Senior Spotlight By John Toscano
MTA Gets Earful At City Council Access-A-Ride Hearing

Officials of the Access-A-Ride paratransit system operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) were questioned at a City Council hearing recently about what improvements have been made in response to numerous complaints made by the system's riders.

The lawmakers also recommended numerous ways that service can be improved for seniors and persons with disabilities. The hearing was held at City Hall last Wednesday.

Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu (D-Flushing), who conducted the oversight hearing, stated: "Access-A-Ride may be complex to operate, but it is a critical component of our public transit system. Without this $200 million paratransit service, almost 100,000 seniors and New Yorkers with disabilities would be unable to work and travel in our city. While the MTA has responded to rider criticism by increasing service available, the number of contractors and variety of vehicles available, more can be done to improve the cost, efficiency and quality of service provided through Access-A-Ride."

Liu added that the MTA, based on its own customer satisfaction surveys, consistently earns a C for its operation of Access-A-Ride.

Liu stated, "We urge the MTA to accelerate the use of technology, black car vouchers, and evaluate why the operating cost is so high, compared to other cities."

Giving the Access-A-Ride side of the story was Thomas Charles, vice president for paratransit, at the MTA New York City Transit Authority.

According to a release from Liu, Charles claimed that beginning in March 2003, "Access- A-Ride has achieved and maintained a 'zero denial' policy. Access-A-Ride now has a 93 percent on-time performance record and has expanded service to include vouchers for black cars, which accounts for 4 percent of the service provided."

But officials of Disabled In Action (DIA) of Metropolitan New York, an advocacy agency for the disabled, pointed to areas that can be improved by Access-A-Ride.

Edith M. Prentiss, the DIA first vice president, listed a number of problems with the service. She noted, "Riders still wait up to 30 minutes, sometimes in inclement weather; [there is a] lack of emergency service; a mapping system that provides faulty pick-up locations; inefficient routing; a denial rate that excludes vehicles that never arrive or arrive too late so that the rider is forced to cancel, short eligibility periods and late cancellation periods."

Sounding slightly exasperated, Prentiss concluded: "Why aren't complaint numbers generated and logged when riders call?"

Following Prentiss was the DIA second vice president, Jean Ryan, who declared: "We need innovation and vision in Access-A-Ride. It can't be the stepchild of the Bus Department with a new vice president appointed every three years."

Ryan pointed out, "Baby boomers are becoming seniors and will be becoming disabled in ever increasing numbers. We have to plan for their future, too, not just do crisis management as more and more people become eligible for Access-ARide."

She concluded, "So many people would not have to ride Access-A-Ride if the buses ran more hours and days, if the taxis and car services were wheelchair accessible, if the subways and stations

were more accessible and elevators more reliable and if there were more pedestrian ramps so we can get around this city."

Another witness, Preston Niblack, deputy director of the New York City Independent Budget Office, agreed. "One way to reduce the cost of paratransit would be to enable as many users as possible to use conventional transit." But he noted that while most MTA buses are wheelchair accessible, the capital investment required to make subway stations accessible is very high, an estimated $4 billion, Niblack said.