pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-02-14.pdf, 5
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-02-14 | 5 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES OF Wednesday, February 14, 2018 6:30 p.m. Jennifer Roloff: Okay. Arnold Brillinger: Now, I just want to say that this is a boon for those people that are in dialysis because they can get there on Paratransit but they can't always tell when they're going to get back and sometimes they're still in having the procedure done and Paratransit comes says, "Oh, if you're not out of here five minutes you stay here we'll come back later when we want to." If they can get the people at the dialysis place to give a call to the provider, say, "Hey, we need someone here at 2:30 and it is a good thing." We just need people to understand how it works. Victoria Williams: That's right. Thank you. Jennifer Roloff: And is that's way it's called "return trip"? Victoria Williams: Yes, because that's the only purpose of that trip. No other kinds of trips are funded through this program. It's just to return home from a medical trip that you've gone to on some other way, generally for East Bay Paratransit and that's why it was created because it can be cumbersome. And Commissioner Brillinger is right, East Bay Paratransit they can only wait five minutes for you. So if you underestimate or overestimate your pickup time, they'll give you a 30 minute window and they can come five minutes of that 30 minute window and if they don't see you they have to roll because they've got other people to pick up. So if you've already been through an exhausting treatment like dialysis that can be very frustrating. Arnold Brillinger: So this is something that we need to spread around to let people know. If you're working with another group and there are some dialysis patients there let them know. They need to sign up with Victoria but once they do, it works pretty good is what I understand, especially with our provider now. Victoria Williams: Right. Any other questions at the moment? So, then we also offer some scholarship programs. One scholarship program assists with the taxi vouchers and a family can qualify for $50 of free taxi vouchers once a year if they're within the guidelines and it's a very generous guidelines. And then we also have a new program that we started in March of 2017 working with AC transit, we offer bus passes, the easy passes for people who live at Alameda Point Collaborative. So it's affordable housing there. And so people who are trying to stretch their dollars as far as possible and we can help them get to where they need to go with this program. Victoria Williams: And it started as you can see in March with 1500 riders a month, that's a good place to start and we're up to over 4000 riders a month now. Now, those folks go anywhere they want. It's the regular AC transit bus, so it's not a special bus, it's not a special program. The program is the funding for them to travel but it's not noticed by anybody on the bus that they have free trips or anything like that, so there's no stigma attached. You live here, you can qualify and it's being really well received. People who weren't going out because it was so expensive can get out now. Jennifer Roloff: Are we able to track ridership, with that Easy Pass? 02/14/18 Page 5 of 24 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-02-14.pdf |