Getting Seniors Out and About

A plan to refurbish used OCTA vans to provide transportation for seniors has received a warm reception among Orange County officials, whose elderly constituents have long complained about the lack of transit services for them.

“Our office has been constantly besieged with requests for transportation help by seniors in my district,” said Supervisor Chuck Smith, also an Orange County Transportation Agency board member.

For years, programs have been insufficient or focused on those with disabilities, and have failed to keep up with the needs of the elderly, the fastest-growing segment of the county’s population, officials said.

But according to OCTA studies, it’s a population that avoids regular bus routes because they view them as too complex. Many of those surveyed fear for their safety and their vulnerability if dropped off and unable to find their way home, an agency representative said.

Under the plan, OCTA will provide refurbished 17-passenger vans to cities that enroll in the program and pay 80% of the transportation costs; the cities will pick up the remainder.

Cities have to create their own transportation programs, but are not limited to relying solely on the vans. The cities can also use the same OCTA funds to pay for private taxi service.

The program’s costs for the transportation agency are estimated at $28 million over 10 years, said Monte Ward, who is in charge of OCTA’s special projects.

The plan is expected to come before the OCTA board next month.

OCTA officials are optimistic that this plan and a combination of others that ferry seniors to meal sites and provide nonemergency medical visits will help solve much of the transportation dilemma, Ward said.

About 400,000 people 60 and older live in Orange County; growth in their numbers is expected to represent half the increase in the county’s population through 2004. In the next 20 years, that population is predicted to double.

Because a majority of seniors continue to drive, personal vehicles account for 90% of all trips made by seniors in the county, an OCTA survey found. In addition, about 75% of the county’s seniors are licensed to drive. About 85% of those ages 65 to 79 keep their licenses, though that figure drops to two-thirds for seniors 80 to 84.

Providing transportation that is easy to use and convenient is key, Ward said, adding that the new program is geared toward those people who no longer feel comfortable driving.

Pilot programs in six cities--Brea, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente and Tustin--have shown that seniors more readily use a program if it’s administered at the local level, such as from a community senior center, Ward said.

County officials who oversee services for the elderly are optimistic about the program.

“I think that it’s a good solution for cities to develop their own local transportation program,” said Pamela Mokler, executive director of Orange County’s Area Agency on Aging. The agency contracts with OCTA to provide transportation to and from meal sites for seniors in 17 cities.

In a related action, Health Care Agency Director Julie Poulson recently recommended the hiring of a consultant to assess seniors’ needs for nonemergency medical transportation, such as to doctor’s appointments.

With more than $3 million allocated from Measure H, the tobacco-settlement initiative, the agency is in discussions with OCTA and other agencies to develop a regional nonemergency transportation program.

In Huntington Beach, where a pilot program has been underway for two years, seniors use vans dispatched through the city’s Senior Outreach Center. They are taken to grocery stores, doctor’s offices and other medical appointments, such as dialysis, said Betsy Crimi, an Outreach Center spokeswoman.

“It’s the No. 1 need for seniors,” Crimi said. “You can have the best services in all the world, but if you can’t get to them, they don’t mean anything.”

Access to transportation has a special dividend for the homebound, Crimi said.

“We like to take them wherever they want to go, but they enjoy coming to the center,” she said. “It helps get them out of their homes so they can socialize and not become so isolated.”