Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on HARTPlus:

Transportation

Growth challenges HARTPlus disabled bus system

By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: March 15, 2015

TAMPA — Over the past decade, ridership on the federally funded bus system for people with disabilities has grown exponentially. That fast growth generates an ever more challenging job for those coordinating hundreds of rides each day in one of the state’s largest counties.

In 2014, HARTPlus provided about 150,000 rides to the disabled and received 212 complaints — or complaints from 0.14 percent of its passengers. But on those occasions when the system fails and mistakes occur, it can leave patrons in a lurch, or worse, in a dangerous situation — something the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority is working to avoid.

Two blind women recently spoke to the HART board to explain the serious issues they have faced on occasion while using the HARTPlus bus system. One had been dropped off at the wrong location to attend that very meeting. She was left several miles away in downtown Tampa, instead of in Ybor City.

The other told the board of being left stranded at the county courthouse one day as night fell. Her bus failed to arrive to give her a ride home. In yet another instance, a driver never came to the door to notify one of the woman he was there, then left when she didn’t come out in the allotted time.

Even if statistics show that HARTPlus is running on time and making it to the right place 90 percent of the time, that’s not what clients expect or deserve, said HART CEO Katharine Eagan. “They expect 100 percent.”

The agency has several changes and enhancements in the works to help it reach that 100 percent efficiency status, Eagan said.

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Even before the two women showed up to complain about issues they felt put them in jeopardy, the HART staff was busy finalizing a pilot program to pair the bus service with local taxis patrons can use, ensuring that no one gets left waiting at the curb.

The pilot program will not only improve efficiency for getting people where they need to go in a more timely manner, but will save the agency money that can be used to bolster services elsewhere, said HART Chief Operations Officer Ruthie Reyes-Burkhard. The pilot program should begin this summer.

HART implemented a new paperless scheduling process in late February to improve on-time performance and is updating its customer service software this year to avoid dropping patrons off in the wrong location. An investigation showed that an outdated version of HART’s intranet incorrectly routed the visually impaired woman who got dropped off downtown instead of in Ybor City.

HART board members, after hearing the stories from the visually impaired women earlier this month, also suggested drivers be given more sensitivity training.

Already, such training is required, said HART spokeswoman Sandra Morrison. Van drivers for HARTPlus go through four weeks’ worth of training with emphasis on special needs customers and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. When a situation arises like occurred with the woman left waiting at home for the bus, the driver is given individual training, Morrison said. And that driver has been counseled, she said.

The complaint investigation showed that both women rode HARTPlus vans dozens of times in the past year and a large majority of the time, they were picked up on time and arrived on time.

There are most certainly bumps in the road, many related to the fast growth of the customer base, Reyes-Burkhard said.

The pilot program starting this summer could go far to smooth those bumps, she said. In addition to working with taxis to provide service to customers — possibly using a voucher system to pay for those rides — HART is also working with the county’s Sunshine Line buses for “transportation disadvantaged” to see if that service can help fill a void during especially busy periods or if a HARTPlus client is stranded and needs a ride.

The alternative would be to purchase more vans, hire more operators and hire more mechanics to work on them, she said. And that would cost money the agency doesn’t necessarily have.

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Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Sandy Murman is a big advocate of HART and the county working together to fill the needs of those with disabilities. The problem, she said, is that there are different funding streams for HARTPlus and Sunshine Line, making it difficult to coordinate.

“We need the walls to come down and have the two programs more coordinated,” Murman said at the HART board meeting earlier this month. “They are governed by different rules, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to make this work. We’ve got to figure it out. People are slipping through the cracks.”

“Someone is going to have to put their nose to the grindstone and put together an interlocal agreement,” added Commission Les Miller, who also sits on the HART board.

Reyes-Burkhard said HART is working to find a way to coordinate the programs, which could include having Sunshine Line bill HART at the end of each month for any rides it picks up. HART is getting input from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, various disability groups and Sunshine Line on how to best coordinate this effort, she said.

“These ladies coming to the meeting is not something we were unaware of, problems in the system,” she said. “But this is something we are trying to address.”

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Coordinating some 500 trips per day with 40 to 48 vehicles that hold three to eight passengers each is a real challenge because Hillsborough County covers such a large area, HART officials said.

And because HARTPlus is funded by the Federal Transit Administration mandate that the program meet ADA requirements, no ride request from an eligible client can be turned down.

If someone needs a ride at a particular time, HART is required to meet that time with a 30-minute window on either side, Eagan said.

“We understand many of our patrons use us as their only mode of transportation. They don’t have the opportunity to go at a later time. We understand we are their primary method” and cannot discriminate based on where a client wants to go. “And we understand the anxiety of having to rely on someone else.

“We have more folks trying to use our service than we can reasonably accommodate.” And that’s the rub, Eagan said.

HARTPlus requires patrons to book trips up to three days in advance, but they would not have that same requirement with taxis or with Sunshine Line, Reyes-Burkhard said. So if problems come up, those vendors could be called in to service more quickly.

“We don’t yet know how many trips we will put out to providers, but we are hoping to decrease our cost by one-third,” she said. “So, even with vendors, HART can provide more trips with the same amount of money.”