event before we get started there are a few housekeeping let's get a few housekeeping items out of the way these silence all electronic devices the public restrooms are outside  behind me so please access the restroom through the door to the right side of the room we have about pieces of paper as you entered if you have a question during one of the crease please write down the question and pass it down to the end of the table to the right we will come by and pick them up near the end of the program please write legibly or let one of us know if you need assistance today to educate the maori community about the types of transportation services available how to access the various systems what to expect when using public transportation and what is expected of you as a writer i would like to acknowledge our paratransit advisory members who are present we have andrew valentine we have good the and lindsay we have i'd also like to acknowledge from the valleys county department of transportation directors joanne johnson weiner so let's give everybody around the we are very fortunate to have a knowledgeable group of individuals are here who are here to share information with you so without further ado i'd like to introduce our first presenter that the jackson miss jackson will be covering eighty eight paratransit debbie jackson is a planner eighty eight coordinator with the disability and compensation are scuse me communication access  she has been working with the agency since one thousand nine hundred eighty eight her job responsibilities include providing technical assistance related to the state county and government services for people with disabilities drafting monitoring a testify on state legislative issues impacting individuals with disabilities compiling data and statistics relating to persons with disabilities designing and maintaining a v a communication coordination and the agency website on her personal level ms jackson is a sign language interpreter and has served on the governor appointed board representing interpreters she has a wife and a mother once she enjoys reading mystery novels doing arts and crafts and volunteering in the community so please help me  you very much and thank you for the invitation to come and speak to you today i have wanted to be setting the foundation for what we're going to be talking as the foundation available to disabled people using transportation has to be comparable to the extent practical response time so that maintained by public transportation services so the fi from system so when transportation is run regularly along a fixed crowd and it's open to the general public so that's basically what this is about if you have a bus system that set up that have regular route and you will have people sometimes that can't use the regular bus system so they need to be offered an alternative depending on the provider and the provider would set up those parameters and later on we'll talk about how sometimes you may need to do you from that and paratransit is by nature a shared ride experience so even though the bus is a shared drive experience itself it's a little bit different than the bus the fixed route service in that it's going to more places than the fixed route services because the specs route goes along a certain ralph it has a certain stop and then when you have the paratransit it depends on where you're going and where you live so it's not the same as a bus service now some exemption from the parent transport requirement includes such things as the shuttle bus service which is operated by public airports and that would be a shuttle service of something to the hotel and on the mainland they have different services here are so that's one reason that this really shuttle is not have is not list equipped because it's not required to be but it still has to be sufferable so they've used some alternative means to set up their stuff sell it for their vans another exemption is the fix route the systems operated by public universities sometimes depending on how the university is how large the campus is you might have buildings and different places that it's not practical for people to walk from building to building or from site to site if they have sponsors in different areas so they set up a transfer program within the university and that also again it has to be acceptable but it doesn't have to comply with the paratransit portion of this of the washington d c in the spring for the cherry blossom festival and one of the things that my family did with what we visited is the candidates so we took the metro and about is the shuttle that's going to come by going to be exhaustible because it is ok and you don't even have to request it every shuttle they come by on fifteen minute increments is excessive all so that's that's one of the best service of some sort i've seen and maybe one day we'll have something like that here where we won't have to request it it will just be there ok that would certainly be nice and the other thing is that commuter routes so if your community didn't help with the fix we're out system if it just had a commuter route which means that it goes mostly in one direction like for a long time the big island had a commuter route and it just goes one way and it runs during rush hour those are not required to have paratransit services now i do happen to know that the bus system has changed on the big island so they are talking about adding that reeks portion to their services so that they can also provide services to people with disabilities and their community and the big island is a little bit different since they have more land mass to cover than any of the and i wanted to also emphasize eligibility requirements the paratransit is available to people with disabilities who are unable as a result of a physical or mental impairment and without the assistance of another individual to board a ride or disembark or get off of any vehicle on the fix route system even though the vehicles physics awful so some of that would include people who have vision problems that would need another person to assist them get on and off the bus or even know where the bus stop is specific impairments related to conditions that maybe would prevent the person from traveling and that would be also to board a location or get off at a specific location and these would include things like chronic fatigue somebody with a cognitive impairment somebody who has a developmental disability or an intellectual disability a traumatic brain injury a combination of serv combination of severe of vision and hearing impairment and impaired mobility or cardiovascular problems well for this reason because there are so many conditions list as the u s department of transportation did not develop an all inclusive list because there's no way that you can do that and get everyone you need to on the list so they just gave examples and for the eligibility you can also use an accessible vehicle on a fixed route system but a lot to travel arou that when the accessible vehicle was not in yours and vehicle is not a move that ok and then there is also another requirement in the federal rules that say people can be determined eligible on a trip by trip they can't make their system doesn't operate their bodies function correctly and so they're sensitive to the temperatures and that person so that person could be eligible for services in the cooler climate  or in the cooler time of the year but not during the summer so they would have they could have be partially eligible for services or the person could have a cognitive impairment and they know how to the bus to get to and from work however there are able to negotiate the system if they're going somewhere else if they want to go to their and his pals they want to go to the store they can't do that because they don't do it in on a regular basis so they can't do that on their own souls the county can make the determination of whether they want to have trip by trip eligibility or if they want to just beam people eligible even though it's on a trip by trip about how they do it here on my although i did get a chance look at your paratransit service plan because it is on the internet and that's a good way for you to get to know what your services are and what is set by the county and even ask questions later if you're unsure