For South Valley residents who rely on VTA
’s Outreach program for transportation, proposed changes to the
service will hit them hard: in the pocketbook and in their daily
lives.
For South Valley residents who rely on VTA’s Outreach program for transportation, proposed changes to the service will hit them hard: in the pocketbook and in their daily lives.
“It’s my lifeline,” Bonnie Boerner of Morgan Hill, who must use a cane, said about the paratransit service. “I need to go to Gavilan three days a week for physical therapy and that’s the only way I get there. It’s worth every penny I pay.”
With senior/disabled rates scheduled to go up from $11 to $20 for a monthly pass and $121 to $220 for a year’s pass, Boerner and others like her could be paying many pennies more … if they are still eligible for the service.
VTA, facing a $100 million deficit, is considering cutting paratransit service to those more than 3/4 mile from a bus stop.
VTA’s Board of Directors will not take action on the proposed rates or service cuts until June 5, and the new rates, if approved, would go into effect on Aug. 1.
“This service is necessary to so many people,” said Barbara Stockdale of Gilroy, who runs a home for developmentally disabled adults. “My people use outreach to get to and from their jobs, to their activities, to their medical appointments. Because I am the owner/operator of the home, I have to be in the home if anyone’s present, so I can’t transport them. And we are just one mile beyond the nearest bus stop.”
Stockdale said the developmentally disabled adults at her home would be forced to walk to the nearest bus stop if VTA goes ahead with planned service cuts.
“The nearest bus stop is at Saint Louise (Hospital),” she said. “Down unpaved roads, with ambulances, police cars, sick people hurrying down them. I just can’t let them (the adults she is responsible for) do that. They have to have Outreach. I have no idea what to do if they take it away. I’m frantic about it.”
The American Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law in 1990. The law requires that “all current and future fixed rail and bus systems across the country be fully accessible by 1997;” it also requires that supplemental paratransit service be provided – that is, “demand-responsive service for people who cannot access fixed-route service.”
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is in charge of reviewing local transit organizations’ plans for meeting this mandate.
Dina Braun, media contact for VTA, said officials who could address the paratransit issues were not available, many of them taking advantage of the weeks between rounds of public meetings to go on vacation.
Charles Marino, who said he lives near Uvas Dam, has been using Outreach for approximately a year and a half.
“I live about 12 miles out from Morgan Hill, and if they can’t come and pick me up, I don’t know what I’ll do,” he said.
Stockdale, who plans to attend VTA’s public meeting at the Gilroy City Hall, 7351 Rosanna St., at 2 p.m. Wednesday, said she hopes officials will listen to the public.
“I think it is really unfair,” she said. “We lost the Dial-a-Ride, which worked so very well for us, and we were assured we would have the Outreach program to rely on … VTA has shortchanged us on areas that they cover. It’s a very limited area.”
The Live Oak Adult Day Services center in Gilroy provides care for many seniors, most of whom use Outreach to get to and from the center, according to Cheryl Huguenor, program director for the center.
“Our center provides services for seniors who cannot live alone, who are starting to lose their independence,” she said. “We provide a break for the family or caregiver, while providing the senior with safety, meals and activities, both recreational and social. The Yellow Cab drivers who work for Outreach know our clients, care about our clients, know of our hours of operation; they’re very dependable.”
But Outreach, according to various clients, has been giving more and more of its South County pickups to the “white car” drivers, or drivers for another company, ATC, which has a contract with Outreach.
“If they (Outreach) sent a white cab for me, I would not get in it,” said Deloris Blake of Gilroy, who has been using the service for three years. “The Yellow Cab drivers are like family to me. They are the nicest, dearest people, and they go out of their way for you … And they charge less, so doesn’t it make sense for Outreach to use them? Especially if VTA is losing money.”
Larry Silva, owner of the Yellow Cab Company in Gilroy, said his family has been involved with Outreach since 1976 and feels it is an important service the company provides. He said there is value to VTA in using taxi cabs as opposed to ATC’s white car service.
“It is my understanding that ATC’s rate is $4.63 per mile, and that includes whether it’s one of the larger, wheelchair accessible vehicles or a sedan,” he said. “Our current rate is the same as all taxi cabs in Santa Clara County, a meter rate of $2.50 per mile.”
Silva said his company presented Outreach and VTA with a proposal to save an estimated $9,423,814 in paratransit costs.
“We did make an unsolicited proposal, dated Dec. 12,” he said. “We took Outreach’s raw numbers, their average trips, and projected cost savings of more than 35 percent. We received a letter back from VTA, stating that they would not cancel anybody’s contract at this time.”
Approximately 15 Yellow Cab drivers are qualified – despite an increase in insurance liability requirements by Outreach from $1 million to $2 million – to drive for Outreach, Silva said. Drivers lease their vehicles, pay for their own business licenses and permits in the cities they drive to, pay for their own gas and insurance.
Yellow Cab has never stopped providing paratransit service, said Silva, since it began in 1976, although during 1999-2000, the number of trips cut back somewhat.
“Because of the economic boom, it was difficult to get drivers then,” he said. “But we never dropped out of handling this area … In our contract, the rate we charged to Outreach was far below the meter rate, so an Outreach call became something of a second rate call, and rather than disrupt service to Outreach, we cut back on drivers that provided it.
“We couldn’t raise the rates under the contract, and we didn’t build into the contract a yearly increase to meet the service levels. So we are partially to blame for a drop in service at that time.”
Now, however, there are willing drivers and plenty of satisfied customers who local drivers to take them where they need to go, not a driver coming from San Jose to Gilroy or Morgan Hill to take them to a local appointment or the local senior center.
Catherine Areias of Morgan Hill said her grandmother uses the service every day to go to the senior center.
“It’s a godsend to us,” she said. “I’m her caregiver, 24/7, and if she is able to get out, with the help of the Outreach program, that gives me some time. And all the way around, I prefer the Yellow Cab drivers. They take a personal interest in the people they drive, they know more about them. I am relieved when she is with them because I know she’s in good hands.”
“I would rather the price go up than to lose these drivers,” Boerner said. “I will pay more if I have to and cut back on my heat or something else. I am actually angry. Why are they picking on the elderly people?”
Silva said he is paying attention to the upcoming VTA meetings, scheduled for Monday (2 p.m. and 6 p.m.) at the Santa Clara County Government Center, 70 W. Hedding St. in San Jose, on Tuesday (2 p.m.) at the Sunnyvale Senior Center, 820 W. McKinley Ave., Wednesday at Gilroy City Hall, and on Thursday (2 p.m.) at the Milpitas Police Administration building, 1275 N. Milpitas Blvd.
“We have been watching the progression of these meetings, the previous ones, too, and even the language of this public notice,” he said. “It talks about phase one, phase two, phase three, and we haven’t been contacted during any of those phases. They may not be interested in using taxi cabs, but I don’t understand why we weren’t given a closer look since we have been providing service since 1976.”
