City needs Handi-Van to be healthy

The city’s Handi-Van service is a lifeline for many disabled Oahu residents. Last fiscal year, 1 million-plus passengers utilized the Handi-Van for transport, underscoring why it is so critical to fix what ails the system.

On-time arrivals have declined, excessively long trips are on the rise and the Handi-Van sometimes violates federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements by favoring “subscription” riders, many of whom use the system through charitable service organizations, according to a city auditor’s report released this week that assessed Handi-Van service in fiscal years 2013-2015.

It’s disappointing that the Handi-Van operation has slowly worsened despite efforts to improve.

Customers, who pay $2 for a one-way trip, are having to wait longer to be picked up. On-time arrivals declined by 5 percent in the past three years, dropping to a rate of 81 percent in 2015 from 86.3 percent in 2013. It means nearly a fifth of all pickups are late, and the tardiness cannot continue.

Once on board, a significant number of trips — nearly 24,000 in just nine months last year — take far too long. One passenger took two hours and 33 minutes to travel 8.7 miles from Waipahu to Kapolei, unacceptable for such a short distance.

To be fair, traffic congestion has reached new heights with rail transit construction. Factor in the Handi-Van’s 3,500 rides each day and it’s conceivable how some trips end up being marathon excursions. And even with the Handi-Van’s fleet increasing to 181 total vehicles, up from 157, that hasn’t stemmed the drop in on-time pickups.

Yet the problems are not unsolvable. The audit recommended better use of the Handi-Van’s “real-time” computer software to better book reservations, and cautioned against schedulers manually overriding the software, which leads to overbooking.

Further, the Handi-Van is heavily used by service agencies such as Easter Seals, and Oahu Transportation Service (OTS) President Roger Morton suggested that officials help those agencies fund their own transport to reduce Handi-Van service demand — a suggestion that deserves serious consideration and follow through.

The city administration must also craft a paratransit plan that addresses the operation’s unsustainable model. Since 2001, riders have been charged $2 per trip while the real cost is about $40. A modest hike, and perhaps an even higher premium for riders booked through service agencies, needs examining. In Madison, Wis., for instance, a paratransit fare is $3.25 and service agencies are charged $33.75 for a one-way trip.

The service will always be heavily subsidized, but any added revenue could be funneled toward system improvements.

The Handi-Van will need to get its house in order sooner rather than later. Mayor Kirk Caldwell is pushing for TheBus and Handi-Van services, both operated by OTS, plus the future rail transit system, to be managed as one multimodal system under the city administration. Achieving seamless transport from one service to another would be the overarching goal, and that cannot happen when there are serious inadequacies plaguing an integral leg of that system.

All three modes of public transportation should be managed by a single entity to better serve the ridership, but debate is ongoing on whether that should be a city administration function. Creation of a semi-autonomous entity to oversee all three systems, which would be shielded from political influence, is worth exploring.

Oahu’s mass transportation needs for the 21st century can only be met by offering a reliable, affordable core system of rail transit, bus and paratransit services — with each leg running at an optimal level. To that end, Handi-Van service will need to show vast improvement soon, in order to hold up its end of an efficient multimodal system.