Access-A-Ride changed their Transportation System and will make all Disabled People whom they feel can walk use their service to go to a bus stop. It would be nice if they were taking customers to a bus stop nearest to their destination, but to require Disabled Customers who were receiving door to door services to now take two or three buses to get to their destination is rather ridiculous.
Written By: Howard
All he wanted was transportation to the hospital, but Access-A-Ride said NO.
Lawton Douse is a 64-year old Vietnam Veteran, who served in the US Marine Corps. He is also 100% Disabled and has 25% mobility. Yet, twice a week he has to make a very arduous journey to Kingsbridge VA Hospital with no help except from his walker. He applied to use Access-A-Ride to make this trip, but was turned down. Access-A-Ride has restricted his ridership, because they say he lives too close to the bus stop (four blocks away) and he should be able to get there on his own.
Lawton explained his frustration to Howard: "Access-A-Ride is killing me. I have a restriction on my card. I have to walk all the way up to the bus stop." Lawton lives about four blocks away from a city bus stop and he says Access-A-Ride told him that he was expected to make the trip to the hospital himself. He even got a letter from his doctor confirming his need for transportation, but that did not change their mind. Even an appeal did no good.
Keep in mind that Lawton has to make this trip to the hospital at least twice a week and he suffers from blood clots in both legs, and it's not just one bus ride. Lawton has to change buses to get to the hospital, so that is two different buses to get to his destination. then he has to do the same reverse trip to go back home. Howard decided it was time to give Access-A-Ride a call to see if they could take another look at Lawton's case. Access-A-Ride said that sometimes they have to exclude people with walkers due to over-crowding. But they then said that as long as Lawton's origin to destination remains the same, he will now receive door-to-door service.
