[Blindtlk] Para transit Vs. fixed Routes
Peter Donahue
pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com
Mon May 2 21:01:25 UTC 2011
Hello David and everyone,
These are great suggestions but what happens when you've posted notices
in your apartment and workplace newsletters looking for someone you can
share a ride with and no one responds. Due to some medical conditions in
addition to blindness and the proximity of the bus stop to her place of
employment Mary uses paratransit to get too and from work. The trips to work
usually go without incident but she never knows what's going to happen on
her ride home. Some times she'll be brought straight home but on other
occasions she'll be picked up late and/or be given the grand tour of San
Antonio before being dropped off here. We've tried on several occasions to
find her a ride home in the evenings especially on Fridays to relieve her of
this uncertainty and stress after a busy day at work. She was able to adjust
her work hours so she finishes earlier in the hopes she could get better
rides home but this too often fails. We hoped to find her a ride with
someone that lives here and works near her workplace or someone at her
workplace that could bring her home in the evening. Not one person
responded.
It's helpful when a paratransit service gives its riders options. In
Houston patrons can use the Metrolift Main service or their taxi service
that gives them free transportation up to a specified amount. They are then
required to cover any fares over the amount covered by the transit
authority. If we had such an option in San Antonio it would give patrons
needing to be assured they will reach their destination at a specific time
another paratransit option. We've suggested this to the Viatrans folk using
Houston's Metrolift program as an example. We're getting sick and tired of
the same old line "That's Houston. This is San Antonio." They would do well
to study such schemes in other cities and develop one to give riders various
options. To us it's worth it to pay a higher fare to be assured we'll reach
an intended destination on time.
As others said transportation often requires some creativity on our
part. We've discovered that many medical facilities offer courtesy
transportation to their patients and their attendants. Shortly after Mary's
knee surgery she needed to attend physical therapy several times a week. The
center where she was to have her sessions offers courtesy transportation to
its patients and those accompanying them. This service is free of charge.
She scheduled her therapy sessions to occur in the afternoon so she could
have them pick her up at her workplace and bring her home after the session
was over relieving her of the after noon Viatrans run-around at least for a
season.
Sendero Imaging offers a similar service to patients needing
transportation. I'll be going to their Louis Pasture location on Wednesday
for an annual MRI scan. They'll send a Chauffered limo to pick me up from
home and will bring me back home when the examination is finished.
The Methodist Health System in San Antonio operates the Methodist Health
Bus in various parts of the city. They will transport patients and/or
attendants too and from any Methodist facility in their particular service
area. The only drawback with this service is that they do not operate
city-wide. Many of our doctors are located in the Metropolitan Office
Building downtown. Their central bus would bring us there when we lived in
our Alamo Heights apartment but will not do so from here. Another Health Bus
serves Methodist facilities located in Northeast San Antonio where we now
live. Any new doctors we get will hopefully be in this part of town.
Assuming they're located at a Methodist facility we could use the Northeast
Health Bus to go to these appointments freeing us from being totally
dependent on paratransit. It may be that there are similar services in your
home area. You need to do your research to determine if medical and other
facilities in your area offer courtesy service of one kind or another. If
you're eligible to use it do so.
To those of you whose chapter or state affiliates have Web sites this is
great information to include to assist blind persons currently living in
your community or those who may locate there in the future. We're compiling
this information for our chapter Web site and encourage other affiliates to
do likewise. We tell blind people they need to be resourceful. Giving them
information to enable them to seek alternatives to paratransit is one way to
help them do it. They can the focus their attention on cracking tougher
transportation nuts such as the example of Mary's ride home from work.
Peter Donahue
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hyde, David W. (ESC)" <david.hyde at wcbvi.k12.wi.us>
To: "'Blind Talk Mailing List'" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Para transit Vs. fixed Routes
Sometimes, you can get a paid driver. Now before you say "I don't have the
money", let's be a little creative. What can you trade? You may have a skill
that someone needs, and you may be able to barter what you need. I use this
when I want to attend a play in the evening when busses don't run. I'll buy
the ticket for the person driving. If they don't let me do that, I buy their
dinner. If I can't do that, I send them a gas card. Whatever I use though, I
do get to see the play.
It doesn't always need to be money. Find someone who can drive and needs
help with their computer. They pick you up and you do a computer lesson.
Then they pick you up and you do the guitar lesson.
-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Michael
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 2:02 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Paratransit Vs. fixed Routes
I would like to take guitar lessons from a jazz guitarist eight miles from
my home but have pretty much given up. I checked with paratransit and they
want to pick me up, drive me twenty miles to the central office, transfer me
to another bus, and then drive me back twenty miles to get to the guitar
store, a four hour adventure....all of this for a trip eight miles from my
home. And then they have no way to get me home after the lesson. I have
checked with every nonprofit and volunteer group I can think of to no avail.
Taxi service is $40 round trip, so that makes a pretty pricey lesson. I've
given up. There is no regular bus service in my county.
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
To: <davidb521 at gmail.com>; "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Paratransit Vs. fixed Routes
>I use paratransit, in some instances. We have fixed route transportation.
> But, there is one bus an hour, in the morning; nothing for about three
> hours
> in the middle of the day, and then one bus an hour until 6:00pm. If I
> were
> to take fixed route transportation to my piano lesson, I'd have to get a
> bus
> from my home into town; transfer and then walk a distance to get to my
> lesson. I'd have to do the same for the return. So, for a one hour
> lesson,
> I'd be traveling at least four hours.
>
> I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but here, I can only take
> paratransit in the area where there is fixed route transportation. If
> they
> should discontinue it in my area, paratransit would also be discontinued,
> for me. I don't know why this is. But, it seems we have either all or
> nothing!
>
> Cindy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David" <davidb521 at gmail.com>
> To: "'Blind Talk Mailing List'" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 1:17 PM
> Subject: [Blindtlk] Paratransit Vs. fixed Routes
>
>
> Hello. I was reading the thread discussing the pros and cons of blind
> driving, and noticed some discussion regarding paratransit versus fixed
> routes. What I am wondering is this. Does paratransit in most cities
> closely
> follow fixed routes within a certain radius as I assume it does in Palm
> Beach County? From what I read from the list, paratransit is neither
> superior or inferior to fixed routes, hence it's name. Therefore, if
> blindness is your only disability, and your travel skills enable you to
> travel anywhere you please with confidence, as is the case with me, what
> are
> the advantages of paratransit, if any? I am interested in hearing your
> thoughts on this.
>
> David
>
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