My city has a door-to-door Paratransit service (as opposed to bus and light rail stops, much less walking involved), one trip any distance for $5 flat rate or 60 rides in a monthly pass for $137....that's like $2.50 a ride for door-to-door service.
Dial-A-Rides (paratransit) also went up in price from $1.50 to $2 per ride for ADA and seniors (whose age cutoff went to up to 65 from 55), and from $2 to $3 for nearly everyone else.
Anyone know how I could stop or reduce the blow of this?
Tons of things would be a better move than literally raising the most value-rich way to ride public transit 220% in price in a place where it's virtually all disabled people, elderly people, and people who can't afford their own cars taking the public transit.
Shame on you, Camarillo. Shame on you.
One example:
Chair-a-van in Niagara Falls. I know it is for differently-abled people, who are probably in wheel chairs, but isn't that a bit on the nose?
https://niagarafalls.ca/living/transit/accessibility/chair-a-van.aspx
Hey there squad, I'm working on getting my license (I'm 23 and have had a lot of anxiety around it), and now narcolepsy is looking likely (cataplexy, EDS, interrupted sleep, etc). I'm wondering if it's even worth it to get my license or if I should look into paratransit... Does anyone have experience with this?
EDIT: I'm kinda out in the boondocks--MA, but south shore--so I wouldn't be able to get a bus or anything.
Really scary experience today, I'm ready for my return pick up from paratransit, I see the bus and the motor is running but no one is inside. After 15min wait the driver shows up and preps the lift, he tells me to back in, which is not what I normally do. As the lift starts to raise the support is not even and I start falling forward and ask the driver to put me back down. He tells me to put my arms on these supports and he starts the lift again, the front ramp doesn't fold up to prevent falling. Mid lift he powers on my power chair and starts moving me without permission. I ask him to stop and he doesn't stop, I start yelling and screening to be put down, and only when onlookers come to my aid does he lower the ramp. I was so scared I would fall and feel so violated. Does he not understand how sensitive that toggle is and I could have easily been rolled off the platform, powering off the chair is the only way to lock the wheels by powering the chair on I started rolling forward.
I'm trying to get my dad enrolled and it seems like they make it as difficult as possible. (can only request application by phone, can't request application on behalf of another person etc) If you were approved, how long did it take? What was the turnaround time like?
(originally posted in /r/Nevada, I was advised it would be a better fit in this sub :) )
I currently live in Suffolk County, NY but I'm going to be moving to the Henderson, Nevada area sometime next year.
I can't drive and rely on the public and paratransit transportation to get around. I know Nevada probably won't have as large of a public transport system as NY (I'm a short walk from a train station and multiple bus stops), so I'm trying to do research to be prepared to be more heavily reliant on paratransit.
I already emailed RTC some questions, but I thought it would also be helpful to hear more of the user side of the service than the company side. I know it's going to be a while until I move, but I like to feel like I'm prepared sooner rather than later.
Would anyone happen to know if someone from a different state can automatically transfer their out-of-state card to a Nevada one?
If I have to get evaluated by another doctor, how easy is the paratransit application process? Does it take a long time to go through? How strict is the criteria for paratransit?
Here, I just had to have my doctor fill out a paper and submit it, but when I move it's going to be whole new doctors who don't know anything about me. Which is the most frightening thing to me, took multiple doctors here (one thought I was "too young" for epilepsy, another couldn't figure out how to read my EEG) till I found one that gave me a week long video EEG and noticed "uhh.. bruh wtf you got like both partial and generalized epilepsy". Took way too long to figure that out, so I'm hoping bringing tons of medical records from my current doctors to make everything easier.
What is it like taking the paratransit system? In my area, it's quite.. meh. The drivers don't know where they're going half the time (almost got dropped off in the wrong town one time before I pointed it out), they get lost constantly since they don't use GPS, drive either like maniacs or way below speed limit, times get filled days in advance. So I'm used to that kind of stuff and planning around such obstacles, but I'm not sure what I would expect of the NV paratransit system.
Long story short, I was walking on a crosswalk on campus and got hit by a paratrasit service cab. I broke several bones and am now in the hospital. Is there anything that the university can do to make up for this?
Most fix route buses pretty much run empty as these spread communities have few riders and they run too infrequently not to mention their stops can be very far from ones origin and destination.
Some communities such as Cary, NC and in some cases Monterey, CA has on demand buses instead of fixed routes in some communities
Fixed route buses never can fully comply with the ADA, no matter how "accessible" they make them even with wheelchair lifts, ramps, and tie down spots, probably due to a significant number of handicapped folks not being able to get to the bus in the first place nor ride it independently. So even running a fixed route service many communities are required to provide on demand accessible "minibuses" that come to the curb for those people.
