It has been 35 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law. After years of advocacy by the disability community, this landmark civil rights legislation was signed on July 26, 1990. The law prohibits “discrimination on the basis of disability across all aspects of public life, promoting equal access to education, employment, transportation, and other public spaces and services,” according to Jisoo Choi of national nonprofit Medicare Rights. “It is thanks to the implementation of the ADA that buses have wheelchair lifts and movie theaters have closed captioning and audio description services.”

Regional Transit Programs

Newcomers and caretakers may be unaware of the range of accessible transit programs available throughout the Tri-Valley. Public transit is critically important to any resident without a car, and especially important to disabled individuals who find it challenging to ride the Wheels buses run by the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) or take BART. Several Tri-Valley transit programs are available to riders who have special needs. They include Wheels Dial-A-Ride, Wheels Para-Taxi, and One-Seat Regional Ride. Service hours and fees vary by program, and riders must qualify by applying to a program before they can use a service.

Wheels Dial-A-Ride is a door-to-door public shared-ride transportation service for ADA paratransit eligible passengers. Wheels officials describe Dial-A-Ride as a convenient, cost-effective transportation option for persons with disabilities. Dial-A-Ride is public shared-ride transportation, meaning that other customers may be picked up and dropped off along the route. Various vehicles are used for Dial-A-Ride service, which must be booked 24 hours in advance. Paratransit users make reservations to use the service and are charged a fee for each one-way trip.

The Wheels Para-Taxi Program is a premium paratransit service, which provides flexible same-day transportation service for ADA-certified Wheels Dial-A-Ride riders by reimbursing riders for taxi service or rideshare services such as Uber or Lyft. According to Wheels officials, the Para-Taxi Program is inexpensive, convenient, and comfortable. One benefit is that users do not have to book 24-hours in advance but can easily book on the same day as the ride. Rides are not shared.

“It's just such a convenience for people,” says Tamara Edwards, LAVTA Director of Finance. “Sometimes you don't know a day in advance that you need to pick up a prescription.”

Another benefit of using Para-Taxi services is the 85% discount on para-taxi fares when riders use a PEX debit card that is preloaded with 15% of the fare. PEX is a para-taxi debit card that is available from Wheels for trips originating in the Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore service area. Instead of paying for the full fare and then filing paperwork for reimbursement, riders pay only for the discounted fare, up to $30 maximum per one-way ride. The maximum amount that can be charged on the Para-Taxi Debit Card for each ride is $34.50, which is the Wheels’ portion of $30 and rider’s portion of $4.50. The maximum amount that can be charged on the debit card per month is $345, which represents $300 from Wheels and $45.00 from the rider.

Additional Transit Options

The One Seat Regional Ride (OSR) shared-ride paratransit program was adopted last year by County Connection, LAVTA, Tri Delta Transit, and WestCAT transit agencies. Before the OSR program was introduced, agencies provided paratransit service coverage within their fixed route service areas only. Passengers who needed to travel across two or more service areas were often forced to wait at a transit hub inside the first agency's service area until a second paratransit agency vehicle arrived to pick them up. Several transfers to different vehicles might be required to reach their destination.

Each transit agency maintains its existing paratransit services; One Seat is strictly for trips that cross transit service areas. Through a shared-cost agreement, the OSR program saves money for passengers as well as agencies. Passengers now pay a single fee to get to their destination and a single fee for their return for paratransit trips across service areas for riders that are often easier and faster than the old system.

“The One Seat Regional Ride is so cool because it facilitates regional transportation for our most vulnerable riders, and makes it easier for people in the Tri-Valley to get to medical appointments outside of the Tri-Valley,” notes LAVTA Executive Director Christy Wegener.

In Contra Costa County, other paratransit services are also available. They include WestCAT ADA Paratransit Services, and County Connection’s LINK Paratransit program. Individual cities may have special transit services as well. Pleasanton Paratransit Services, for example, provides door-to-door, shared-ride-services for eligible Pleasanton and Sunol residents who are 70 years and older or 18 and older and ADA qualified. This program offers limited service for medical appointments to San Ramon, Livermore, and Dublin. Fee assistance is offered to qualified low-income residents. Riders must apply to the service, which has limited hours.

Transit services are only one type of program available to individuals with disabilities. The Alameda County Aging and Disability Resource Connection has compiled a host of resources and links to information that cover a wide range of topics. They include caregiver resources, disability resources, and legal assistance. Such resources are vital to the larger community as well as individuals in need. As the late author and activist Alice Wong wrote in Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century, “The narrative trajectory of a disabled person’s life is necessarily webbed. We are often only as strong as our friends and family make us, only as strong as our community, only as strong as the resources and privileges we have.”

For more information about the Wheels Dial-a-Ride Service, please visit hwww.wheelsbus.com/dial-a-ride.

For more information about the Wheels Para-Taxi Program, please visit www.wheelsbus.com/para-taxi.

For more information about One Seat Regional Ride, please visit www.wheelsbus.com/one-seat-regional-ride.

For more information about WestCAT ADA Paratransit Services, please visit www.westcat.org/home/ServADAPara or call (510) 724-7993.

For more information about County Connection’s LINK Paratransit program, please visit www.countyconnection.com/paratransit or call (925) 676-7500.

For more information about the Pleasanton Paratransit Service, please visit www.cityservecares.org/pleasanton-paratransit-service-pps.

For more information about the Alameda County Aging and Disability Resource Connection, please visit www.alameda.my-adrc.org.