about some of the things that are  hop next i want to talk about non disabled companions because companions are allowed to ride on paratransit with the person with a disability and the things where you also want to differentiate here is that there's a difference between a companion who could be a family member riding with the person with a disability but not somebody providing care so in that situation the companion is charged for the ride so the carriage attendant is writing for no charge now what we've noticed in honolulu is that more and more people are tending to use family members as their and that's allowable just as long as the carrot says it is doing to stop providing care for the person and that's fine but that can be a family member or a spouse and the transept provider on the other side they may not deny a parent paratransit right to an individual riding alone even though they've stated on the route location they needed care attendant because then that would be like punishing the person you know they're running and they don't maybe on that particular day they're having a good day and they don't need the services of keratosis ok and the transfer provider must also  will companion we talked about that a person with a disability such as a family member or friend on a space available basis for may require reservations for attendants and other companions of the reservations are made by the person with a disability and usually that goes with a space of on a space available basis and when the person makes of arrangements they should let the paratransit provider know that they are coming with an attendant so there's enough space and with a companion if they're going to use it's not just i know i need a companion and you need to let the person knows what they know how much space  need the next criteria we're going to discuss is certifying eligibility with fixed route operator if we have local certification process and place to determine eligibility services eligibility is strictly limited to individuals who meet the regulations criteria applications and information must be available if you have them on the internet they have to be available and alternate formats which means large print if someone requests it in braille or somebody wants an email to them that's an alternate format and the entity once they have received the application they have twenty  service until eligibility is denied and if eligibility is denied in these to be the night in writing and the reasons for the denial must be clear in the eligible they will issue an identification card or other documentation and all have personal information will have your name on it it will have it can have your picture i don't know of you do have your pictures here or on maui but in honolulu i believe that they have their pictures not and if the person uses a service animal we highly recommend that the picture be taken with their service animal so every time you get on  eligibility and some people have asked me the question why does that even need to be on there because i have a permanent disability why do i need that well that's similar to what my office does because we issue the rules for the handicapped parking placard the blue placard hang in your car so that you can park inaccessible parking spaces and people laugh that same question on parmalee i'm prominently disable periodic leaving the us department of transportation says that between one and two years between one and two years is a reasonable interval in honolulu we do it every four years i don't know how often this is done here or the department  procedures must be a staff of ok here is where i was going to talk to about the appeals process if you're denied eligibility you do have the right to appeal and the office that handles the appeals needs to be an office a separate from the office that the terms whether or not you're eligible for services and in the appeals process  that decision must be provided to the partisans that made the appeal within thirty days of the appeal ok and if they don't receive a decision that they've been denied or proved th on the thirty first they the person should be allowed to write a character trent's it until a decision is made about whether or not to approve or deny eligibility and sixty days is the statute of limitations for a person to file an appeal after they're denied services so you need to remember those types of number and to avoid chronic no shows the regulations do allow for suspension for a reasonable amount of time a suspension of services for a reasonable amount of time but it can't just be because you didn't show up once because you had an accident on the way to where you were going to meet meet the paratransit provider ok it has to be something that you control didn't show up because you didn't wake up on time not an accident maybe depends whether you're on medication so everything is on a case by case basis so everything is not just clear cut there's always some circumstances that you should be able to explain what happened to you and that's why there's the appeals process and there two more opportunities if you know show again what is shown other louder and on the third time they said this is just third no show and we are going to suspend services for a period of and county determines how long that period is but it needs to be a reasonable client it can't be i'm going to suspend your services forever ok because people need transportation services they need to be able to get to the doctor they need to be able to get places but they also need to be responsible and show up for their rights so i just wanted to let you know it should be the contact should be in writing and there should be ads and there's also an appeal one of the other questions that i frequently get is when visitors come they often ask i'm a parent trying to eligible in my home state when i come to light can i get a ride on your paratransit and the answer should be yes if the person is certified in their home state they should be able to get a ride here on paratransit however one of the difficult problems we have in honolulu and i don't know how it's here is so that's one thing that we do need to look at and discuss and i did get a call from a writer here on maui the did tell me that there was a concern because they can't carry too big a package onto the paratransit service and but that also depends on the time of day and how crowded the van is too i would think but the county does have the right to limit what the person brings this is one of my they were to live it it's it's a little bit difficult to of was a little bit difficult for me to understand it's like ok so what i did was the middle line there the straight line is your fix route so stop ok so the beginning is my right your left and then the end of the line is the other side ok and so paratransit under the federal rules are allowed to go three quarters of a mile around the tricks route system ok and they can go and there they don't have to go beyond that i mean nothing in a da says you can't do more than what we say we set the minimum requirement but that's minimum so if your services want to provide more they can but that's the minimum  so with those services you also need to look at whether it's in a downtown area so where there's fix were out there also must be services to be provided to any pockets within and outside of the three quarter mile service areas in the downtown area and in love densely populated area areas such as the country areas that you have a need to extend the trust there is there may be a need to extend the paratransit area up to one one and a half miles on either side of the fixed system to surf some location  and this is one that is being hotly is this is an issue that's been hotly debated in honolulu right now because the requirements for response time for people should under the federal regulations people should be called should be required to call for next a service for a while we were saying you could didn't call us a lot before th but we really didn't have next day service because our paratransit is very very busy at honolulu but you need to make reservations during business hours monday through friday ok on the preceding day before the ride that you want to take so if you have a doctor's appointment tomorrow you can call today for a doctor's appointment