Wouldn't it make sense cost wise just to run buses on demand "paratransit" for all riders, with a centralized stop in each community rather than driving often empty buses down roads for just an average of 10 passengers an hourly run. It would also cut down travel time for most travelers even with stops and loop out of the way for other passengers
(For those who don't know, paratransit is basically a bus service for the elderly/disabled. They pick you up at your door and then drop you off at your requested destination.)
I have had two recent experiences that left me both frustrated an disappointed with PACE's customer service.
On Monday, June 24th, I called to request a ride for Tuesday, June 25th. I told them I had an appointment time of 3:00 PM, and I scheduled the pickup for 1:45 PM. Upon arrival at approximately 2:10 PM, the bus driver told me that I would need to remain on the bus for over an hour. When I asked why, she informed me that she needed to drop off another passenger, then pick up and drop off someone else before dropping me off. She was not able to explain why this was, though she did offer to talk to dispatch. I ended up cancelling the ride, and my father took me to the appointment since I otherwise would have been extremely late. While this was not an urgent appointment, it could have been, and I find it completely unacceptable that someone with a stated appointment time would be required to sit on a bus for over an hour which would then make them late for their appointment.
After I got home from my appointment, I called customer service to complain. I did not have the driver's name, ID number, or the bus number, but I explained the above to the representative, who only told me that was likely a problem with dispatch. She told me I should be expecting a call from a manager, which I have not yet received after almost a week. I find this unacceptable.
Today I was attempting to schedule a ride to the same location as the 25th of June. After giving the address of my destination, I was told this was outside their service area, despite my scheduled pickup seeming to occur with no problems the week before. I was told I was not part of any other Paratransit programs, despite my informing the representative that I was a part of Ride DuPage. She was apologetic but insisted the agent who scheduled my trip last week must have made a mistake. I then asked to speak to a supervisor and was transferred.
I don't believe the man I spoke to was a manager, but he did schedule my trip for me and seemed very confused by my telling him the last agent had told me it was outside their service area. He then apologized.
I am formally requesting an explanation as to why both of these incidents occurred, as well as why I was never contacted by a manager after the initial incident.
Please contact me if y
... keep reading on reddit β‘I am in my 30s. I can take bus but it is stressful and I lose sleep trying to catch the only available schedule. Since those are triggers for epilepsy, would I qualify for a paratransit? Anyone have any experience with this?
Paying $50 CAD to anyone using a mobility aid with experience using paratransit services (on-demand vehicles) to test a new app for 1 hour remotely on Tuesday or Wednesday! Please message me or email me at samra.ebadi@mindsea.com
Thanks!
Hello.
This message is in regard to a trip taken November 14, 2018 by Paratransit customer "J". My name is Lance_Lake and I am her PCA.
When the bus came to pick her up, they didnβt have a working seat belt extender for me. Since this has always been a standard piece of equipment, this was surprising. So the bus driver called dispatch and they said that it was ok to transport us to a doctors appointment and we proceeded with her buckled in and me without a seat belt (which I was ok with).
At the next stop, the dispatcher on duty called and said that we needed to be brought back home due to not having a working seat belt extender. I argued this point a bit since if we were late, the clinic she attends (CHAS) would have a "No appointments, same day service" policy which would mean we couldn't use Paratransit anymore (and not go to her doctors since being on limited income, we didn't have the funds to take Lyft everywhere).
While I was trying to explain this to the driver and come up with other options (perhaps drive to the closest garage to get an extender, send over a bus in the area to borrow one, etc), J began to get severely panicked over missing her appointment. This is the reason why she does not take the normal transit system due to her inability to remain calm when issues come up. As she got worse and worse, I thought the best thing to do would be to get her home (and this is what she was asking for as best she could), however, the driver said that she couldn't drive due to the lack of a seat belt extender for me.
She started to feel chest pains and while I am aware panic attacks can cause this, I kept trying to calm her down. She didn't get better. At the point where she became unresponsive, I told the bus driver to call 911 as with her history of heart issues, I was worried that she was having a heart attack.
The paramedics arrived and she was taken to Deaconess hospital to be checked out. Thankfully, her heart is fine, but now, we are unsure what to do with the bills we will be getting. It seems unfair that due to a lack of bus equipment, we either should have been left at our house (and another bus called) or taken to the location. This situation was caused by Paratransit, the company who's main job is to deal with those who can't ride the normal bus. This was handled very poorly and asking us to pay for the hospital and ambulance (which will probably come out to around 5k) seems wrong to me.
I wanted to inform you of this because I ho
... keep reading on reddit β‘