ST. LOUIS — Annette Nowakowski has been using Call-A-Ride since she moved to St. Louis more than a decade ago.
Nowakowski is blind. With Call-A-Ride, Metro Transit’s curbside service for people with disabilities, she can go to work, go to church, or meet her friends for dinner. is completed. Even when she called in the morning to reserve the elevator she needed for that evening, she rarely had trouble making reservations.
Its credibility has evaporated.
Metro Transit has been hit hard by labor shortages over the past three years. In response, the agency reduced its service area in April, excluding parts of southwestern St. Louis County and the far north. Since then, travel refusals have decreased by 50%. And with the $5,000 hiring bonus he’s been offering since July, he’s quadrupled the number of regular driver trainees, inching closer to becoming a full workforce.
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But critics say progress is not coming far enough or fast enough. They argue that long wait times, inconsistent schedules and a lack of transparency on the subway are cutting off a lifeline for people who don’t have access to buses or light rail.
“Call-a-ride is like the stepchild of fixed routes,” Nowakowski said.
Most rides now require three days’ notice to arrange a ride, although reservations must now be made a day in advance to comply with federal Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. Regular users complain of inconveniences that make it difficult to plan their lives, budget, and sometimes feel safe. Blaming these problems on employee shortages is an incomplete story, they say.
Etefia Umana, who lives in the Central West End, uses Call-A-Ride to get to and from the gym, but the pick-up and drop-off times are so variable that she sometimes stretches out her workouts over several hours or crams them into 30 minutes. You may need to.
One day last month, Wilma Chestnut House of Saint John was scheduled to be picked up at 4:30 p.m. after a sewing class at Bellefontaine Neighbors when a van showed up at the building. It was 5:30pm, 30 minutes after the restaurant closed.
James Verde of South St. Louis recently spent two hours driving to a chiropractor, a 20-minute drive away. Mr. Verde, who has a number of complex medical conditions, was exhausted by the time he arrived at his appointment. But if he’s living on a disability income and he uses alternatives like Uber or taxis, he says he can quickly rack up money. Sometimes it’s easier for him to stay at home.
“I’m just tired,” Verde said. “I’m trapped.”
“It’s not just a subway problem.”
Metro acknowledged that the shared transit system could have accommodated more riders with less advance notice if it was fully staffed. Previously, scheduling was also more streamlined, with travel requests concentrated at the beginning and end of the workday and in more concentrated locations, such as downtown.
The onslaught of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has completely changed the situation. Customs have changed and the labor crisis has strained metro transit on all fronts. A shortage of bus drivers has led to several layoffs since 2020, most recently this summer.
MetroLink is running at about three-quarters of the required operators. Overtime payments have ballooned. Additionally, Call-A-Ride’s vacancy rate is hovering around 45%. As of June, 88 of the 201 positions were unfilled.
Cities across the United States are embroiled in similar struggles. In some communities, such as Michigan, California, and Arizona, Work with a network of distributors To fill the paratransit gap. Transportation options for people with disabilities are limited in the St. Louis area. Many ride-hailing vehicles are not wheelchair accessible. Medicaid-funded programs are limited to transportation to specific clinics.
“This is not just a Metro issue,” said Metro Executive Director Chuck Stewart. “This is a local issue, a regional issue and a national issue.”
In a survey conducted last year, American Public Transportation Association It found that nearly three-quarters of 117 transit agencies are forced to cut services or delay expansion due to worker shortages. More than 9 out of 10 people reported difficulty filling the opening.
Call-A-Ride cut off access for 250 people who didn’t live within its boundaries. Destinations outside the new borders were lost to everyone, including Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis County.
Keyshia Orban of Hazelwood lives at the end of a long cul-de-sac bisected by the call-a-ride downsizing. Her house was cleared, but the other half of the street still stands. She can book her ride, but has to walk nearly a third of a mile to wait for the van in front of her neighbor’s house.
The street, which has no sidewalks, is difficult for Orbán, who is blind and recovering from knee surgery, to navigate. She put off her doctor’s appointments to avoid her travels and tried to do her physical therapy practice on her own. But it comes at a price.
“Everything about the knee was delayed,” she said.
