Encore for Dial-A-Ride : Entrepreneur Offers Shuttle Service for Stranded South County Seniors

When the county’s transportation agency canceled its Dial-A-Ride bus service for the elderly last September for lack of money, Saul Goldberg worried that would end the trips he takes almost daily to the chiropractor to relieve his agonizing back pain.

Although the 84-year-old resident of Laguna Hills Leisure World qualified for the Orange County Transportation Authority’s new ACCESS buses reserved for the disabled, that service often could not guarantee he would get to his appointments on time and catch a ride home.

And many of Goldberg’s elderly neighbors, who are not disabled but can’t drive, felt totally stranded.

“You have no idea how many people like us were desperate,” Goldberg said.

Then in stepped a 23-year-old business graduate of the University of Southern California, A.J. Tukhi of Buena Park, who decided to start a business.

Two months ago, Tukhi reached an agreement with Albertson’s in Aliso Viejo for the supermarket to pay his company, California Express Charter, to operate a shuttle serving Leisure World.

“It is working out wonderful,” Goldberg said. “They pick us up at the door, take us to the market and bring us home.”

Albertson’s, in turn, has won increased business from Leisure World for being the first to come to their rescue by offering free transportation. Later, the Vons store closer to Leisure World also sponsored a shuttle.

“We have a lot of new faces shopping here as a result of it,” said Clay Gloyne, the store director at Albertson’s, who figures an average of 40 passengers a day disembark from the shuttle to the supermarket on La Paz Road.

Even the most frail or disabled shoppers don’t hesitate to fill their shopping carts to the brim, since the shuttle will take them to their front doors, and the driver will carry their groceries to their kitchen.

But Tukhi, who sometimes rides the shuttle to hear what his customers have to say, said he learned that they had other needs besides groceries, such as getting to shopping malls, doctors, churches, movies, club meetings and dances.

So a week ago, with the encouragement of the OCTA, he inaugurated a new Dial-A-Ride which, for a one-way fee of $2.50 or a $39.95 two-month pass, will carry seniors anywhere they please within the cities of Laguna Hills, Laguna Beach, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and parts of Mission Viejo and Irvine. The two-month pass also entitles them to a lift to John Wayne Airport or Los Angeles International.

Cheering on Tukhi’s efforts is Dorothy Novick, president of the Shoppers Shuttle Service Club of Leisure World, who said her group for a year had been struggling to get someone to fill the gap left by the loss of OCTA’s Dial-A-Ride.

“I’m trying to see that older people will not be removed from active society,” she said.

The new Dial-A-Ride, which is confined to the South County, is only a shadow of the former OCTA Dial-A-Ride that ran 160 buses throughout the county and had annual ridership of 1.3 million. It also was less expensive, with one-way fares generally $1.60.

“We are doing this as a test program to determine not only the profitability of it but if the demand is great enough so that we can provide the service countywide,” Tukhi said.

His shuttle and Dial-A-Ride are outgrowths of a limousine service he began when he graduated from college in 1993.

“I saw an ad in the paper for a limousine for sale and bought it for $800,” he said. He fixed the limo in the driveway of his parents’ Buena Park home to be presentable enough for taking teens to proms. The business did so well, he said, that within five months he had a fleet of eight limousines.

Tukhi said when he realized that the limousine business had grown to its optimum size, he looked around for something else to do and noticed that seniors had a special transportation problem in Orange County, where most people are dependent on cars.

In the first week of the new service, he said, customer response was greater than he had anticipated. Each of the two buses transported an average of 25 people per day, he said, and about 100 seniors signed up for the two-month pass.

“People call us just to thank us that Dial-A-Ride is back,” he said. “They said basically they had been stranded, and finally someone had sense enough to come to the rescue.”

Providing personal service for the elderly has proven rewarding but also a special challenge, said one of the drivers, Abdul Abassi, 38.

Abassi has learned to maneuver the maze of private roads in Leisure World leading to his customers’ homes. He also has learned that some of his passengers do not remember where they live, so he writes down their addresses before they begin their trip.

In return for his kindness, Abassi gets tips. Besides money, there have been freshly baked cookies, cold sodas and, most recently, decorated Easter eggs.

On Monday, Abassi helped Goldberg and his walker into the bus. Goldberg, who had just finished a session with a chiropractor, asked Abassi to drop him off at a temple where he was meeting his wife for lunch.

Goldberg said the bus “keeps me from being isolated at home. It enables me to enjoy my life.”

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Where To? California Express Charter- Transportation Services of Buena Park operates Dial- A- Ride within specific south Orange County communities 24 hours a day, seven days a week: Service: Door- to- door transportation for individuals or groups Fleet: Two minibuses Fares: $2.50 per person one way; decreases 50 cents with each additional person Unlimited rides: $39.95 for two months Reservations: 24 hours in advance Emergencies: Same- day reservations honored within one hour if possible Calls: (714) 821- 3040 Source: California Express Charter Transportation Service; Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE / Los Angeles Times