By Anne McCulloch
Facing pressure from a growing ridership, the application process for Para Transpo service is becoming tougher.
The regional transit commission, which oversees both Para Transpo and OC Transpo, will be piloting a questionnaire in a few months that will determine which Para Transpo applicants need the service and which applicants could be served by low-floor buses on regular OC Transpo routes.
Para Transpo, which provides door-to-door transportation around the region, receives 400 applications for service every month, says Somerset regional Coun. Diane Holmes, who sits on the transit commission.
Currently, about 9,000 people use Para Transpo, says Patrick Larkin, the service’s director. While senior citizens and people with disabilities both use Para Transpo, Larkin says 72 per cent of people registered are 65 years or older and 81 per cent of new clients are senior citizens.
“If I didn’t have Para, I wouldn’t get out,” says Rita Profit, a volunteer at Good Companions Senior’s Centre on Albert Street. “Sometimes I have to get out from being in four walls. But I don’t abuse it every day to go to bingo or to go visiting.”
The new application won’t affect current Para Transpo users like Profit for at least three years, says Holmes. Right now, only new applicants and their doctors will have to fill out the questionnaire. In some cases, an occupational therapist may be asked to meet with applicants.
While Joseph Casagrande doesn’t rely solely on Para Transpo — he also rides the regular bus, or his wife drives him — he does use the service to get to the Good Companions Senior’s Centre once a week.
“Para is so convenient,” he says. “They come right to the door. They let me off right at the door. It takes a load off my wife because they do the assisting.”
But Larkin says anyone who is able should take the regular bus. He says a one-way trip on Para Transpo costs at least $20 but the person who makes the trip pays only about nine per cent of that cost.
“It is more cost effective to have people on regular buses,” he says.
That’s why the transit commission is adding more low-floor buses to the regular OC Transpo routes. OC Transpo has 95 low-floor buses on the road now and 65 more are expected to be delivered by the end of this year. Larkin says low-floor buses will help seniors use the transit system longer before they need Para Transpo service, because they are easier to board.
Right now, there are only enough low-floor buses to guarantee routes 6 and 18 as accessible. Low-floor buses also service the route 316 community bus in Centretown. OC Transpo plans to have a full fleet of low-floor buses within two years.
But the vice-president of Good Companions Senior’s Centre says seniors should be able to use Para Transpo.
“Because (Para Transpo) is available, (seniors) can have some enjoyment, and I dare say that helps their health,” says Wes Henderson, who used Para Transpo but switched to the bus when his health improved.
“And health is a lot more costly than Para Transpo buses and drivers.”