[Nfbc-info] Paratransit regulations

[Brian Buhrow]

	Hello.  Mary's right.  this is a real button pusher.  And, I'm on the
fence about whether blind folks should be using para transit.  I think, "it
depends".  In Los Angeles, and, I imagine, San Diego, the challenge for
using fixed route service is the distance between where you are, home, and
where you want to be.  With fixed route service, you typically have to get
on a bus, go to a spot, get off, wait for another bus, go to another spot,
get off, wait for another bus, get off and walk to your destination.  Each
bus transition, in my experience, adds about an hour to your commute. In LA
and San Diego Counties, where the counties are large, there is a huge
efficiency to be gained by stepping into a para transit car and being
driven directly, more or less, to your desired destination.  As an example,
if I wanted to travel from my home in Los Angeles in the South Bay, to my
friends in Northridge, if I took fixed route transit, the one-way commute
would take 3 hours.  If I took para transit, the commute would take between
40 minutes and 1.5 hours, depending on traffic and how many other stops
there were to be made.  With a round trip time of 6 hours on fixed route
transit, I'd be hard pressed to argue that a blind user should be forced to
use para transit.

	For blind folks with jobs, I'd argue that as much as possible, they
should use cabs, Uber or some other form of private transportation if
possible to get to work.  As Mary stated, Para transit is notoriously
unpredictable and you don't want to lose your job because the para transit
driver got lost, was late or otherwise failed to deliver you to yor work in
a timely manner.  In some cases, you may have to move to accommodate your
job so as to minimize the commute.

	In the Bay Area in Northern California, para transit doesn't work as
well because para transit is restricted to intra-county trips in most cases
and counties are small enough in the Bay Area that you're always crossing
county lines to get from one place to another.  Fortunately, the Bay Area
public transportation network is pretty replete with interconnected trains,
BART and express busses so that, with a little planning, fixed route
transit can be a bit more efficient.  

	Owning and operating a private car is expensive, but it's still
cheaper than using cabs or a ride sharing service on a daily basis.  What I
wish is that we could figure out a way to provide a ride sharing service,
like Uber or Lyft, that could be used on a daily basis for about the same
monthly cost as operating a private car.  I thought Uber held that promise
when it began, but I fear that it has become too focused on replicating the
service local cabs provide, rather than extending the transportation for
hire paradigm to include longer trips.

	In conclusion, my observation is that para transit is useful as a
periodic transportation crutch which can be used to fill in for gaps in
availability of transport.  However, for commuting to a job or other
obligation, I think it best to search for alternatives to para transit as
soon as the parameters of the regular commute are well understood.  For
better or worse, solving transportation issues are the province of the
blind, and the employed blind better figure out how to do it with a minimum
of inconvenience and/or trouble for their employers.  Para transit can help
with that, and I'm glad it's available as an option, but I don't think it
should be the final solution, or, for that matter, the primary solution.  I
know folks who disagree with that notion and use para transit as their
daily commute to work.  And, there are times, when they were incredibly
late to work.  Whether that tardiness adversely affected their performance
reviews at their jobs is hard to know for sure, but I venture to say, it
did.

	Finally, just for the record, I've been fortunate to hold jobs in my
career which haven't required daily lengthy commutes on public
transportation.  That has been partly through luck and design.  I know
others might not have that option, so might have to make diferent choices.
The point I want to leave you with, however, is the following.  My career
has now, astonishingly, spanned more than 20 years.  During that time, I've
had to find a number of solutions to the transportation problem for various
jobs and personal fulfillment.  In that same time frame, the landscape of
public transportation, including para transit, has changed significantly.
The best advice I can offer for young folks who are learning the job and
transportation ropes is to learn what transportation resources are
available around you, including the use of van pools, private  trades of
rides for other things from friends and colleagues, and, of course
publically available options.  Then, use what's most convenient and least
costly, remembering to factor in the personal cost of asking for favors or
thinking of the convenience of others when making that calculation.
Also, be flexible. Remember what worked 5 years ago might not work today
and what works today might not work in 5 years.  And, finally, as I
mentioned earlier, don't make your transportation issues other people's
problem.  


-thanks
-Brian