tomorrow or in a lot of love know what our doctors appointments are way before today so you can call up to fourteen days before your appointment ok and the reservation service would have to be available even if the preceding day is a weekend or a holiday ok that doesn't mean there needs to be a live parson there there are all kinds of options nowadays with with a computer with internet you could take internet reclamation you can even use an answer machine because the rules say an answering machine is fine as long as there's some way that you can leave your reservation information with the service provider ok so transit providers must also provide at least one minute advance reservations at all time and no more than four said and pick up times are negotiable between the transfer provider and the writer although they cannot vary for more than one hour from the user's desire travel time and i should go back and tell you why this is such a hot issue because in honolulu people call either to make a reservation or change the time and they're on hold for an extended period of time and that really is not acce  x acceptable when people are are on the whole i mean i hate to be on hold myself when i call my doctor or when i call somebody i even hate to get the machines that answer press this button if you want because you know at the end they're going to hang up on anyway hopefully that doesn't happen here but it happens to me and i would rather talk to a real live person and give my information to a live person than a tape recorder or something but anyway so hopefully we can get that so it someplace so that at least you can get the customer service portion so that it's acceptable to the writer  one time you get on the bus and we give transfers and then we can use a transfer on a bus going in the same direction if our bus wasn't going to where we want ok so paratransit in honolulu could cost two dollars cost up to the same amount would cost two dollars a dollar fifty to fifty ok that's arrange you can go even though it says you can charge up to the same fare it doesn't have to be it's up to the the county or whoever the service of express service costs more or of transfers costs you more or there's a different fee for transfer or rush hour rides they can also include that  in the cost of a paratransit right so that would go for example if the bus fare is a dollar for example paratransit could cost up to two dollars so they can charge you up to  twice as much and then transfer providers can charge companions the same fare as riders with disabilities but personal care is tennis again must be allowed to ride with the person with a disability at no charge trip restrictions and capacity constraints transit agencies are prohibited from restricting a person's use of paratransit depending on trip purposes for example they cannot restrict the use  employment person purposes only so if you're only riding paratransit to work they can tell you that's all you can ride for is to go back and forth to work the agency cannot impose capacity restraining controls on the availability of paratransit and that includes such things as waiting list limiting the number of times a person can use the service denying service because the vehicle is not at maximum capacity so maybe on one trip there is only one person that reserve a seat on that on that particular day at that particular time the paratransit agency cannot just cancel it because there's only one rider ok one person still needs arise so they need to get the right trying to agencies cannot provide services that consistently as late pick up return trip trip denials missed trips and trips with excess to an hour some after their scheduled pickup time or for their drop off times when they come to go back home they have to wait or somebody gets denied a trip  one of the things that we tried to recommend to people is to try and resolve first at the county level with your provider because that is going to be the least amount of headache for you to work out a resolution at the local level and then if you can't we try we recommend that you write a letter to the federal transit administration which is part of the u s department of transportation that is responsible for this and what they can do is they can come and review the paratransit plan in your county and recommend whether or not there needs to be some changes and how changes can be made to the pl capacity for two hundred trips so fifty percent of that is a hundred trips one hundred trips would be subscription rates and the other the other fifty would be the regular of the other hundred would be the regular rate however there is an exception to this so if there is less than the not subscription rate fifty percent would not apply so maybe at noon you only have imposed for subscription service so that what the county has to do and look and see an average number of rights that have the monthly plus pop or the trip rates and then they would calculate from there how much how many riders can be on subscription or pay for a ride right paratransit service plans this is what i was telling you about one of the ways each agency has to have a paratransit service last and the entities covered by the provisions must develop and submit plans for providing paratransit service in their area and the plan have which has required  plans was supposed have been submitted by danny henri nine hundred ninety two but i know your system wasn't set up then but by now you should have a plan in place and either it should have been presented to the community for for input and then to the state and if it's the entity receives federal funds that it would go to see the u s department of transportation's federal  and the reason that you go out for community input is to make sure that you're providing the services that are needed in your community as requested by the community members using the service and this final slide here is on a new final rule which is what i told you about earlier is that the now beginning july thirteenth tw fifteen public transportation providers are going to be required to make reasonable modifications to their policies procedures and practices to avoid discrimination to ensure program accessibility so that means usually paratransit services have they don't stop between trips ok so even though you're on the bus for an hour the regular fix from system does not stop so we can take a bathroom break while i rode the bus and honolulu i rode it for a couple of years i had to make sure because i live in canio hey so it takes at least an hour to an hour and a half to get home so i gotta make sure i go to the bathroom before i modifications to policies and procedures mean is that an example of this is if for example you have somebody the older that needs assistance when they get off or on th van even though your county's procedure is curb to curb service if the person requests a modification of policy that could somebody please assist me to the door when i get off the van or can somebody come to my door so that would be door to door service that's not the curb the county would have need to have some provision for a driver to make a decision whether it's going to be that he can do that or whether in these circumstances you can't because maybe in some situations it would be a danger to leave the other passengers on the bus but there have to be some procedures set into place so these policy so this new provision can take place so this was this just was announced in march of this year and then it's going into place in july tomorrow two weeks ok july thirteenth so i just wanted to bring that up so that you know you can ask for a modification and then the company will have to work it out with you how it's provided to you and so in the rule making process or in the process to change the paratransit service plan you should also want to give your comments and be included in those but these this particular issue would make paratransit similar to every other issue that we work with under a da its policies and procedures need to be modified for issues like service out of all because most of the time animal your pets cannot call on the van however if it's a service animal if it's a companion animal there should be provisions to allow you to bring the animal on the van with you ok so you need to discuss that with