Countwide : Activist Seeks Support to Reinstate Rides

Sallie McMillan has lived for 82 years without being moved to get into politics, but now she is so angry she has started a one-woman campaign to reinstate the countywide Dial-a-Ride program.

McMillan, who suffers chronic pain from back and hip injuries, has hauled her wheelchair and walker to malls and grocery stores to collect signatures for a petition to Gov. Pete Wilson to get the Dial-a-Ride buses moving again.

“The cancellation of this service has placed many senior citizens in jeopardy,” her petition reads. About 300 residents have signed it and she said she plans to carry the fight to Congress and even the President.

In September, the Orange County Transportation Authority phased out the Dial-a-Ride program, which provided same-day van service to seniors and the disabled, for budgetary reasons.

The county was mandated to provide transportation for the disabled and it began a shuttle service called ACCESS, but able-bodied senior citizens are not eligible to use it.

Even those who do qualify are not happy with ACCESS, McMillan said.

For example, ACCESS charges $1.50--soon to be $1.70--for a one-way ride compared to the 90 cents Dial-a-Ride charged. Reservations to go each way must be made 48 hours in advance.

Several times she was told that ACCESS could not accommodate her, she said.

ACCESS has about 200 buses and provides 1,000 scheduled trips per day on weekdays, said John Standiford, a spokesman for OCTA. Some problems are due to software glitches and OCTA hopes to cut down the lead time for reservations shortly, he said.