Paratransit Functional Assessment in Utah

Riding my bike south out of Salt Lake City I ran across a building named the “UTA Paratransit Mobility Center.” The typical tourist would have no trouble passing such a building and not looking back. In my case, I became engrossed in what purpose that the facility must serve. So I parked my bicycle and went inside.

UTA stands for the Utah Transit Authority, the public transportation provider for the area. I also recognized the UTA logo, a blue circle with a blue and red stripe. Of course it was the term “paratransit” that also caught my attention. 

Paratransit is the term for accessible transportation that is required where the current “fixed route” is not accessible and usable to people with disabilities. The goal of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act is to make all public transportation accessible, however, where the typical service fails, that gap may be filled by a paratransit system. A person who uses a wheelchair, for example, may use paratransit when the standard bus does not have a lift or ramp. On the contrary, if a standard bus does have a lift, the person who uses a wheelchair is not eligible for paratransit service, because they can use the mainstream bus like any other citizen. 

In Memphis, MATA currently does not make a distinction of whether an individual could ride the fixed route or standard bus; they consider all riders eligible for all trips. In other words, a person who uses a wheelchair is determined qualified to ride paratransit (MATAplus) even when an accessible bus goes to the same location they request the paratransit bus to go.

In the Salt Lake City area, where all the fixed route buses have lifts or ramps, a person who uses a wheelchair may only use the paratransit system when their disability prevents them from using the standard bus system. For example, a person using a wheelchair may not be eligible for paratransit on a clear sunny day; yet, the same individual would be eligible on a day with six inches of snow on the ground (Salt Lake City clears streets with snowplows that often stack snow on the sidewalk).

This is where the UTA Paratransit Mobility Center comes in. In order to determine a person’s “functional” ability, the Paratransit Mobility Center makes a decision just when a person’s disability would make them eligible for paratransit. By limiting the number of people that are qualified for paratransit service, UTA saves money without denying citizens their fair use of public transit.

The UTA Paratransit Evaluation Center

Functional testing is allowed under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. A person is not granted paratransit services because of a diagnosis or label, however a doctor’s determination of visual acuity is the benchmark for people with visual impairments receiving services. 

In the Salt Lake City area people who apply for paratransit services must take a test to determine when and if they are eligible to use the paratransit service. The test includes a functional examination. A test to assess cognitive ability is given to people with cognitive disabilities to determine the transit skills, community safety and general orientation. 

A professional, independent of UTA, will ask an individual to make a simulated trip on a bus that includes boarding an accessible bus, negotiating a curb-ramp and crossing a street. The UTA Paratransit Mobility Center has a mock-up of an accessible bus not only for the evaluation, but it can be used for training. 

Application for Memphis

Currently, MATA does not make any functional assessment of a person with a disabilities functional ability to use the fixed-route bus system. The test MATA gives asks an individual about many diagnoses about a disability and is generally of little use in determining what a person can and cannot do to ride the fixed route bus. The result is that MATA must rely on riders to “self-evaluate.”

MATA has only developed a skeleton of the system that Salt Lake City is using. The cost savings comes when riders are able to use the fixed-route rather than paratransit. MATA has just begun attempting to provide mobility training to assist riders that now use paratransit to transition to relying on the mainline service. The paratransit system will have to develop a functional test in the future if MATA plans to realize cost savings of a system like that of the UTA.

- Tim Wheat