St. Louis-area people with disabilities and rights groups are frustrated with Metro Transit’s recent decision to cut routes and are demanding the agency make changes to better serve its riders.
Metro Call-A-Ride users, Paraquad Inc. and other advocacy groups this week pressed Metro Transit officials to provide more reliable services to people who need them the most.
Besides providing more routes for people with disabilities, Paraquad advocates are asking Metro executives to hold public board meetings, pay paratransit workers better and allow people with disabilities to provide input on Metro’s service planning process.
“It makes us angry. It makes us sad, and we refuse to accept it like this,” Paraquad advocacy manager Jeanette Mott Oxford said. “People with disabilities deserve the chance to travel freely and to succeed at work and in having friendships.”
Paraquad leaders and other Call-A-Ride users said they have been trying to request a meeting with Bi-State Development's Board of Commissioners since March 23 to express their concerns about trip denials, route changes, wait times and cancellations. Riders and advocates on Wednesday told some Metro Transit executives and board members how route cuts directly affect them.
Since the changes in services in April, the agency has reduced trip denials by 18% and increased the number of bus trips, Metro officials said.
“I believe most everyone knows that our Metro Call-A-Ride customers have experienced capacity constraints. This is a complex issue that requires a combination of solutions to resolve,” Metro Transit ADA Coordinator Amy Parker said. “I want to emphasize that Metro understands that these constraints affect the lives of our customers.”
Advocates said the number of paratransit rides has decreased because people are no longer requesting the service since it is unreliable.
“People are leaving the program because they fear denials because people have given up on it,” Mott Oxford said. “That's not a success at all, so we need to make sure that this program works for folks.”
Anna Schell has experienced trip denials over the years and said her service has long been unreliable. Over the past few years, she has had to find other rides to work because the agency could not make a ride available when she needed it.
“I was beginning to experience times of being made late for work,” she said. “I expressed concern to customer service, and they said, ‘Well, maybe you could move your pickup time up earlier,’ and we tried that and it still continued.”
Schell said she decided to pay someone to take her to and from work to ensure she made it on time. After the recent route cutbacks, she and other riders whose doctor's offices are no longer in Metro Transit’s service area worry they will not make it to appointments.
Annette Nowakowski, who lives in St. Louis, said during the meeting with executives that her doctors are in St. Louis County and that it can be hard to schedule appointments around Call-A-Ride pickup times.
“I don't have very much family, I have not too many friends … you have to practically beg somebody to give you a ride somewhere and pay them for gas,” she said. “It really starts to affect your health, when you have to deal with bad transportation and trying to make doctor's appointments.”
