Cost of RideSource pushes regular services to back seat.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

Wheelchair user Russ Matthews is the soft-spoken type, one to collect his thoughts before turning them into statements.

He sympathizes with Lane Transit District and its financial predicament. The district is required by law to provide special shuttle services to Matthews and the growing number of immobile people like him. Yet that means the financially constrained agency must take away more and more of the bus services that it provides to the general population.

Matthews, 48, suffered an on-the-job injury 15 years ago that paralyzed him from the chest down.

His body can't handle bad weather or the travel necessary to catch the LTD buses that ply set routes through the metro area. So Matthews pays $3 a trip for LTD to send a special bus to pick him up. He uses the service - called Ride-Source - once or twice a week, for errands, family functions or even a trip to the movies. That $3 trip costs the district $25 to provide, money that it takes from its general fund, which is mostly fed by a payroll tax on employers in the district boundaries.

Matthews, of Bethel, for years served on LTD's special-transportation committee. He figures the disabled are entitled to the LTD's subsidized shuttle that provides special buses and door-to-door service.

"The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many," Matthews said. "Somebody who's ambulatory - they have more options available than somebody who's using a mobility device."

Lane Transit District's problem is shared by virtually every transit agency in the United States: The growing cost of serving disabled or elderly riders is forcing deep cuts in service to everybody else.

The district blames high gas prices and the rising cost of its paratransit service for an expected cut to regular service this year that could be the second-biggest in district history. Transit agencies nationwide are going through the same painful exercise, industry officials said.

Paratransit service "gives (elderly or disabled) people the freedom to participate in education and jobs and take care of their necessities. Nobody questioned that," LTD spokesman Andy Vobora said. "(But) it is going to take a bigger and bigger bite out of (LTD's) general fund, and regular bus service is going to suffer until we find a solution."

The looming cuts to regular LTD routes come as rising gas prices have sparked renewed interest by the general public in taking the bus.

In the first quarter of 2008, use of public transportation was up 3.4 percent while private vehicle miles traveled nationwide dropped 2.3 percent, the American Public Transportation Association said.

Transit agencies face a double dilemma in paratransit: They're obligated by 1990's Americans with Disabilities Act to serve people with disabilities, and trips by those users and the elderly are rising rapidly as both groups increasingly engage in the community.

One-way trips on LTD's RideSource rose 60 percent between 1994 and 2007.

The service is open to anyone who lives close to the bus line but is unable to use it due to a disabling condition. The Ride-Source bus is effectively a subsidized taxi: There's no limit to how often somebody can use it, but LTD by law can charge only twice the price of a regular bus fare.

Thus, the district's cost is $25 per trip, more than eight times that of the rider ($3). Often there is only one rider per RideSource bus, compared to a regular bus where multiple riders - and fares - reduce the district's cost, Vobora said.

"Because (use of Ride-Source) is somewhat uncontrollable, and with the growing cost of those trips, there's no way we can manage that," he said.

RideSource costs LTD $3.8 million annually, which includes the $3 million contract with Special Mobility Services, a private organization that runs the fleet of RideSource buses and provides the service.

The district covers one-third of the cost through state tobacco-tax revenue, user fares and other means. But the majority comes from LTD's general fund; last year, almost six percent of the general fund went to RideSource, up from a little over 3 percent eight years ago, Vobora said.

The district is especially worried about the coming flood of baby boomers. People age 65 or older will account for 22 percent of the county's population by 2015, up from 14 percent today, Vobora said. That means more potential RideSource customers.

Lane Transit District battles the cost of RideSource by channeling as many riders as possible to regular buses, through training programs and passenger-assistance efforts.

On Friday at the bustling LTD station in downtown Eugene, LTD travel assistant Kathy Jenness moved through the crowd, watching riders with disabilities to make sure they caught rides on regular LTD buses.

"It can be daunting if you've never (ridden the bus) or even had one bad experience," Jenness said. "We bridge that gap. We work with them one-to-one until they're comfortable."

Vickie Anderson, of Eugene, laughs today when she recalls her bad bus experience.

Anderson, who has a developmental disability, was part of LTD's pilot program 10 years ago to move RideSource users to the regular bus. During one ride, she missed her stop - unsure what to do next, she simply stayed put, riding the bus for miles before help arrived.

Now, Anderson uses the regular bus routinely to get to her job as a clerical assistant at the Eugene Water & Electric Board, where she recently celebrated her 13th anniversary. She prefers the flexibility of the bus schedule to RideSource, which requires reservations a day in advance.

"The bus is pretty simple," Anderson said. "It's good transportation - I can get around, I can go wherever I want to go."

The district says it saved $250,000 last year by helping would-be RideSource users take the regular bus instead.

But it's not enough, officials say. The LTD board may have to cut 15 percent from its $36 million regular operating budget this year, to cover rising paratransit and fuel costs. With nowhere else to turn, LTD is contemplating cutting the equivalent of four large bus routes.

Some district officials are irked that federal law requires the district to provide services for the disabled, yet does not provide money to operate that service.

However, the Federal Transit Administration over the years has provided LTD with tens of millions of dollars for capital expenses such as buying regular and special RideSource buses and building bus routes.

LTD's board plans to discuss using some federal capital-expense money to pay for RideSource operating costs.

The FTA allows a portion of its capital-expense grants to be used on paratransit operational costs in some instances, and LTD might be able to shift $400,000 of capital expense money to RideSource use. But the district is reluctant to spend capital money on operating expenses, Vobora said.

Vobora said the district's state and federal partners must find more money for paratransit in the short term, and the local community must consider paying more for the service in the long term. LTD earlier this year considered putting a local property-tax proposal on the ballot, but then backed away from the idea.

Efforts to win more federal money could break down at the steps of the White House, where the push is to reduce transportation funding, said U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio.

DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the house subcommittee on highways and transit, criticized the Bush administration earlier this year for proposing transit funding that is $200 million below federal guarantees.

The Bush budget proposal for federal fiscal year starting Oct. 1 shortchanges transit and other transportation programs, presenting "little that is new, and much that is disappointing," DeFazio said.