Suffolk Independent Living Organization (SILO) has launched a transportation committee to provide education to transit riders with disabilities and feedback to the county on paratransit and public transit service.
SILO started the committee in early November to address issues related to Suffolk County Accessible Transportation (SCAT) and fixed-route buses, with the over-arching goal of improving transit for people with disabilities in the county through advocacy.
The committee is planning to host free workshops that anyone will be welcome to attend once they determine the appropriate sizeable space for meetings. Garrett Hulett, a former Suffolk County bus technician, chairs the committee.
So far, SILO has collected a handful of complaints from riders regarding SCAT drivers and cited consistency in following official policies as one area for improvement. For example, some drivers adhere to a rule prohibiting customers from traveling with more bags than they can fit in front of them and others overlook the rule. According to Hulett this leads to confusion for passengers, and in the most extreme circumstance, causes them to be denied a ride.
The committee is also brainstorming ways to help people who recently lost paratransit service when SCAT scaled back to the minimum legal requirement for service. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires paratransit pick-ups for riders within three-quarters of a mile of a fixed bus route. Since the change, riders who are more than three-quarters of a mile from a route have been denied service.
“The problem with that is that there’s people around there who have been transported for years around the three-quarter radius,” Hulett said. “We’re looking into that to see what we can do for those people.”
The ten-person committee is comprised mainly of SILO representatives, along with Janet Allen of the Suffolk Community Council.
Glenn Campbell, co-executive director of SILO, said, “We want to be advocates for all the riders in Suffolk County who are disabled. “We wanted to be a neutral committee, one that we felt there really wasn’t a voice for the riders.”
The committee wants to encourage the county to institute a no-show policy for SCAT. “On paratransit it costs quite a bit of money to transport somebody,” said Hulett. “It’s expensive for someone to not show up for their ride and they’re taking it away from someone who could have had it.”
Hulett worked for the county beginning in 2001 but left the position due to a disability. He said his job involved handling complaints, overseeing phone operators and answering questions on the three-quarter mile rule.
Additional ideas include developing a method for blind passengers to receive alerts when their ride has arrived and training passengers on the logistics of using the system.
This article was printed in the February 2011 issue of Able News.
Frank Krotchinsky former SILO Board Member, is now the head of the Suffolk County Office of Handicapped (sic) Services, which as I understand it is responsible for overseeing SCAT
Posted by: Eva June Roberts-Vazquez | 03/03/2011 at 09:29 AM