the counties of the county know what your recommendations  are so that's primarily the information i want to let you know and if you have any questions i don't have a slide with my phone number on it but i'm with the disability and communication access  our number is eight always five eight six eight one two one and we're honolulu thank you very much for your attention transportation services martok amaury has been serving as the deputy director for the county of maui department of transportation since two thousand and one eleven he oversees and helps  manage the department of various transit grants and contracts along with the bus stop shelter capital improvement projects he also helps prepare and administer the departments and will budget he has a bachelor's degree in engineering from the university of the pacific and stockton california and a master's degree in business administration from the university of hawaii in the community as a board member and assistant treasure let's get started transportation and our air ambulance program so for history the department got started through a proposed charter amendment in two thousand and three that my county voters voted to create the new department of transportation in the charter the department was tasked in being responsible for the planning and implementation of all modes of transportation in my county including those in the air on water and land so the department is also responsible for the planning and development developing and efficient program to facilitate the racket safe and anomic of movement of people and goods in my county and to help coordinate counties transportation programs with other within our department we oversee the following program by program which encompasses the fixed route service paratransit service and the commuter service we also oversee the human services transportation program and our air ambulance program the partment overall goals are to mitigate the escalating traffic problems within my own county to provide transportation options for the residents or and visitors of my county and to improve public awareness of traffic of the measures and of transit opportunities here on here in my county so as of right now we are going through we are preparing our short range transit and to help the department over the next five years we have passed s s f m international along with their consult since we looked at doing this update and so that's kind of why right now we're looking forward to seeing what we can do to help improve our current transportation needs here on iran  this plan is being developed using five tasks which includes the service improvement program which would include modifications expansions and scheduling capital improvement program which would include bus stop shelters check passenger as many of these facilities and vehicle replacements the communications program the financial plan which the budget affair study that you folks know because public input is very important i guess in terms of transportation for our for our company center since our head times are on average an hour this configuration helps writers be able to transfer from one route on to another route at the within that our circle of time so so those are some of the issues that we face when we do get people requesting more stops on certain r here is a graph that shows the my but throughout the month the passenger boardings from august two thousand and six through march twenty fifth teen from the system first started out as my bus there were forty nine thousand b august of two thousand and six through time the system had new routes added along with more riders utilizing the bus service the highest month the passenger boardings were in january two thousand and twelve at two hundred  economy in gas prices and in fare changes in just naming  so one of our one of our projects that we've been actively working on is the tracking of our fixed route by says we're currently in a pilot with a company called trying to look with their real time system this system started this pilot so we are currently working on the system in house and therefore it's something to look forward to but not currently open to the public so if you actually try going t says that it's still developing it and it's not open to the public but hopefully soon probably maybe within the next few months it may go li the covered and so so right now is a county department transportation contracts out this service to model the economic opportunity and as you can see in the image the paratransit service areas that the previously spoke about is highlighted in the green darker green areas on the map so if you look at these dark black black lines are actual throughout the service but because of the three quarter service area on each of our fixed route system that's our green area that you see is the service so as previously stated some of these things might be a little redundant but it's ok i guess if we keep on saying it over and over for me buying something  also will survey the applicants residence to ensure that the vehicles can see get to your location for pickup and there are times when some applicants may need to participate in  evaluation and so if that is the case then the application of the applicant will be notified that this is required individuals are notified in writing within twenty one days of submission of a so here is a graph that shows the mowing but paratransit monthly row ship for the from july two thousand and eight through march two thousand and fifteen when the paratransit program first got started there were eight hundred and sixteen boardings back in july of two thousand and we are now averaging around five thousand six hundred passenger boardings a month overall there are almost one thousand qualified users of this service the county department transportation contracts out our maui bus commuter service to robert e this service is designed for early morning and evening commuters and and is comprised of four commuter most of our writers for this service are visitor industry employees do keep in mind that this commuter service isn't only for the visitor industry employees but anyone who is a fair paying individual is able to utilize this service just make sure you just to make sure where you want to go is actually serviced by these route the department of transportation as a recipient of federal federal funds will be complied with the title think of the civil rights act of one nine hundred sixty four and the o t is committed to ensuring that no person using the my or if paratransit services is discriminated against on the pieces of race color and national origin these notices as you can see in the power point is please in all of our m buses and should you have any questions in regards to this contact the state and federal contract informations are listed for your convenience the bus stop and charges capital program project is to continue the implementation of infrastructure and structure in to provide safe comfortable and convenient transit facilities for the safety of the members of the the community through community meetings and came up with their current design as you may see on the streets as you will see in the us many of the and he's we deal with our local organization currently there are seven bus stop shelters being built in the west molly district with most in the appeal the area the site infrastructure has been completed and we are awaiting the arrival of the shelters that have been shipped from are being shipped from michigan we hope to have those shelters completed within the next few months the neck and neck set up these iranians have been completed and will be being put out to bid so we can start the construction of the second set of sto provides a late in the late night and early mornings the tears with armrests were chosen to deter people from going down and picking up all the seats rack trash and recycling re provided for the writer's convenience are there shelters are power washed once a month and trash pick ups are done at minimum twice  currently guiders and installing concretize blocks and so labs on average improvements before the shelters are in style it can cost up to thirty percent of the total cost of installing the shelter with amenities here are some of our already completed shelters notice that is pending on