OCTA’s Service Priorities in Order

* Dale Goodman’s recent letter “Cutting Seniors’ Link to Outside World (June 26)” makes good points on the need for seniors and persons with disabilities to have adequate transportation services. But the letter badly misrepresents actions the Orange County Transportation Authority has taken to increase mobility in Orange County.

The OCTA is protecting Dial-a-Ride group services for all senior citizens on trips to senior centers, to nutrition sites, and to destinations which provide these able-bodied seniors with independence. And, by obeying federal law, the OCTA is also extending these needed transportation services to the very frail elderly, individuals who use wheelchairs, and the persons with disabilities who need specialized transportation services.

Setting priorities with tax dollars is always difficult. But when the OCTA Board of Directors voted to fully fund ACCESS service for individuals with disabilities, it made a clear and positive statement that the noble rhetoric of President Bush’s Americans with Disabilities Act would become a reality and needed financial resources would be available to preserve and protect Dial-A-Ride group services.

With their compassionate actions to fund ACCESS, the OCTA Board of Directors insisted that transportation services would be available to the most vulnerable members of our society--the frail and elderly and persons with disabilities. They should be applauded for their wisdom.

GREGORY T. WINTERBOTTOM

Villa Park

Gregory T. Winterbottom is an alternate director on the OCTA board.