Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Traffic

Software glitches strand RTD's access-a-Ride users

The Rocky

Published August 6, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  
Legally blind, Kathleen Spickelmier waits for a scheduled ride. "I'm upset for late rides, having to wait out in the sun or not knowing if they will show," she said.

Photo by Brian Lehmann © The Rocky

Legally blind, Kathleen Spickelmier waits for a scheduled ride. "I'm upset for late rides, having to wait out in the sun or not knowing if they will show," she said.

Related Stories

More Traffic

More stories »

Robert Weinberg spent much of his life looking through his camera lens.

Now, after a degenerative retina disease ravaged his eyesight, the former photographer is legally blind.

Weinberg's blindness qualifies him for access-a-Ride, RTD's alternative service for people who cannot use standard public transportation. For nine years, he used the system to get to work on time with no complaints.

That changed June 6 when RTD changed the software used to make the system run smoothly.

Since then, riders have suffered hours-long delays, missed pickups and longer bus rides. People whose disabilities leave them no other options to get to medical appointments have arrived late or missed them entirely. Almost two months after implementing the new system, RTD is still working through the software's kinks - leaving some of the community's most vulnerable to the mercy of RTD's trial-and-error software adjustments.

The culprit is a new system handling reservations, scheduling and dispatch called RouteMatch.

Immediately after implementing the new system, complaints tripled, RTD says. The average wait time for callers to the reservation system doubled, and angry riders flooded the switchboard with so many calls that people got a busy signal instead of a spot on the holding list.

Complaints spilled over to Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, an advocacy group, which started an investigation.

"Is there a systemic and widespread pattern of behavior that violated the American's With Disabilities Act?" asked Kevin Williams, who is directing the investigation for the group.

Though Williams said he couldn't comment on the investigation because of the possibility of litigation, he said his team had interviewed dozens of people reporting complaints with access-a- Ride. "Part of the problem is that these folks are scared to death. If they come out and speak publicly - and they're justified in believing this - then RTD might alter their service," Williams said. "If the whole service gets disbanded, their lifeline is cut off."

RTD said riders should not fear retaliation for reporting problems.

"We want people to give us feedback if they have complaints so we can address specifics," RTD spokeman Scott Reed said. "No one should be afraid at all."

'Trial and error' approach

The June switch was the second time RTD tried out the new system.

In March, RTD brought Route- Match online for the first time and experienced such bad phone problems it took the system down before the day was out and offered a free ride to all access-a-Ride users in apology.

When RTD tried again in June, they experienced similar problems. But this time, RTD stuck with it and tried to work out the software's kinks on the fly.

"There's an element of trial- and-error to tuning the system," said RTD's Bruce Abel, who manages the access-a-Ride service. "The complaints spiked - we fixed the phone issue; complaints went down."

The problem lies with the staff's unfamiliarity with the new software, not the software itself, Abel said.

"As we dig into the specific details of the problems, one would question whether they were RouteMatch issues or whether they were business practice issues," Abel said.

RTD has withheld more than $300,000 from RouteMatch until the system functions properly. Abel expects to pay the full amount eventually and praised the RouteMatch company's cooperation.

"RouteMatch has been tremendous to work with. They have committed their corporate resources to help us," Abel said.

Under the old system, RTD received four or five complaints a day. After June 6, when RTD permanently implemented Route- Match, they received an average of 15 complaints, with a high of 38 complaints in one day. Last week, Abel said, the average had dipped to 11. "In general, it appears that things have improved," Abel said.

Rider waited hours

Still, longtime users - those whose livelihoods depend on getting to places on time - continue to have problems.

"Up until the beginning of this year, access-a-Ride has been wonderful," said Kathleen Spickelmier, an 11-year access-a-Ride user. "Access-a-Ride needs to go back to their previous system because this one isn't working."

Spickelmier has multiple sclerosis, a degenerative nerve disease that can paralyze and blind those afflicted with it. Spickelmier's vision has left her, and she uses a cane when she needs to walk.

Access-a-Ride policy gives customers six minutes to board the van before the driver leaves. She has waited outside for hours in 95-degree weather for a ride that never came. The heat makes her nauseous and can double her vision, possibly causing her to pass out. "It's just typical access-a-Ride stuff," Spickelmier said.

George O'Brien doesn't have a car and depends on access-a-Ride eight to 10 times a week.

"Whatever I do - whether it's a doctor's appointment, grocery shopping, whatever - it takes me four hours longer to do it," O'Brien said.

Weinberg, the former photographer, uses the service five days a week to get to or from work and has problems at least once or twice a week.

Last Monday, his ride never showed up. After 30 minutes of waiting in sweltering heat, he took a bus to a nearby post office - a dangerous option for a blind man - where his wife picked him up.

Two days later, after the driver failed to pick him up from work within the standard 30-minute window, he called and learned a driver wasn't scheduled to arrive for another half hour.

Before the switch, the service ran smoothly, Weinberg said.

"Now, they're consistently having problems, and that's a problem for us. It creates an anxiety," Weinberg said. "It's a lifestyle for the disabled, how to get from point A to point B."

