-Ride

Faced with greater demands on its budget, the Orange County Transportation Authority decided Monday to phase out its popular Dial-a-Ride program, which provides same-day van service to all county seniors and people with disabilities.

In place of the program, the transportation agency will provide a similar but less comprehensive shuttle service called ACCESS. It requires users to call at least 48 hours in advance to schedule a ride.

“Dial-a-Ride was something that we would have liked to have maintained, but the funds weren’t there,” said Irv Pickler, who sits on the agency’s board of directors.

The change is partly due to a mandate created by Congress in 1990. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, the county is required to provide bus service for people who are unable to use the standard bus system. Especially targeted by the ADA are the disabled, including seniors. Those who lost out in the OCTA decision are able-bodied seniors who may not qualify under the ADA guidelines as disabled.

“I don’t think this is a good substitute program,” said Melissa O’Neal, director of the Tustin Senior Center, adding that the eligibility requirements for ACCESS are more stringent than for the Dial-a-Ride Demand program.

“I think too many people are going to fall through the cracks,” she said.

About 50% to 60% of the people who use Dial-a-Ride Demand will be eligible for the ACCESS program, agency officials said. To be eligible, a person must be unable to get on and off a big bus, get to and from a bus stop or understand how to make the trip.

In contrast to more than a dozen well-attended public hearings held throughout the county on the proposed changes in the busing program, Monday’s board meeting was handled with little discussion among the board members. There also was no public testimony.

In the past six months, many seniors and the disabled had asked county officials not to eliminate the 20-year-old Demand program, which annually provides some 300,000 trips for about 2,000 riders who use it to go door-to-door for shopping, medical visits and other errands.

A separate, group Dial-a-Ride program that makes 950,000 trips a year will not be cut. Both services use vans rather than buses.

Same-day Dial-a-Ride Demand service, which will be completely eliminated by the end of year, costs the county about $5 million annually to operate. The transportation agency voted to funnel that money to the ACCESS program, which was created last fall at a cost of $4.5 million a year. When the program is operational in 1997, it will have a budget of $10 million a year.

Pickler, who used the Demand service after suffering broken legs in a recent traffic accident, said he sympathizes with the concerns of seniors and the disabled.

“I found out how valuable a service it was,” said Pickler, “The service was great when we had the money, but now we have no alternative.”

Others were not mollified.

“It’s going to be really tough on the those that don’t qualify,” said Peggy Weatherspoon, director of the Area Agency on Aging. “That continues to be a big concern. What alternative can we go to? Where can we find funding? Those questions are still unanswered.” Transportation agency officials defended the choice made by the board.

“I think ACCESS is going to be a great program,” said Ellen Harvey, manager of community transportation services for the agency. “By law we have to provide service to everyone” who is eligible under the ADA.

She said seniors who do not qualify for ACCESS should call the agency to see if they can make arrangements for the group Dial-a-Ride or standard bus services.

Under the phasing out of Demand service, only ADA-eligible riders may use the same-day service after Sept. 11.

The fare for ACCESS is $1.50 per trip in Orange County, compared to 90 cents per five-mile zone for Dial-a-Ride Demand.

Harvey said the agency held 15 public hearings from February to April on eliminating Dial-a-Ride Demand and to get feedback on how county officials could smooth the transition to ACCESS.

One of the bigger concerns among Dial-a-Ride users is the loss of same-day service. Under ACCESS, a rider must call 2 to 14 days in advance to set up a ride. In the near future, it will be just a day in advance, Harvey said.

To deal with that issue, agency officials decided to establish a new neighborhood shuttle service, which will have fixed routes and stop at places seniors frequently visit. The program will start this year.

The agency will spend $300,000 to operate six to nine of the shuttles. Cities that want to participate in the program will be asked to fund about half of the operational costs.

Harry Dotson, a councilman for Stanton and member of the county’s senior citizen advisory council, said he is disappointed that Dial-a-Ride Demand is being cut but pleased with the agency’s efforts to address the same-day service issue.

“It might take a little while to get it working, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction,” Dotson said.

The recent public hearings also sparked other action to accommodate the elderly and disabled, including adding sensitivity training sessions for bus drivers, equipping standard-size buses with lower floors and making bus stops more accessible with curb cuts.

Dial-a-Ride at Road’s End

Orange County’s popular Dial-a-Ride Demand program, which has provided same-day transportation service to disabled people and senior citizens for two decades, is being axed by transit officials because of costs. It is being replaced by a less comprehensive program called ACCESS, which will serve only about half the people eligible for Demand and will require at least 48 hours’ advance notice for pickup. Since ACCESS was inaugurated last fall, ridership has more than doubled, officials say. ACCESS use is shown below. Trips booked May 1994: 22,793 Riders May 1994: 4,300 Source: Orange County Transportation Authority

Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times