Board backs off fee hike for paratransit service

Jeff Schweers

Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Jean A. Peyton relies on her guide dog and Citizens Area Transit's door-to-door bus system for the disabled to get around Las Vegas.

Between the two, Peyton said she can volunteer at the courthouse and take extension courses at the Showboat.

"It's expanded my horizon," Peyton told the Regional Transportation Commission Thursday as it considered goals and objectives for meeting the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1997.

But she argued that proposals to double the rates for using the paratransit service and eliminate free rides for the disabled on regular buses would leave her and thousands of other people at the curbside.

"A lot of our transit riders are people with no jobs, depending on small government subsidies and support from their families," Peyton said.

Instead of penalizing people eligible for the service, Peyton said, the board should find out how many people are left after it goes through a recertification process to weed out ineligible riders.

After hearing from Peyton and almost a dozen other disabled people, the RTC board voted to keep the paratransit fee at $1 per ride, and continue to allow disabled people to ride for free on the regular bus system.

Commissioner Lance Malone, in his first day on the RTC board, said raising the paratransit rates would "penalize those it was meant for."

The RTC also adopted new goals and objectives to better comply with ADA requirements. The paratransit system has met five out of six objectives of the ADA, but has failed to guarantee rides for every eligible disabled person.

"The paratransit system is falling woefully short of meeting the needs and standards of the ADA," said Vince Triggs, executive director of the Nevada Association of the Handicapped. "It's not meeting the human needs."

County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who chairs the RTC, said he understood that to be the purpose of the adopted recommendations.

Recertification is one way. Officials estimated that 7,000 ineligible riders will be weeded out, increasing capacity by one-third.

Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones said it's more efficient to weed out the "abusers" than increase fares -- which she called a disservice to low-income riders.

The RTC also adopted a new service to complement the door-to-door routes for the disabled and nondisabled riders over 62. RTC staff said it could cost about $922,000 a year after recertification to handle able-bodied seniors with a neighborhood system that drops people off in parking lots of their favorite destinations.

Based on similar services in other parts of the country, ridership could be from 5 to 7 an hour, compared with 2.5 an hour for the curbside service. Cost per passenger could range from $5.61 to $7.86, compared with $19 per passenger for the paratransit system. A ride on a regular bus costs the RTC $1.31 per passenger.

The new service routes are expected to pick up 2 percent of the total CAT ridership, with 1 percent using the curbside service and 97 percent riding the regular buses.