The Utah Transit Authority has made new cuts to its specialized transportation service for people with disabilities, where ridership has already dropped by more than 50 percent since 2000.
Starting today, paratransit riders in Salt Lake City are no longer able to purchase unlimited monthly trip passes. By next October, trips beyond three-quarters of a mile from mass transit bus stops will also be eliminated.
The UTA board of trustees voted in late August to eliminate the $84 unlimited ride pass for the shared ride service, citing agency-wide cuts stemming from declining tax revenue. Customers who made more than 16 round trips per month – at a cost of $2.50 per trip – benefited from the pass.
UTA also voted to discontinue rides outside the legally required service area of three-quarters of a mile from mass transit bus and rail stops. UTA will phase out the additional trips over the next 12 months while working with customers to identify alternative methods of travel. The primary substitute is a new deviated route service that picks up riders in the vicinity of a set area for an extra $1 but is not regulated by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
UTA abandoned plans to double the paratransit fare, which is permitted by the ADA, after receiving hundreds of comments on its original April proposal. New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority similarly proposed and then abandoned a plan to double its paratransit fare earlier this year, softening the blow of other cutbacks.
The changes bring UTA's service closer to the minimum standards in the ADA guidelines, which require public transit providers to offer service for people who are unable to use buses, subways or rail lines because of a disability. As paratransit demand has risen and economic pressures have increased across the nation, many transit providers have explored similar service reductions that fall within the limits of the law but generate ethical and quality of life concerns for the people who rely on them.
Cherryl Beveridge, UTA’s general manager of special services, said the changes are part of the agency’s efforts to integrate customers with disabilities into the main public transit system, consisting of buses and TRAX light rail, which became fully accessible in 2002.
“It’s part of our approach to integration and eliminating some of the barriers and really promoting the least restricted services. Paratransit has a lot of restrictions that go with it and so we do a lot to encourage our riders to ride fixed route services,” she said. Paratransit eligible customers receive an unlimited public transit pass for free as part of that effort.
Reaction to the Cuts
Barbara Toomer, who serves as secretary of the local Disabled Rights Action Committee and uses paratransit occasionally, said the elimination of monthly passes will make it cost prohibitive for some riders to commute to work.
“The people who generally get this are people working five days week. On Saturday they would want to do some grocery shopping and maybe Sunday they want to go to church,” Toomer said.
Mark Smith, manager of the state information referral service the Access Utah Network said changes to the paratransit system cause confusion during the adjustment period.
“Every time something like this changes I’ll get a rash of calls of people who have worked this out as minutely as they can and then the fare or the route changes. Every time there’s a change it sends a wave down the whole system and people are going to ask how are they going to make fares for the whole month?” said Smith, an advocate for public transit accessibility who has also used paratransit. “Sometimes I can coach them through that and sometimes they realize that it wasn’t as bad as they thought it was.”
Kate McConaughy, who serves clients with significant physical and cognitive disabilities as the executive director of the Work Activity Center in Salt Lake City, is part of a consortium of groups looking for innovative transportation solutions.
McConaughy said she is personally sorry to see the unlimited pass disappear, but that serving the transportation needs of people with disabilities, people with low income and seniors is the responsibility of the community and not UTA alone. “UTA is a piece of it but they can’t be the whole fervor of it. If they are, then we as a community have to figure out how we’re going to step up and pay for it,” she said.The service costs UTA close to $35 per trip to provide. The agency is exploring ways to receive a larger Medicaid reimbursement for that cost, said spokesperson Gerry Carpenter.
Beveridge, who oversees UTA’s vanpool, rideshare, route deviation and paratransit programs, said the agency anticipates the discontinuation of the unlimited paratransit pass will cause riders to reduce or consolidate their trips, providing the agency with an initial savings of $200,000.
The elimination of service beyond three-quarters of a mile from fixed route stops is expected to impact more than 250 additional customers, who will retain their eligibility but must travel into the service area on their own to meet their ride. The policy has already been applied to around 900 new registrants. That move is expected to save the agency $3.5 million within an annual $17 million budget.
Ridership Declines
UTA’s new changes follow an already steep decline in paratransit ridership. The number of registered UTA paratransit riders dropped from 8,700 in 2000 to 4,100 in June 2009. The decline can be attributed to multiple transportation policy changes and integration efforts, including the achievement of full accessibility on Salt Lake City’s buses and TRAX light rail vehicles.
In 2000, UTA replaced its paper eligibility procedure with functional assessments, requiring all applicants to complete an in-person assessment for the first time. The change, which is part of a national trend, often leads to a drop-off in applications. Click here to read the background story.
“From moving from the paper application to the in-person we saw a tremendous self-elimination rate,” said Beveridge. UTA’s paratransit applications declined by 56% in 2001, the first year after in-person assessments became mandatory. Ridership growth slowed from 26% in 2000 to 15% in 2001 and began to decline in 2002, the same year and agency achieved total accessibility of its fleet. The agency also denies eligibility to about 3% of applicants, primarily because their wheelchairs are above the specified size limit.
Beveridge also attributes the decline in paratransit ridership to people with disabilities increasing their use of fixed route bus and TRAX service. The number of times customers who use wheelchairs boarded UTA's fixed route services, compiled by the agency, grew from around 114,000 in 2004 to about 132,400 in 2008 – an increase of 16%.
“I think it’s interesting as you look at the Americans with Disabilities Act, people fought for inclusion and wanted to be included in all services – in education, in jobs, in housing, in transportation,” said Beveridge. “Paratransit service continues to segregate the population. It’s not inclusionary. Granted there are certain people that we transport that need our services. It’s a safety net.”
But some advocates in the disability community are concerned that UTA’s push for integration is too aggressive.
“They’re doing everything they can to get people off paratransit,” said Toomer, who is eligible to use paratransit when the temperature is below 40 degrees or above 80 degrees. “There’s still a group of individuals who have to have paratransit. Whether they have head injuries or they have difficulty in managing their wheelchairs, or they use walkers and have difficulty getting a block. They’re targeting those people.”
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