the location of the shelters there are corresponding artworks that are placed on the poles and screens these are done by their designs of this current fiscal years operating budget for the my best programs nine point eight million dollars it initially peaked up to ten point six million at the end of our last five year contract which was in fiscal year twenty thirteen the county went out to bid again for the next five year contract starting in fiscal year twenty fourteen and that because it went up to bid and with i guess more competition it caused a decrease in so how is the my bus system funded well it comes from three different funds that the general fund is primarily from real property tax the highway fund which includes a public transit fares motor these are the fair revenues from fiscal year twenty ten to our current fiscal year please note that for fiscal year twenty fifteen the revenue show that shows the first three quarters of this fiscal year being that we didn't out a little bit more than two point four million dollars fraction of operating expenses which are met by the fare paid by passengers so when you take the total cost for revenues so in when we compare ourselves to other entities around the nation that is in similar size and in terms of revenues where we're actually doing pretty good most of the ones that we have seen is around around seventeen percent so at twenty four percent return pretty good the human services transportation program funded by the county of maui consists of a variety of specialized transportation services provided by economic opportunity to two writers throughout my county so this program provides transportation services who are unable to be accompanied by other transit services these these programs provide services to clients on the night he and  fiscal year the county of maui has provided a grant to emil for around six million dollars to serve the transportation needs of the you or the disabled low income individuals persons with special needs and the disadvantage these programs are funded by the general fund and no fares are charged and the and to qualify to utilize these services and application is maybe required some of the programs are as follows such as senior services we need tradition transportation andrew shopping shuttle to just name a few and the various types of services done by so this program services the citizens and visitors of my being clued ng the county provides a state that the ground subsidy of around six hundred seventy two thousand dollars annually as shown in fiscal year fourteen were forty seven trips for reform and most recently in twenty fifth in fiscal year twenty fifteen there has been fifty one troops performed until may twenty fifteen so we're still a month shy of bending of this however this year we have seen a lot more usage for this service and most of the trips that we have seen coming in the reports from  med is that a lot of that they're doing is from to morrow in the mario medical center and unfortunately i also forgot to put our contact information on this slide as as well so if anybody has questions on anything that may come up after today's presentations feel free to contact us at the county department of transportation our contact m e o and they can also forward your questions to us so that's that's all i have for me thank you o our office for number is two seven zero seven five one one two seven zero seven by one one thank you mark another round of a through the many years michael has utilized been utilized in many facets within the organization he's currently serves as the maui public transit operations manager for roberts where he oversees every aspect of transportation including fixed routes and commuter services so please help me welcome hundred sixty five days a year on a regular schedule we don't have any holidays or any special schedules our dispatch office is available from five am to ten pm on a regular basis dollars the drivers and greeters do not carry any change so quick change is necessary and on the bottom you do have are different types of monthly passes that we do accept would be the general forty five island at the mall gets very dangerous when the buses are coming in and now so they're there to how the people from standing there kind of a hot issues we have what's allowed you can have one medium sized suitcase like a carry on for an airplane or something that can fit their act on their needs the seat in front of you duffel bags that can be  t backpacks or carry ons that meet the molly bus requirement you can find the requirements on the pamphlet and service animals what's not allowed oversized luggage surfboards excessive amounts of carry on like groceries a lot of grocery bags that's not allowed smoking in being on buses speaking to the driver of all the vehicles in motion please if you do want to t drivers wait until the bus comes to a complete stop then you can go ahead and talk to them and ask them their questions no electric bicycles or gas bicycles are allowed on iraq or on our bus fishing poles and spears will chair to the fire so that would be one of the major major issues that we have but it's not a problem we do help and assist and do anything that we can to do the security wheelchair to the bus another problem that we do thank you very much michel ok so we have one more presentation from the m e o and then we're going to take a short break and let everybody stretch and we're going to invite all of our speakers to come up front and form a panel at all of the questions that were submitted couldn't read the questions and then the panel member who is most suited to answer the question what we spawned to the group ok so at this time i like to introduce the any old team that's going to talk to you about the variety of any o services we have the harry johnson who's the emmy and transportation director he grew up on maui and they tended brigham young university harry has been in the and is the state of hawaii delegate for the community transportation community transportation association of america sheridan she could mean it's often a supervisor program e o she has been with  fourteen years joining the organization in november of two thousand and one as a passenger assistant technician driver she later moved to reservations dispatch and scheduling where she is now responsible for the day to day to be a quick learner and again because grass grass for the organization to me she was promoted in two thousand and seven assuming responsibility for overseeing daily operations and supporting the internal and external customers so  county as they determine the eligibility and notify writers upon approval of the application process can be purchased from any paratransit driver emil also operates human service right for seniors so they can participate in activities and events at the county nola senior center and throughout the community service is available on maui and i require house to house pick up and returned schedules or will be based upon requests and availability of resources and attrition programs are rides for senior and employment transportation are right for a special needs or low income individuals to get them to and from work the low income individuals may receive a service for their first three months of employment to continue to receive th service for the remainder of the year the individual income may not exceed one hundred twenty five percent of the federal poverty guidelines that is sixteen thousand nine hundred dollars per year for a single individual services available in central south west and country mali the hours of operation are monday through saturday from five thirty am to ten p required these transportation rides for you ages nine to nine to eighteen to get them to and from county funded afterschool into session and summer youth programs throughout m finally is that dialysis program it is a non emergency ride for kidney dialysis patients travelling to and from treatment in central south up country west maui service is intended to assist those individuals who are not eligible for medicare subsidy and who do not have insurance that will pay for transportation this is my portion of our presentation and now i'd like to turn the time you may call eight seven seven seven six five one from eight am to four pm monday through friday excluding holidays