Gemma Calinda is an organizer living in Kingston. She has worked for the Caring Majority, which advocates for fair wages for home care workers and single payer healthcare for New York State. She also uses a wheelchair and rides paratransit, which is an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) federally mandated transportation service for people with disabilities. I spoke with Gemma recently about her experience using paratransit.
“My experience has been some good, but way, way more bad situations,” Gemma says. “There’s no checks and balances… nothing is being checked to see if it’s okay. And I don’t think that Jen Metzger, the County Executive, is being notified of changes that [Ulster County Area Transit (UCAT)] is making.”
Gemma often has an appointment on Wednesdays from 5 to 7 pm, however she has been told that there is not anyone to pick her up. However, the blue route, which runs near Gemma’s house, runs until 9 pm on weekdays. It appears that UCAT is acting in conflict with federal laws for paratransit, which in section 37.131 state that “The complementary paratransit service shall be available throughout the same hours and days as the entity's fixed route service.” UCAT also has limited fixed route service on Sundays, however paratransit is reportedly not available on Sundays.
Gemma also shared that UCAT has recently called her to ask if she would cancel her scheduled paratransit ride, due to a lack of drivers. They reportedly told her that they would have to cancel a fixed route bus if she did not cancel her ride. (This prompted me to research UCAT’s efforts to recruit more drivers, which found that UCAT is clearly doing less than the bare minimum to solve the so-called “driver shortage” - I’ll cover that in a follow-up article soon.)
Many of the other problems that Gemma spoke about have to do with timing and communication. There appears to be a double standard with communication: If UCAT is running late, they do not call to notify the rider, and the rider needs to constantly look out the window to see if the bus has arrived. However, if the rider is running late, they have a ten minute window, and then the bus leaves. “A call would be nice, to say hey, your bus is here, are you coming? I believe they used to do that, but not anymore,” says Gemma.
In addition, there is a large gap in service in the middle of the day. “One of my huge problems with it is the lunch period. They take lunch from 11 to 1.” For a 10:30 appointment, the bus will pick up about 45 minutes earlier, but it won’t come back until 1:30 or so - even if the appointment is only 20 minutes long. UCAT also requires paratransit riders to wait one hour before they can be picked up again, even if the rider just needs to run in to drop something off.
Another problem is inflexibility with booking; riders are not allowed to book appointments the same day, even if the bus has room. “I understand that they have a schedule, but if they had available time and available space, why shouldn’t you be able to book it the same day, if something comes up?” asks Gemma.
Riders are also not allowed to book appointments more than a couple days in advance, which is in conflict with section 37.131 of rules for paratransit services: “The entity may permit advance reservations to be made up to 14 days in advance of an ADA paratransit eligible individual's desired trips.”
Gemma says that she has called for a ride the day before and been denied. “It’s not even ‘we’ll get you in,’ it’s ‘we’ll try and see if we can get you in’… and it is first come, first serve.”
She also states that she has been charged by a doctor for missing an appointment, due to being denied a ride after the 24 hour cancellation window has passed.
Calling at any time after 4 pm is considered calling the next day, which may contradict section 37.131: “The entity shall schedule and provide paratransit service to any ADA paratransit eligible person at any requested time on a particular day in response to a request for service made the previous day… The entity shall make reservation service available during at least all normal business hours of the entity's administrative offices.”
Gemma find most of the drivers nice, but there is one who drives too fast. When asking the driver if she could slow down, the driver reportedly responded that she always drives that fast. “My aide was on the bus with me the other day and said, wow, she drives really fast.” Gemma states that she has reported it, and that UCAT told her that the driver herself says that she doesn’t drive too fast. Nothing has changed since the complaint, according to Gemma.
All in all, UCAT may be out of compliance with federal ADA law, and clearly needs more oversight and accountability in order to best serve the needs of the community.
Toni Roser, director of UCAT, and Amanda Lavalle, the Deputy County Executive who oversees UCAT, did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
If you want to get involved, contact the Rider’s of Ulster Transit Alliance (RUTA) at wheresmyktownbus@gmail.com.
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Sounds like it to me, so frustrating that not much has changed over the years. Before John had his own vehicle, transportation was spotty. People with mobility disabilities are a small percentage of the population and do not have a load voice. Thank you Ella for trying to amplify this issue!