It's 8:45 a.m. and 23-year-old Ryan Ives takes one last look at his mother and boards the para-transit bus on yet another lengthy commute into downtown Hamilton.
"My name is Ryen. I may not speak but convey my wish to arrive at my program on time. It starts at 9:30. Thank you, blessings," reads the handwritten letter-sized note Ryen's mom Jill has taped to her son's shirt.
The mother of four is fed-up with Disabled and Aged Regional Transportation System (DARTS)—the city's non-profit taxi transit service for the disabled, mentally ill and elderly. Ryan is autistic which in his case means he's non-verbal.
Jill said it frequently takes DARTS well beyond a reasonable amount of time to take her son from their Stoney Creek home to his five-day-a-week his program at L'Arche on Main Street.
"Within DARTS time frame they have an hour to take him," she said. "Sometimes on a Friday he won't get home until 5 o'clock - his pickup time is three."
Complaints filed
On any given month Jill files up to 10 complaints - only some of the 1,230 complaints given to the city's Accessible Transportation Services (ATS) department as of May.
"The problem is not being fixed - there's multiple offences and it's just not changing," she said, the morning after councillor Brad Clark read her letter in the council chambers demanding action on the part of the city.
"So why is it acceptable when we have the most vulnerable population to get away with what they're getting away with," she said. "I think the drivers themselves are overwhelmed."
DARTS executive director Mark Mindorff said the city's 2.25 rides-per-hour performance measure has contributed to a strain on the system.
The non-profit door-to-door transit program has shown an increase in riders but needs to increase its fleet of vehicles to properly service the demand.
"We're working to put more service out there on the roads," Mirdoff said. We are at capacity so it's a matter of putting more service on the road - that means hiring drivers, configuring vehicles and getting the service expanded without running a budget deficit."
In three years, DARTS has gone from 75 vehicle to over a 100 today.
Mirdoff said getting another 10 to15 vans on the road would make a difference on "the problem of service to denied passengers."
"So we try to carry as many people as possible, the issue is that people really want to get to where they want to go the shared ride is the option,"
DARTS audit
A full audit of DARTS is currently being completed and is expected to be presented to the city in the fall.
"I think the auditors have found it's a pretty complicated process to schedule 2,000 people a day on 100 buses," Mindorff said, adding the the results might be "a learning experience for all parties how complicated effectively running a service is..."
Ives said she'd like immediate improvements to the para-transit service and wants the city to take initiative.
"Council needs to step up...I think it's inhumane justice to these folks and it needs to stop and it needs to change," Jill said.
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