the schedule of write reservations may be made up fourteen days in advance but no later than four pm on the last business day before that right is needed reservations may be made one day at a time or you can schedule out right as a standing order new orders are useful when you go to the same place on the same day and time on a recurring basis when calling for a ride indicate that you want to make a negotiation so you may go back and forth is when you make it so you may go back and forth discussing reservations options before our right to schedule let there is a thirty minute window from your work force a pick up time and you want to be ready anytime during that thirty minute period if you need to go several places in one day you will schedule each trip separately and you can not  and give you a confirmation number please be ready at the pick up point drivers will depart after waiting five minutes beyond this gets a pick up time or delayed arrival time you will not change  please wait until the end of the thirty minute when the before calling up on just scheduled pickup you may call a seven seven seven six five one to cancel our ride no less than two hours prior to the scheduled ri stools from its members these students are used to pay club expenses such as entry fees to excursions and for luncheon club members may request rights to and from the p n c c meetings as well as their individual club meetings each p s e c club is entitled to create transportation assisted excursions each year club separatists participate in the parade of excursion the driver these rules include having your payment or pass readily available when boarding the bus encouraging that all writers fasten their seat belts every main seated while the bus in motion we duffel bag or carry on larger than no larger than twenty two point fourteen which must be placed under the seat golf clubs or detachable pitching poles must be properly covered service animals must be in an enclosed container of killed each metal frame child carriers wire or hand carts collapsible strollers that instrument packages drivers may not take it to a destination that is different from a reservation and for safety reasons drivers and passengers should not engage in unnecessary compensations ok all fits routes and mail administers this program on behalf of the colony to be eligible and the jewels must have been diagnosed with a certified temporary or permanent disability be certification by license medical physician applications will be approved or denied upon a receipt and the approved will be issued an eligibility certification card with an applicable department of transportation to review all disputed claims a final disposition of the claim will be issued no more than thirty days after the disputed trial riders qualifying for the discount may take the eligibility certification card purchase a fixed route forty five dollars monthly pass for the reduced rate of thirty dollars for any bus mali bus exposure ever at the county business research center at the mall in mom shopping center or at the work center money management office in la high enough and i know this is a lot of information so if you need any further information regarding the services that we provide or regarding the paratransit services you may call me general current and or you may also call sherrilyn and we'll be more than willing to help you and our number is eight seven seven seven six five one thank you thank you very much jim now harry and sherry all right last but not least we have a presenter from the office on aging we have christ eligibility worker kristi's children were educated in the whole way in language immersion program and she served various purposes sions for the parents support group christine has also served on the board of directors for neighborhood place and mediation services of maui christie sincerely enjoys being of service to her community please help me and wel transportation as one of the services for or under the state could put in a care program county as well as the state executive office on aging and the federal transportation for seniors in the state so all of the general eligibility requirements are that seniors or persons need to be sixty years and better you need to also be a us citizen or legal resident not covered by a comparable government or a private home a community based service also not residing in a care home skilled nursing facility hospital family foster home or assisted living facility in order to be eligible for services a person needs to have a cognitive impairment and the other thing especially for transportation services is that one needs to have not have access or not be able to utilize public transportation and have an unmet transportation need so examples of holes and i ate the elves or activities of daily living including eating seeing but a thing toilet teaming transferring so moving from like a chair and standing up and ambulation or just being able to walk or navigate their their environment i include preparing meals shot being managing medications managing money using the fall doing housework and using available transportation without assistance so as with all services we do accept voluntary contributions the older americans act requires us to opt for that opportunity to individuals all contributions are anonymous and are immediately applied to the cost of the service so that we can expand the service so any money is collected goes directly to the cost of transportation so that more transportation can be provided for our transportation we have two different types why is assisted transportation and the other is care transportation the definition of assisted transportation is that it includes a personal escort to be with the individual the personal escort accompanies the older adult to provide protection or to personally assist them when they're out in the community who put care transportation definition is simply from one location to another and it involves a driver who helps the older adult in ways such as pushing them in a wheelchair to the vehicle being and unloading assistive devices into the vehicle and securing them in the car so most there's a little note on the very bottom most often in service providers are able to accommodate individuals if wheelchairs so we seven seven seven for the state number is six four three two three seven two and once you call we will schedule an initial intake  phone and that usually takes thirty to forty five minutes once that is done the you are receiving eligibility determination receive a service station and then you can call  transportation for health and safety especially when we have high demand for transportation so it may prioritize based on medical and health related appointments la two priorities are daycare or day health and then it's possible educational recreational and cultural activities as with all the other services there are sometimes that transportation needs to be terminated and some of the reasons include there isn't as that bush pattern of no shows without adequate counsel ation notice there is a cause  of bodily injury to oneself or to others there is a person says that rude or disruptive behavior and lastly behavior that is negatively impacting the health and safety of the writers or the driver so in closing some helpful hints are to call to write or is to reserve a ride as soon as you know you need one please understand that c know operates monday through friday from seven forty five to four thirty they do not work on holidays or weekends and the mali county office on aging will work with anyone meeting transportation outside of color noise to work timings we do partner with na aloha and candace carter their executive director is here today so we often make referrals to them to help us and finding ways to provide transportation for seniors we also didn't include our business information in our our office information but if you want to  thank you very much christi and thank you to all the presenters i think that everybody did a great job let's give everybody a round of applause so we're going to take about a five minute break let everybody stretch i'm going to call the panelists up to the front if you have questions and i haven't picked them up i'll come around and get them from you when we come back then i'll read off questions at one