‘Be Mobile’ may be restricted to groups

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 9

‘Be Mobile’ may be restricted to groups

The Christchurch Transport Board’s "Be Mobile” programme for disabled persons should be eventually restricted to groups, a board committee recommended yesterday.

A board policy change to modify “Be Mobile” to concentrate on groups rather than on individual disabled persons was recommended by the board’s customer services committee. It decided that trips for individuals could be phased out as alternative transport for disabled persons became available. The reasons for the change were that “Be Mobile” was very expensive to run and was not being used to capacity, said the board’s deputy general manager, Mr Tony Francis.

Buses made about 13 trips on average each day the programme ran, he said. Some of these were return trips and many had only one person using the bus on each trip, although the buses could carry up to 14 people. A typical trip for one person on a “Be Mobile” bus cost the board $23.59. The passenger paid a $1.20 fare, and the board paid the other $22.39.

The cost of running “Be Mobile” (at the end of March last year) for one year was almost $13,000. The board recovered only $BOOO from fares, but it gets a subsidy from the Urban Transport Council and Christchurch ratepayers to cover about half the “Be Mobile" costs.

A better system for the board would be to transport chartered groups of disabled persons, and let individuals use the “Total Mobility” taxi programme, Mr Francis said. Disabled persons using “Total Mobility” get 25 per cent of their taxi fare refunded. Half of this subsidy comes from the Urban Transport Council and the other half from donations made by disabled persons’ groups. The advantages of taxis for disabled persons were that they could be booked immediately and ran around the clock. "Be Mobile” buses had to be booked several weeks in advance and ran Mondays to Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Taxis were also more comfortable for some disabled persons, but their disadvantage was that taxi trips cost more than the buses, even with the 25

per cent subsidy. Moves to get the taxi fare subsidy lifted to 50 per cent have been afoot for several months, mostly coming from the Disabled Persons’ Assembly. The Canterbury United Council’s urban transport committee, which co-ordi-nates allocating the subsidies, has been working on this with the assembly. This committee will consider asking the Urban Transport Council and ratepayers to increase the taxi fare subsidy when it meets today. A Transport Board member, Mrs Carole Evans, told the committee the “Be Mobile” service had always lost money because it was a social service.

“We can’t just take this service off, hoping that the taxi companies will get the 50 per cent subsidy we get,” she said. The board had to continue offering disabled persons the right to subsidised bus trips until they had alternative transport.

Mr Francis said he was not suggesting there be “overnight cuts” in the service. Now that the “Total Mobility” taxi service was established, the

board had a chance to review its service for the disabled and refine it so that it was better and more economic.

The board’s chairman, Mr Patrick Neary, said that provided the disabled received the same service at a more economic rate, everyone would be better off.

About 10 representatives of disabled persons’ groups were at the meeting, and Ms Kate Barker, herself disabled, spoke. She asked that the board’s service for individuals not be stopped until there was a higher subsidy for disabled persons using taxis.

The bus service was the only way she could get out, and taxi fares to her Yaldhurst home were too expensive for her, even with the subsidy.

“A lot of disabled people like me would become immobile if ‘Be Mobile’ was cut,” she said. “I use the service about twice a week.”

About 60 disabled persons regularly use the “Be Mobile” service, although 1050 were registered as eligible to use it, the Transport Board said.