ADA Access paratransit system not meeting my wife's needs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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*My complaint is with the process of ride allocation and the way it focuses on picking people up instead of focusing on delivering people to their destinations in a reliable manner.

The paratransit system, as I have been given to understand it, is mandated by provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), and applies to transportation systems which provide fixed-route transportation services to the public. It seems to me that a paratransit system, to be in compliance with the provisions of the ADA, should be able to be used by the disabled who cannot use the fixed-route services TO ACCOMPLISH THE SAME THINGS THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH IF THEY WERE ABLE TO USE THE FIXED-ROUTE SERVICES.

The fixed-route transportation options, because they operate to a timetable, are at least theoretically able to give their riders a degree of confidence that when they plan a route to reach their destinations by a specific time, they will reach those destinations WHEN THEY NEED TO BE THERE. This, in a nutshell, is what distinguishes “providing people with transportation” from “taking people on a ride.” As a duly accredited and qualified client for the Access Paratransit services, I believe I am entitled under the ADA to receive the equivalent accommodation that riders of fixed-route systems enjoy; that is, the ability to plan a transportation strategy that meets my legitimate needs to be where I have committed myself to be, whether it be a workplace, an academic classroom, a doctor’s office, or a birthday party.

I understand that fixed-route transportation systems offer no guarantees of on-time arrival to any rider, and I do not insist that any such guarantees be extended to me as a rider on the Access Paratransit vehicles. However, on a bus or a train the goal of the operator and the planners who engineer the routes and timetables is for the vehicles to ARRIVE at their destinations on time; the goal of the schedulers and operators of Access vehicles is explicitly for the individual riders’ trips to LEAVE on time. That does not constitute providing transportation; that constitutes “going for a ride.”
The ADA entitles me to TRANSPORTATION. I respectfully request that you re-engineer your system so that it is equipped to provide it. I look forward to hearing your response as to how and when you intend to begin doing so.*

My wife has been riding paratransit services in Orange County for several years, and last year was placed on the eligible rider list for the various regions in Los Angeles County as well. The experience in Los Angeles is NOT what she became accustomed to in the OC.

In Orange County, she can request her ride up to about three days in advance of needing to travel, and more to the point, she can tell the reservationist when she needs to be at her appointment.

In Los Angeles, the ride must be requested the day before travel is to take place, and the reservationist insists that the client state what time he or she wishes to depart. No effort whatsoever is made to shoot for a specific arrival time. :mad:

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I’m a little confused. No matter whether they want your wife to state what time she wants to arrive or what time she wants to be picked up , the paratransit service will still be arranging a pick-up time for your wife - otherwise , she wouldn’t know when to be ready. The only difference is whether she determines how much travel time is needed or they do.

Bus service is not as different as you imagine- although there may be a goal to arrive at each stop at a particular time, meeting that goal requires that the bus leave the previous stop at a particular time
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Your post is confusing and disjoint.

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Per Doreen’s point a bus service is not a taxi service. You seem to be confusing the two. A bus will try and adhere to a schedule but there are lots of things that can pull it off track. If I understand your issue your para-transit system strives to leave on time, but once on board she is subject to large delays in handling other para-transit clients that can cause her anticipated arrival time to be significantly delayed.

Honestly if you have a time critical appointment you shouldn’t be taking any kind of bus. Whether you are able bodied or not.

The OC system sounds like a taxi service. The system you have is a bus service. Trying to insist the bus be a taxi because the bus style delays are inconvenient for your wife is kind of absurd.

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It’s not a bus service, in the sense of being on a fixed route. It’s more of a shuttle service, such as one would book to get to the airport on time to make a flight.

In OC, when she tells them what time her appointment is, they make it their business to schedule a ride that is likely to get her there on time. They’re the ones with experience at moving large numbers of people around, and what resources to allocate where.

There’s every reason for such expertise to exist in the LA system as well. But no matter how early she makes the ride request, they reserve the right to insert extra riders into her route (sometimes even while she’s in transit). During the last two weeks, when she arranged for a 0730 pick up to reach her destination by 0930 (totally do-able, even with a reasonable number of other pickups and drop offs) they twice deposited her at her destination after 1030.

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How many clients does the service in OC have and how wide an area does it cover, relative to the LA service?

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There are shuttle services that are taxi-like such as private inbound airport shuttles and shuttle-services that are bus like, like the airport shuttles serving the airport parking lots where delivery time is highly variable based on passenger load. The taxi-like shuttle service you are demanding requires vehicles dedicated to fewer passengers and thus to service the same para-population would require more vehicles and drivers and infrastructure.

The bottom line is that you want a shuttle service focused on your wife’s schedule. If the county cannot afford to do that I’m not clear what grounds you have to demand it as a right under ADA re your analogy to public fixed transit systems for able bodied people. You can’t say I want it privately dispatched to a specific address (unlike an able bodied fixed route bus) and no additional inserted stops once it gets moving (like a bus route). It’s apples and oranges. The analogy does not work logically.

No municipality in the US (that I’m aware of) provides privately dispatched dedicated taxi-like shuttle services to the able bodied population. These services are generally reserved for mobility compromised people and dispatch and schedule flexibility will vary according to design. OC has the money to do this and LA does not. It’s not an ADA comparable access issue it’s a money and resources issue.