of the panelists will answer the questions to the best of their ability me out and raise your hand if you think you can answer the question if you can't then i'm going to make joanne johnson line or the director of transportation to answer all the questions so i you know we have of course terry johnson from qualify applicants for the paratransit and answers everything else so let's give him a round of appl it says why do you have a doctors why do you have people with doctors appointments on the same bias as the shopper and i believe this is a question for the human service transportation they take time away  of the shopper so why do they need to be on the same box so that one of the question i get from this is why are we combining people who are going out and shopping and going to doctors on the same bus so alone now do you think you can answer this question i think that just for clarification i think the question there was more of that medical appointments or cutting into the shopping time and then fell short changed and i do know that they can follow up i think we've been discussing eight three eight listed on the schedule or our county office says two seven zero seven five one one and if we need to mail you any information we we can do that very easy so the software that they're in is referring to is what i spoke about in my presentation the company that we're going we're working with right now is trying to look and basically you would you dieties your cell phone or if you have access online you could go and track the various buses and find out when the next bus will be hitting a particular stop that you are interested in also what's going to be nice  is that this app as well if there is any accident traffic or fix our buses are running late we can push through an announcement or a notification on your phone so that we can it's a major distraction and he any time a driver takes their vision or attention off the roadway anything can happen in a split second so it's all due to safety and we do want all of our drivers to be focusing on the roadway at all times community center and how the highway so i am assuming that must be outside three quarter mile so he would like to answer that  to answer specific people i would community center from that center we can go three quarter miles but i don't think so the overall question is is  it ok so basically it seems as though the overall question is if we can extend it almost seems like if we can extend it if we can extend a three quarter mile radius around our fixed ro system so as a right now out there action of the department has been where we are just basically following the guidelines where we basically just follow the three quarter mile out of the reason why we've transit service currently with our current service area that's kind of what we're focusing on right now before we can consider potentially maybe in the future expanding  i think the rest of the questions out and sell this one particular paper are all kind of circling around hours of operation so it seems that the question is you know do we  really the department has basically maintained a fixed cost and that cost every year you know we can put in requests for extension of our route but any time you expand services whether it's on fixed or out you extend the three quarter mile limitation it does add substantially to the operational costs that we have so we are currently undergoing an update of our sharp range transept plan which is looking at the crowds looking at the costs doing the rate study in terms of our fair collection bags going on i really would like to end put from the community that if we are going to expand services because as you know there was a figure increase propose i would rather get the end put from the public who is utilizing the moet bus to see if we expand those services are individuals willing to pay an additional amount and i believe  very shortly will we will be coming out into the breach no community meetings to get your input on any potential changes and a potential changes in those figures but basically any time you expand service you've increased costs and if any if you are familiar with the charge that all of the departments were given by the company column so it's do more with le so it becomes increasingly difficult for us to manage the services that you know we do have so we want to do a good job so before as marks you know before we do something and try to expand let's do a good job of specific questions in here that i don't think i'll be able to answer in a group but what i will do is  that well i will probably post questions maybe on the website and then answer some of the questions in a more of a general way because a lot of this is about can i go to a specific address and i think that that might be tied to the three quarter mile so this is your question in trying to give me more specifics after this session please feel free to see me and then we can address those to the appropriate power send ok he had a question on this paper contract so our contract is sickly force out and there is nothing that we can do to alter that contract because it was based on the proc contract because it is an agreement and if at any time an agreement it's broken or a new one to be negotiated but it starts the process for procurement which may mean we would have to go out so  we'll transportation you say but anyone can make a reservation fourteen days before an up point there but sometimes when we call to make a reservation the person on the other end of the line says that it can't be done and that it's not allowed can you tell me why that is sheri can i ask you to answer that question that up for you so yes you can but should it have happened so would it be a good idea that maybe ask who they are speaking to because perhaps it could be a training issue for that individual ok communities i'm asking for your input so things like this i mean even if you want to submit things in writing to our office to if you submit it to robert's or you submit it to every oh they can always forward it back to us chimes in time so when we do learn or find out what the source said we will definitely have the notices put up in in the buses notifying you guys of our community meeting there is one more thing to do and a lot of people ask us first stops on state highways one of the difficulties that we have in stopping at state highways is safety many times you know because obviously if you drop people off and one side you'll usually come back and pick them up on the other vice versa so if there is no stoplight and no traffic control device it's very difficult in it's very dangerous to ask people to cross state highway i know we've had that request i believe even for a condo of senior center and it's not an easy thing to do so the state department of transportation basically has cautioned us against that they did accommodate us for a while loop you know up there it's a long site but now we also route that site into the interior of the loop for safety purposes we did get some requests also for why in holmes we're looking at those issues too because if it's not you do not want a giant bus backing up turning around in the middle of a state highway so it's very much having to do with safety and then also traffic a so those are some of the things that i did not realize when i came director of transportation to i thought well it's so easy to stop along the side of the road but it's not as simple as we think and we are working with the state d o t on some of the issues where we can safely stop in a comedy  to get out of the seat or to remove themselves from the seat but if the passenger the night we can't force them to move so that becomes major issues when trying to have wheelchairs come for the b well we had an incident that was basically just this where somebody did not want to move from the seat i don't know how many of you are aware that drivers are not permitted to ask the person having anything to do with their disability so just because the person looks as though they may be perfectly normal if they are also disabled in sitting in that se you really have no right to ask them you may know if they're carrying a service animal or at the up a service dog but otherwise the drivers are really not permitted to ask them personal questions of that nature particularly