Dial-a-ride demand outstrips capacity in Scott, Carver counties

In the eight years since Elspeth Kuta started her job as a dial-a-ride driver, she's watched her bus get more and more crowded.

The ridership makeup varies, but Kuta, 60, said there's been a particular increase in elderly passengers — people who no longer drive but still want to maintain independence.

"There's a real need for service for this age group — my age group, as far as that goes — as we go up," she said. "There's a big hole there."

As the population in Scott and Carver counties grows and ages, demand for the Transit Link dial-a-ride service — which serves areas where regular route transit isn't available — has grown steadily. But without the resources to meet that demand, the number of rides that dial-a-ride has denied due to a lack of capacity has skyrocketed.

"The demand's increasing while the funding has remained the same," said Troy Beam, Scott County's transit manager.

Since 2011, Scott and Carver, which offer dial-a-ride service jointly, have experienced a nearly 60 percent increase in capacity-related denials, according to the Metropolitan Council.

For people with disabilities, dial-a-ride isn't the only transit option in Scott and Carver counties. Metro Mobility offers something similar, serving a defined area that reaches across the metro. But for residents in exurban and rural areas, there are few options, if any, beyond dial-a-ride.

Similar ride services elsewhere have had their own struggles with meeting demand.

Tom Cruikshank, managing director for operations and planning for Metro Bus in St. Cloud, said their dial-a-ride service doesn't have denials now. But several years ago they did, and a lot went into figuring out how to solve the problem.

"It certainly is an issue, and it's something that we're going to have to continue to monitor," he said.

Changes that helped reduce denials included increased training for operators and adjusting drivers' shifts to boost flexibility, Cruikshank said.

Kuta typically works weekdays from noon to 8:30 p.m., but has gone as late as 11:30 p.m. When she first started the job, she had a break in the middle of her shift that she'd use to wash the bus or do computer work. But in the past couple of years, that's gone away.

With denials increasing and no new funding on the horizon, Scott and Carver counties are turning to "mobility management." It's a way to meet demand by taking full advantage of the transit resources already available in a community — everything from taxi services to medical assistance to mass transit.

"We're trying to get all of the people that have anything to do with moving people to work together," Beam said.

It's something that was happening in this area long before there was an official name and funding to go with it, he said.

"We're just going to make that our total focus, because we realize that that's where the future's going," he said. "We have to work together with all these other providers in order to help meet the demands."