It’s been three years since new Handi-Vans joined the city’s aging fleet of paratransit vehicles, but transit officials hope that a spate of new vans just now starting to arrive on Oahu will help improve the service amid ongoing complaints.
Several of the island’s top transit leaders joined Mayor Kirk Caldwell and advocates of better Handi-Van service at Honolulu Hale on Monday to tout the recent delivery of 15 new vans to Oahu. They’re the first of 99 newly purchased vans that are expected to gradually arrive and replenish about two-thirds of the Handi-Van fleet by October.
At least four legal protests over the city’s bid proposals for new vans in recent years led to the delay. It forced Oahu Transit Services, which operates the Handi-Van service for the city, to ratchet up repairs of old vans. Now the city is looking to catch up on its Handi-Van replacements.
The delay also hampered OTS’ efforts to improve its pickup times for Handi-Van, which provides rides for around 3,500 residents living with disabilities across Oahu each day. Those users rely on the service to get to work, run errands and get to medical appointments.
Handi-Vans arrive at their destination within 30 minutes of a scheduled pickup just under 90 percent of the time, OTS President Roger Morton said Monday. The nonprofit company, which acts partly as a city entity and partly as an independent operator, hopes to get that up to at least 95 percent with the new vehicles, when they have fewer in maintenance and more available to meet demand, he added.
"This is a critical first step for us, to get these vans," Morton said.
The city’s Department of Transportation Services has also hired an engineer to help tighten up the city’s specifications to procure the vans in hopes of avoiding "never-ending litigation," DTS Director Mike Formby said.
Meanwhile, the Honolulu City Council is moving ahead with plans to audit the Handi-Van service, but only after DTS implements a host of changes that they hope will further improve the service.
Those changes include a more stringent policy to dissuade riders who repeatedly don’t show for scheduled pickups, and implementing by October new, real-time software to make the scheduling more efficient, Formby said.
The oldest Handi-Vans in the fleet have been in service since 2002. About 80 percent of the fleet has exceeded its "minimum service life," or the number of years that a van purchased with federal dollars has to stay in service for the city to avoid financial penalties.
The vans were purchased for $10.7 million, with 70 percent of the cost covered by federal dollars, Caldwell said.
"We’re very grateful that these replacements are coming in now," said Donald Sakamoto, chairman of Citizens for a Fair ADA Ride, an advocacy group that meets quarterly and discusses Handi-Van and bus issues with transit officials. "We’ve been waiting for a long time. There’s a lot more things that we have to do, but this is one step forward. I just want to see how it goes first."
