Riders report service able to “meet most of their transportation needs”

RIVERSIDE, CA, USA, February 14, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Results of the most recent Independent Living Partnership (ILP) survey of 258 regular riders of the “TRIP” service for people with disabilities in Riverside County California report very high satisfaction with the unique design of the service.

According to Eula Robertson-Ray, president of the board, “This low-cost service, which is free to riders, delivers convenient and easy-to-use transportation for people in our service area who are unable to get where they need to go in any other way.” She adds that she believes alternative services for people with disabilities do not enjoy the same level of satisfaction.

Robertson-Ray asserts that TRIP, developed by ILP to meet requirements outlined by the focus groups and listening sessions, proves that good transportation for persons with disabilities can be successfully and economically provided.

She says, “TRIP was designed to be a reliable, accessible, affordable, convenient, cost-effective service, sufficient to support user needs and available for those who cannot receive adequate transportation in other ways”. She adds, “Every year ILP’s TRIP service gets high marks in customer satisfaction from its riders.”

Ivet Woolridge, Chief Operating Officer of ILP, says “We know there are people with disabilities and elderly and others for whom transit, paratransit, Lift and Uber do not work because they are our ILP-TRIP clients and that is what they tell us.” Woolridge says that there are probably older adults, persons with disabilities, sick and chronically ill, isolated, and homebound, low-income residents, in every community, who are not well-served by alternatives that they are expected to rely on for daily transportation needs.

Richard Smith, CEO for ILP, says “The point that we emphasize is that our service model is popular with our riders because it eliminates problems with the disability transportation methods of alternative services that are not based on research identifying the real transportation challenges that confront people with disabilities.” He says TRIP was
originally designed by asking people what they wanted in a transportation service, unlike other services “that buy a van and ask disabled people to use it whether or not the service meets the needs and capabilities of those who are expected to use it”. Smith says he does not understand why policy makers and planners have so far missed the point that successful transportation for people with disabilities needs to be something other than an adaptation of transit models.

The October survey of TRIP service riders explains why 88% of the riders who participated in the study rated satisfaction with the service 5 out of 5 stars and less than 3% of the riders reported anything they thought should be improved. 96.8% of the survey’s 288 respondents rated satisfaction with the service as 4 or more stars out of 5 stars.

90% reported that TRIP assistance has enabled them to “meet most of their transportation needs” and 91% indicated that having TRIP assistance has “definitely” helped them “deal with health issues more effectively”.

Woolridge says that the service performance analysis reveals effective frequency of transportation delivery and competitively low operational cost.

• An average of 309 one-way trips were provided for the 566 TRIP riders each day.
• For the month, an average of 17 one-way trips were provided each TRIP rider.
• The rides were provided “free” to the riders.
• The average cost to the service of each individual one-way trip was $5.89.
• The average subsidy per passenger mile for each trip provided was 43 cents.

She says, “The benefits of the TRIP model service should be enough to convince planners and providers everywhere that a much better alternative to transit modeled disability transportation clearly is possible.”

Smith says, “TRIP is a “rider-centered” volunteer driver service, anchored in strong relationships between riders and volunteers, that has so far provided more than 2.5 million one-way trips and more than 35 million miles of volunteer escorted transportation for mobility challenged riders for 30 years.

For more information about TRIP and how to operate a similar service, visit ILPconnect.org.

Richard Smith
Independent Living Partnership
email us here

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.