Dial-A-Ride, Unmentioned Policies and No-Shows

[gehayi]

This has not been a week when I feel like being particularly thankful

Comments

[violet_tigress1]

Bastards! I stopped using Dial A Ride way back when they became something you had to sign up & qualify for, on top of expecting 24 hour advanced notice. God forbid your plans fall through, as many people's do at the last minute.

[gehayi]

They've got you coming and going where I live--the state is divided up in territories, and different companies get different towns. I live in a town where, if you do not live in a nursing home--pardon me, convalescent home--or senior housing and you are disabled, then your only option is DAR. You can quit using them, but unless you have an alternative form of transportation after that, you're screwed.

The people who run DAR in my state know this, and are arrogant pricks.

[kittenmommy]

Bastards!

I have nothing to add but, "THIS". I'm sorry they were so sucktacular, OP!

[leora]

I never used the local area disabled-only call for a ride program because of rules like this. You have to schedule well in advance, and you get badly penalized if you cancel. Since I am very much of the good days and bad days and no predictability sort of disabled, what good does that do? Plus, how do I schedule well in advance for something like groceries? How do I know how long I'll be at the store? And if I have to sit around at the store with my groceries, losing energy while I wait, that isn't very helpful.

So, while they get to say they have this nifty service for the disabled, it actually looked remarkably useless to me. Sure, it's better than absolutely nothing. And you could use it to get to a doctor's appointment... but not back. Which is better than nothing for some people, I suppose. But it's hardly disability-friendly.

I think it's mostly there so that able bodied people can feel good about themselves and say that they set up a service to help the disabled without doing the difficult things the disabled would really

[court9]

I would rephrase "I think it's mostly there so that able bodied people can feel good about themselves and say that they set up a service to help the disabled without doing the difficult things the disabled would really need." as

I think it's mostly there so that the agency to say that they have a service TO COMPLY WITH THE LETTER OF THE LAW, without doing the difficult things the disabled would really need to make the program work in practice. :(

[leora]

That could be. I don't know the laws in these matters. But if so, I think the laws were written that way so able-bodied people could pretend they were helping, feel good about themselves, and not have to do the hard work of writing laws that would really help.

[court9]

Agreed .

I think for most Public Transit systems, at least in the US, are required by the ADA to have some sort of special para-transit for disabled people. But why spend the money actually helping people when you could implement a sub-par system that is so discouraging, the people who need it can't use it.

[wombathouse]

Sucksters need to suck less.

Any possibility of taxi scrip?

In Seattle, one can apply for the right to purchase taxi scrip at 50% discount. Thus able to use taxis at will for half price and avoid public services apparently primarily in the business of increasing the stupidity aggregate.

[gehayi]

There's no taxi scrip around here. If you want to use a taxi, you must pay out of pocket. Oh, and the minimum charge for a taxi ride is twenty dollars.

[codeman38]

The taxi scrip thing is an amazing idea; I'd heard about other towns doing that, and thought it just seemed so logical. I wish my town did that!