AccomazzoD@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5620

RTD's RouteMatch fiasco

* March 11, 2008: RTD switches to a new computer system, Route Match, to handle reservations, scheduling and dispatch procedures for the access-a-Ride program.

* Massive problems lead RTD to take RouteMatch offline.

* March 12: RTD apologizes for the inconveniences and gives free rides to all access-a-Ride users.

* Bruce Abel, RTD's manager of contracted services said RTD wouldn't try the switch again until it believed the problems had been worked out. "Until we're able to address the issues that came up over the weekend, we'll stick with the old system," he said then.

* June 6: RTD puts the Route Match system online again. Within days, wait times and rider complaints soar. Drivers and clients again report wide-ranging problems from phone delays to missed pickups, riders stranded for hours and other serious problems.

* June 13: A veteran driver tells the Rocky Mountain News that transportation for the disabled was "a catastrophe the first time, and now it's a disaster the second time."

* July 15, 2008: RTD board members hear complaints from livid customers. At that meeting, Larry Buter, RTD's paratransit manager, said an upgrade was being loaded into computers and asked the board to give it a few days to work.

* Gary Ulberg, an access-a-Ride dispatcher for First Transit, which contracts with RTD to operate RouteMatch,was suspended from his job after he sent an e-mail to RTD board members informing them of the serious problems of the new system.

Access-a-Ride facts

TRIPS GIVEN

* Average weekday: 3,600

* Average Saturday: 700-800

* Average Sunday: 500

* 2007: 674,419 individual trips

* Ridership has grown, on average, 8 percent to 10 percent in each of the past five years.

* A person taking access-a- Ride to work and then back home would be taking two trips.

OPERATING BUDGET

2008: about $30 million

2007: about $29 million

FLEET SIZE

300 vehicles

The number of vehicles on the road at any time varies with the time of day. The peak hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

COST TO USE

Access-a-Ride fares cost twice as much as regular service, from $3.50 for local rides to $8 for regional rides and $22 for service to Denver International Airport.

WHO CAN USE IT

Anyone who can prove they are unable to board, ride or exit a wheelchair-accessible bus or do not have access to one and if that person's disability does not allow them to travel to and from the bus stop.

WHAT IT IS

Access-a-Ride is a curb-to-curb shared ride shuttle for people who can't use standard public transportation due to a physical or mental disability.

The service is offered only during the regular bus schedule and will pick up only customers who live within three-quarters of a mile of a bus station or route.

Source: RTD

ADA requirements at a glance

By law, RTD must provide an alternative "paratransit" service for those whose disabilities prevent them from using standard public transportation. Here's a partial list:

* If you can demonstrate to RTD that you are unable to use public transportation, then you qualify for access-a- Ride. A nonprofit, Easter Seals Colorado, handles the assessments for RTD.

* RTD must provide service to the disabled that is comparable to the service of the regular system, lest it constitute a "pattern or practice" in violation of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Criteria

* Substantial numbers of significantly untimely pickups.

* Substantial numbers of trip denials or missed trips.

* Substantial numbers of trips with excessive trip lengths.

Comments

  • August 6, 2008

    5:45 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    reformthis writes:

    If someone can use the regular bus, they should not be using access-a-ride. Blind people use the regular bus all the time, and barring other disabilities, most blind people can use the regular bus. This notion that riding the regular bus is dangerous for a blind person is ridiculous.

  • August 6, 2008

    7:54 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SteveFesch writes:

    * Gary Ulberg, an access-a-Ride dispatcher for First Transit, which contracts with RTD to operate RouteMatch,was suspended from his job after he sent an e-mail to RTD board members informing them of the serious problems of the new system.

    Good job RunThemDown. Get rid of the honest people telling the truth.

    Scott Reid enjoy your 6 figure salary while you still have it.

  • August 6, 2008

    9:39 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SL10 writes:

    Reformthis, while I agree to a point with your post. Some folks are forced to use a regular bus cause the program is jacked. Not all blind people can use regular bus lines esp. those with limited mobility as well.

  • August 6, 2008

    9:31 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    reformthis writes:

    SL10 -- I absolutely agree, mulitple disabilities changes the equation for bus users. Someone who has recently acquired vision loss may not be able to use the fixed route system, but if people are able to use the fixed route system, they are not eligible for access-a-ride. It is necessary for many, but there are also many using the system who can and should use the fixed route system. Paratransit is not supposed to make the bus system more convenient, but rather designed to serve only those who cannot use the fixed route system.

    There are people who can use the fixed route system part of the time, or for specific destinations, and they should be using it then. Others, like people with MS, may not be able to wait in the heat, while others may not be able to wait in the cold. However, blindness itself, even total blindness, does not make using a fixed route bus dangerous. It is either the environment -- such as inaccessible street crossings -- or the lack of compensatory skills that are the problem.

    People with only physical disabilities, without other disabilities, particularly if they use power wheelchairs, have no business using paratransit, unless they are unable to wait in heat or cold, and then they should only be using at those times.