“It’s undermining the progress of cities.”
call a ride It was established in 1987 to serve St. Louis and St. Louis County. Over the past year, the bright blue van carried about 2,800 people.
federal guidelines Paratransit must be available within three-quarters of a mile of a fixed line, at the same times and days of the week, and at less than twice the cost. Call-A-Ride’s one-way fare is $2. The Americans with Disabilities Act outlines scheduling procedures, but it is generally believed that a one-hour window on either side of the requested pick-up time is acceptable.
Call-A-Ride drivers earn a starting wage of $17.85 an hour, about $5 less than Metro Transit bus and light rail drivers. As you gain experience, your margins will expand. The average van driver’s hourly wage is $19.32. Bus drivers pay an average of $28.49 and MetroLink operators pay $29.23.
General Manager Jeff Butler said when Call-A-Ride operated with a fully staffed workforce, almost no ride refusals were recorded. People could guarantee a seat by calling the day before. Pre-booking was an option for people who needed to ride regularly and didn’t have to schedule rides every day.
Butler said that pre-COVID-19, the company was offering 1,800 to 2,000 trips each day, twice as many as it does now. Ride denials peaked in February, when Call-A-Ride failed to fulfill 42% of 45,163 requests. By last month, rejected requests had dropped to less than 18% of his 40,525 requests.
“We’re getting there,” Butler said.
Mark Detchen of western St. Louis County has been a Call-A-Ride user for almost a quarter of a century. Detchen, who is visually impaired and has limited mobility, used the van everywhere: meetings, work, social outings, and errands.
Since 2020, only three round-trip flights have been successfully booked for both legs. Sometimes he scrapes together money to pay for his Uber. But most of the time he skips whatever he was trying to do.
“It really limits freedom,” said Detchen, who lives alone.
The impact extends beyond personal inconvenience, with employers having to cover missed time. Health check appointments will be postponed. No money is spent in shops or restaurants.
“That’s killing the city’s progress,” Detchen said. “If you can’t move around in the city, the city won’t grow.”
Filing a complaint
When Metro announced service cuts in March, disability rights groups rallied. Paraquad, a local agency serving people with disabilities, hosts weekly Zoom meetings to consolidate complaints and brainstorm solutions. The complaint, signed by more than a dozen representatives of religious and nonprofit organizations, was filed with the U.S. Department of Justice in April. These organizations sent similar letters to the Federal Transit Administration.
Among the criticisms: between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., schedules can only be made by phone, but unlike Bus and MetroLink, where tickets can be purchased through an app, Call-A-Ride still accepts cash. payment is required. Outside of FTA guidelines, passengers must be ready at least 15 minutes before their ride window begins.
“It comes down to quality of life,” says Janet Mott Oxford of Palakkad. “Can people with disabilities lead normal, happy lives?”
At a June meeting with Metro Transit representatives, advocates including Oxford called for bringing outside consultants into board meetings at Metro Transit’s parent agency, Bi-State Development, and for public attendance. I suggested that it be allowed. They also discussed improving wages and benefits for drivers, who will be negotiating new contracts in January.
Barbara Sheinbein of western St. Louis County feels their concerns aren’t being taken seriously. She says the driver shortage is a big problem, but it’s not the only problem.
Scheinbein, who is retired, uses call-a-rides to go to the Olivet Pet Adoption Center to participate in weekly volunteer work “to uplift the animals.”
Patience is required. Her usual routine is to call at 7:30 a.m., redial through a 10-minute busy signal, take a break, and start all over again. If you wait until the phone line is free later in the day, you probably won’t get anything.
“No one thing will solve this problem,” Scheinbein said.
Metro officials said the recent changes are aimed at removing barriers for riders. Via, a micro-ridesharing program, is available in three small geographic zones in St. Louis County. Executive director Stewart said it could expand further. Advance bookings may return once the employment situation is resolved, and other innovations may be in the works.
“The challenge is to adapt the available resources to our needs,” he said. “We certainly understand that frustration.”
In the coming months, the agency plans to expand a pilot program for smartphones that allow passengers to pay without cash. Better computer software and modern call-in processes will reduce busy signals and scheduling issues.
And employment is trending in the right direction, Stewart said. Last month, 20 prospective employees enrolled in Call-A-Ride’s training program, and the agency is working to address a “backlog of applicants.”
Scheinbein acknowledged that the paratransit system was designed with good intentions to make communities accessible to people with disabilities. But it’s been more than 30 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, and she’s tired of things seemingly slowing down.
“As people with disabilities, we should be content with what we get and deal with it,” Scheinbein said. “The real answer is a completely different system.”