Tap private sector to fix Handi-Van

Problems with Honolulu’s public transportation system for disabled people have persisted for so long that it’s time for the city to at least test a different approach.

As a much-needed audit into the Handi-Van system proceeds, the city also should explore the possibility of trying a limited pilot project that provides service outside the current system. Perhaps the city could start by inviting a variety of private transportation companies to advise about how best to provide the timely service that has proved elusive under the current operation. Surely a few dozen regular riders would be willing to participate in an experimental program that could be quickly tweaked as it went along, with the goal of identifying improvements that could later be scaled up through the whole system.

Such an experiment would not upend the regular service provided by Oahu Transit Services, as contracted with the city, but could spur innovation and accountability in a system that sorely needs it. How much longer will "we’re working on it" be accepted as the response to customers who have been complaining for years about poor service?

To be sure, the Handi-Van serves a high-needs clientele, and is not strictly comparable to a shuttle company, say, that totes vanloads of able-bodied passengers from their hotels to the airport. The Handi-Van is the door-to-door public transit system for about 3,600 disabled people on Oahu who are unable to ride the regular city bus. The city is required to provide such service under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Like the regular bus, the Handi-Van system is heavily subsidized by taxpayer funds.

At $2 per one-way ride, it’s a bargain for customers — when the reservation is made smoothly, the Handi-Van arrives on time, and the driver doesn’t stop to pick up so many other passengers along the way that duration of the ride drags past a reasonable limit.

Too often, though, those conditions are not met, and then the ride doesn’t seem like a bargain at all. Vulnerable passengers with no other way to get around are stuck waiting hours to be picked up or spend hours in traffic, missing medical appointments and other key events — in one case even a spouse’s memorial service.

Seven months after the installation of a new computerized reservations system and an overdue upgrade and expansion of the Handi-Van fleet, transit officials acknowledge that major operational improvements they had expected and promised have not fully materialized.

What still seems to be lacking is a core commitment to top-notch customer service like that evident among private-sector transportation companies that compete for customers. In the tourism industry, for example, satisfied passengers mean repeat business. Just because OTS has a set contract to provide a specific service to a specific clientele does not preclude it from striving to deliver the excellent service that would be expected if it were competing for every passenger.

It’s past time to raise the bar, starting with on-time performance. As it stands now, any Handi-Van arrival within 30 minutes of the scheduled pickup counts as "on time," a low standard that is met only 80 to 90 percent of the time. A transit company operating in a competitive market likely wouldn’t last long with that track record. Even considering the Handi-Van’s more complicated mission, it must be possible to do better. Tapping the expertise of private-sector transportation companies via a limited pilot project could be one way to find out how.