To walk a mile in Robert Golding's shoes would mean walking alone — at night — after working concessions for an entire Buffalo Bisons game. It also wouldn’t be a mile, it’d be four, each way, from South Buffalo because sometimes he walks to work.
“It's hard for me to get to work because sometimes paratransit is not reliable," Robert said. "And when they're not reliable, I have to actually walk."
Paratransit is an essential means of transportation for people with disabilities — it’s the smaller, direct line that is managed by the NFTA. But some say it’s failing to meet the needs of people with disabilities, including one man, who ended up riding home from work with the county clerk, after walking four miles home from work a few times in recent weeks.
Paratransit is a federally required program that allows people with disabilities to get a bus ride from their point of origin to their destination, rather than from bus stop to bus stop. With NFTA's paratransit program, riders have to schedule rides at least 24 hours in advance.
Robert says that sometimes he’s given a window that doesn’t work for him or the bus is very late to pick him up.
“It should be easy every week to schedule the ride and it should be able to have more availability because I have a certain time schedule for work," Robert said.
He acknowledges that part of the issue is a driver shortage, but other times he can’t get through to them on the phone or the GPS on the bus isn’t working.
“I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it when their systems die. I'm tired of it," Robert said.
Disability rights activists — and fellow paratransit users — BJ Stasio and Stephanie Speaker say this isn’t an isolated incident. They say there have long been issues with scheduling, delays and communication.
“I think we all as a disability community would like to see more collaboration and more discussion with the NFTA when there is a problem," Stasio said. "Like if they're not going to pick up somebody. If you know, there's trouble with staffing, the buses, then don't schedule, send out a notice that says we cannot schedule during this time because we don't have enough drivers."
Speaker says once the paratransit bus left her in an empty parking lot at 8 p.m. at night.
“The bus was supposed to take me home that night. And instead, it took me to this other place and dropped me off and left me," Speaker said.
She’s heard similar stories from several other people and says it’s a matter of safety.
“They have to figure something out here because paratransit is good, but people are getting stranded," Speaker said.
NFTA says they do have a no-strand policy, where if someone misses or is not picked up by their return-trip paratransit bus, they can call the NFTA to be picked up.
However, Patricia Wiseman, who manages NFTA paratransit, did confirm that the driver shortage has impacted their on-time performance.
"What we are seeing in some of our service, it's our on-time performance. We have seen a reduction in that because we are moving, as we previously mentioned, pre-pandemic levels, customers, with 30% less operators. So that definitely has impacted how we provide service and our on-time performance," Wiseman said.
Additionally, offering different times, according to Wiseman, is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, but they have had to negotiate more often due to staffing.
After Speaker met Robert at a Bisons game, and continued to see him at Bisons games and hear about his paratransit issues, she phoned Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns to make sure someone could drive Robert home. Kearns gave him a ride one night.
“He's walking five miles to work, and he may enjoy that," Kearns said. "I love to walk too and I don't want to take that away from him."
But Kearns worries about Robert, and others, feeling they have to walk home during inclement weather.
“We know what comes from summer is the fall, what comes from fall is the winter," Kearns said.
Robert lives in an Aspire-managed apartment with his wife, Christine. She’s had better luck with paratransit.
When she can’t get a ride, she’ll ask Aspire to give her one. But Robert says the staffing crisis and high employee turnover rates impacting disability agencies leave him feeling uncomfortable asking for a ride.
“I don't know the staff who's gonna do that. I don't want to get in the van if it’s a total stranger to me," Robert said.
Aspire acknowledges that worker turnover has been hard on the people they serve and impacts trust with workers. As the U.S. battles shortages of both bus operators and workers that assist disabled people, disabled people are left dealing with both as they try to access their communities.
“It bothers me because we all belong in the communities we live in and if we can be present and be visible, the assumptions of people with disabilities carry over because you don't see them as an active member of your community," Stasio said. "And paratransit helps us all be members of our community."
Speaker, Stasio, Robert, Christine and Kearns all brought up the need for communication between the NFTA and the disability community to be better.
Kearns is working on a committee he hopes the NFTA will join. While Speaker continues to advocate on a state level for legislative changes to improve paratransit statewide.
As for Robert he tells his story in hopes the NFTA will listen.
“Our voice needs to be heard," Robert said.
The NFTA says they are waiting to make substantial changes to the way the service operates, beyond hiring more bus operators, until the results of the state’s recently-funded paratransit study comes in.
Additionally, the NFTA says they have an accessibility advisory committee (AAC) that riders can join to voice their concerns.
"The objective of our group is, is to be as diverse and as inclusive as possible, where we can reach as many individuals with disabilities in the service area that we serve, where we can bridge the gap between individuals with disabilities as well as NFTA and the services that we provide," said Holly Nidell, chair of AAC.
To join the committee, call Nidell at 716-855-7486 or email her at holly.nidell@nfta.com.
