Disabled transit service is ailing

Friday, Oct. 15, 1999 | 11:37 a.m.

Getting from point A to point B got a lot harder for people with disabilities in the Las Vegas Valley this month.

Regional Transportation Commission officials told the commission board of directors Thursday that a series of unforeseen problems had crippled the "paratransit" system's ability to receive calls and send out vans to people with disabilities. All the problems struck this month, officials said.

Thousands of disabled people use the paratransit system, operated under the umbrella of the Citizens Area Transit bus system. A parade of disabled riders spoke of hours-long waits for service and service that never arrived, phone calls that never got through and problems with taxis that have been hired as a stop-gap measure.

When it works as it should, people call for bus service and receive a pickup time. The paratransit system minibuses should arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

Now, however, many are having trouble getting through to the bus system. Jacob Snow, RTC general manager, said the phone system isn't working as it should.

For many paratransit riders, getting someone on the other end of the phone is only the beginning of difficulties. In September, a mechanical failure aboard a paratransit minibus caused a fire. Nobody was hurt in the incident, staffers said, but the bus system withdrew 17 similar models from service as a precaution.

That's more than 10 percent of the system's 124 paratransit vehicles out of action, and staff members don't know when or if the vehicles will be back on the road.

It gets worse. The system contracted with a taxi company to provide interim service -- but the company's computer-automated dispatch system went down.

And all three problems come at a time when the paratransit system is more popular than ever. The system is providing more than 2,300 trips a day to customers throughout the valley, up from the old standard of 2,200 trips. The system is getting 120,000 calls from customers daily, up from 92,000.

Sue Joseph, RTC management analyst, said any one of the three problems could be remedied, but the three together are straining the system to the limit. She compared the snafus to tropical storms.

"The three together are like a hurricane," she said.

Snow apologized to the disabled community at Thursday's RTC meeting. He said a special staff task force has been created to try to remedy the issues as soon as possible. But he couldn't give a firm date for fixing the problem.

Riders are bearing the brunt of the problems, he said. In testimony to the commission, the riders agreed.

James Speed, a rehabilitation counselor, said he has waited for hours for a paratransit bus or taxi to arrive -- only to learn that the ride was cancelled. He said he should have been notified. Speed, who is visually impaired and has diabetes, said in three of four recent incidents his rides didn't show up at all.

He said he also has had trouble getting an answer on the paratransit ride request line.

Pointing out that three "no shows" by a rider for scheduled service mean a two-week suspension of service for that individual, Speed said that "All we get is an 'I'm sorry' " from RTC staffers.

Snow said the no-show suspension policy has been put on ice while the problems are resolved.

Rudell White said she was happy to have the service, which allows her 23-year-old disabled son to work, but said the phone system has meant her son has missed days from work. She said she often had to hold on the old phone system, but now she can't get through at all.

"Go back to the old system," White begged the commission. "Let me stay on hold, but don't just give me a busy signal ... now, I have no guarantee of getting through."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a commission member, said he has gotten a high number of calls from his constituents on the paratransit system ills.

"I don't know what the problem is, but we have a major problem here and it has to be solved," Goodman said.