The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, or RTC Washoe, is proposing some changes to its public transportation services.
These include tweaks to RTC RIDE bus routes.
Most notably, the agency is considering combining Routes 6 and 16 - Arlington/Moana and Idlewild - into one Idlewild/Moana route, which would be numbered 36.
Outside of bus routes, another big change is coming to RTC Access - the agency’s ADA ride service.
The agency plans to change from door-to-door to curb-to-curb. If these changes are approved, riders who need door-to-door service can still apply for it. It would no longer be automatic.
Evan Gadda has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He's been using Access since 1989.
Gadda said changing the standard from door-to-door to curb-to-curb would cause problems for riders with a disability.
“It would be very unbeneficial for us in the long run to go to a bus stop in the cold, and rain, and snow,” Gadda said.
Josh MacEachern, the Public Information Officer for RTC Washoe, said riders who need door-to-door service shouldn’t worry about losing it during the application process. He said they're considering changing the standard to give riders an option.
“We actually heard back from a lot of people who use Access, where the number one reason they use Access is to go to work,” MacEachern said. “So, they may not want an Access driver walking them up to the door of their employer. Just for visual reasons."
RTC is also proposing fare increases for some of its services, including Access. If approved, the Access fare would go from $3 per ride to $4. MacEachern said they hope to offset this with free access to RTC RIDE buses and the Regional Connector to Carson City.
However, Gadda said that wouldn't do any good since regular bus drivers don't receive the same training as Access drivers.
“Those drivers would not know how to handle us,” he said. “They would not know how to give us CPR or something like that if we went into a seizure.”
RTC is collecting feedback on these changes and others through an online survey. It will remain open until this Sunday, March 29.
