Woman Criticizes RTD Ride Service After Failed Attempts
By Jamie Leary
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4)- A Wheat Ridge woman is criticizing the Regional Transportation District after her attempts to use services for the disabled turned into a painstaking journey.
Shirley Green, 67, lives in a retirement community in Wheat Ridge near 38th and Kipling. Unfortunately, Green is far from retirement and actively looking for work.
"Right now I need a job, I need my vehicle to run and in less than 200 miles it will turn 340,000 miles," cried Green.
Green, who used to work for Disney, calls her car Thumper. With over 300,000 miles, Thumper is on its last leg and back in the shop.
"I don't know which in worse shape. The van or me," Shirley laughed.
While her knees and hips are failing, she still has a sense of humor.
Green recently applied to use RTD's para-transit services, Access-a-Ride and Access-a-Cab and qualified.
"Access-a-Ride is marvelous but totally different, as night and day from Access-a-Cab," said Green.
Green has to call in advance to set up Access-a-Ride but has found it reliable. Access-a-Cab provides more immediate service with a pick-up window of no more than 2 hours for those who qualify.
The difference? Access-a-Ride is directly overseen by RTD and is federally mandated for ADA compliance. Access-a-Cab is overseen by the Public Utilities Commission. RTD contracts with several Denver metro area companies for the Access-a-Cab service.
When Green called Access-a-Cab for the first time on April 18, it seemed like the perfect solution especially since RTD covered $12 of the fare. Unfortunately, Green says the cab company sent a car instead of a van and then no vehicle at all. On April 29, she tried again.
"I got stood up. Totally," Green said. "I would go outside and come back and call and, 'Oh, it will be another 20 or 30 minutes we're having trouble finding someone.'"
With her slowing mobility and only a landline, Green went back and forth for hours. In a response to RTD, the cab company said it did show but could not find Green.
"It's somewhat of a cumbersome and sometimes complicated system," said Dr. Clauia Folska, a board member with RTD.
Folska knows the RTD services well. She has been blind since she was 5 years old and regularly uses Access-a-Ride and Access-a-Cab.
"These are things that after a while you become more comfortable using it and again the more familiar you are the easier the system is," said Folska.
Folska says she has had missed connections and late arrivals as well and is always looking for ways to improve the services. She has noticed one trend in particular.
"The taxi cab companies in general, I think, work better when they are closer to the central business district," Folska continued, "The closer I am to the center of the city, the better the service is."
Folska said for those who find it as cumbersome as she once did, "We send people out and we teach them how to use the bus, with a bus, how to get on a bus how to get on and off."
Folska says they have transportation mobility experts who specify in training individuals to use RTD services. She is familiar with Green's struggles and hopes it brings new attention to the problems.
"I think is that this is another problem that we get to sit down together and solve together."
Until Thumper is fixed, Shirley plans to take advantage of the help RTD offers. She hopes others to realize that a service with a learning curve isn't always an option for some.
"There's people out there that use it every day, there's other people that will be signing up and getting approved in the future. I don't want them to have to go through this."
Jamie Leary joined the CBS4 team in 2015 and currently works as a reporter for CBS4 News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. She couldn't imagine a better place to live and work and will stop at nothing to find the next great story. Jamie loves learning about and hearing from her fellow community members, so connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @JamieALeary.