doing with you know having to do with the disability so actually happened and the situation was that the individual had to wait for the next that you can't force them to do that is that correct ok thank you at this could be on any of the system so that when it's a cancer that is what can be done about people who drag the bags who smell bad and it could be because of bad hygiene or did they smell of alcohol or even marijuana anybody want to touch that one  tell a person unless the person it's physically they have obviously soiled themselves or they are in the period to the point where they look as though they are going to become ill or if they have this contaminated or once that person contaminates the bus you must force health safety reasons take that bus out of service so we leave it to the discretion of all o drivers when that situation occurs i know that one gentleman called one day and he was very embarrassed but he admitted that he had an accident and suggested to him i said well if you do have an issue a problem perhaps you know you might consult with someone a physician or whatever to see that that does not recur because i explained to him just what i explained to  that it really makes it very difficult because the national that bus has to be taken back to the base everybody has to wait for a new bus and the bus must be sanitized so that there ankiel whether we asked the question so can the question is can you use standing orders or subscription trips i'm going basis so does it expire after a month or a year or is it until you change the reservation i'm going to let them answer this question sometimes people think that it's the fixed route because they have some similar sized buses that they serve on the fixed route but any of those green and white buses are that paratransit buses or the mowing buses ok thank you home i see my house and i see my house and i pass in my house and the next thing i know we're going to somebody else's house and then we go to somebody else's house and then they take me back to my house so how come i can't go straight to my house anybody want to answer that harry they want harry to answer that they're all i heard harry harry the everything is based upon whether your reservation for paratransit service is based on a pick up time or a drop off time and that basically identifies hall  drop off or pickup will be and we understand that the paratransit service like the molly bus service for the third trial is based on the shared ride so you will be on board with other people that you may not know if they are actually on a drop off limitation or a pickup limitation so if i understand correctly then the ride is prioritized based on how the client booked the ride and a drop of time will take priority over somebody who had a pickup time but never specified what time they need to be dropped off is that correct so the other question might might stay right here because it's probably going to go to harry to what is in excess of travel on the paratransit so there's a lot of conversation about what is  that there is little law that says you know the time frame because there is no law that says you cannot be apart for a certain time but the city suggests that someone should not be on a bus for longer than ninety minutes so one hour and a half so there's a lot yes technically you can be out of breath or you should be on a bus but that that is not necessary that case so the way the program is set up there is a parameter in the software that that is a bill that says someone cannot be bought for longer than ninety minutes and that's that's barring any traffic conditions or issues that come up with on the record for the driver so i think that should consider how long would it take you to walk to the nearest bus stop from your house or travel in your wheelchair how long would it take you to get to that bus stop we wait five minutes because i think we ask our picks for our driver writers to be at the stop house to sorrow down to all who then wait five at the five minutes and then however long it would take you to get to that destination the market bus so if i was going to go to la hina i would look at what is the right time on the maui bus and then when i get off in la i would assume that i would get off at the closest bus stop to where i need to go now parrothead that's going to take you curb to curb so you can be much closer to get a factor in that travel time and then a five minutes to that and if all of that time is long if you're on the paratransit longer than that then that would be one consideration for an excess extended trip is that correct  this person asked for a copy of the rules and regulations from debbie jackson so i'm assuming that means a copy of her powerpoint and we will have that available on our website and then web site so that any body that once to learn about public transportation can go online and look at though this presentation the maui bus does not have transfers  the sixteen thousand that they were talking about is for the employment to work program not for the senior services so it's purple that qualified for the low income right or discount to get them to work a i'm waiting for a bus like at the kaiser clinic and there's not enough seats outside there are no seats available outside if i wait inside for the bus while the driver come in and get me when they get there who's going to answer that question service as well i would presume that if that particular service is required that that information be presented to us when we make a reservation on the paratransit service we can identify that as an assist portion for the driver to identify if it requires a ordered a door to door service we were definitely would like to know that when making the reservation correct there and did you want to comment on that it all in terms of how they would make those requests what he made when they first when they first register or if it's a request i process it also happens where someone can condition deteriorates while the are already eligible so you would go to file either our office or a meal or both so we can make a change thank is this thing is that it mid july there is a change in what is the regulations at the federal level that if an individual does also request like a criticism calls you know five minutes or whatever their side of it can see the boss when it comes we are working with them we go to provide the courtesy call when it's required you know if you absolutely require that you have to  that that can be placed in your files so we are working on that that's just a new regulation but again it's if you're not wanting to wait in the heat and even if your bus is running late if you do want a courtesy call you should stipulate that and we always try to work on that we've even at some point be able to do automated calling but we're installing some software in the system  why can't i use that fixed route disability discount on paratransit right now we are looking out all of the options we do actually ask as part of our consultant study to do an examination of figures i know that many people have requested those but any comments that you have with regard to figures we will consider them the other difficulty though we have is that paratransit is extremely expensive service to operate so we want to continue to offer as much service as we possibly can so it all takes money to operate that's why every time we give a discount it means that there's you know many less dollars in the highway fun for us to actually operate services so we are examining all of those requests that you made all right well it's four o'clock some going to wrap it up i want to thank our panel i think they did a great job so let's give them a round of applause you know if it's with the generous support of the county of maui that this forum is possible also i'd really like to thank the county as well as our presenters and i'd like to acknowledge johnson and  that math at our board of directors and finally we must think all of you for taking time out of your schedules to be here with us today and that that like this cannot happen without the support of many and i think we've only scratched the surface and i hope that we can continue to work together to educate the maori community about the services that are out there so let's give everyone the final round of applause