I have a difficult time getting around in this world. I’m blind in my left eye and don’t see well in my right eye so I am unable to drive a car. In order to go anywhere by myself I have to walk or ride my bike. If the distance is too far or not accommodating for some reason I either have to get a ride from someone else, which isn’t always possible or take a taxi, which is prohibitively expensive. This year however, I was presented with a new option, an option that’s increased my mobility more than ever before. A state run transportation program for the disabled called Metro Access.

Created by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in 1994, Metro Access is a paratransit door-to-door transportation service dedicated to serving disabled individuals who cannot utilize a rail or bus service to get where they need to go. Eligibility is determined by Metro based on a potential customer’s written explanation of his or her disability as part of an application. This application must be backed by a certified medical professional in writing. If everything is satisfactory, a meeting is scheduled for the potential customer at the Metro Headquarters in Washington D.C for intake, an orientation into the program and to have their picture taken for their Metro Access I.D card. Metro Access provides free transportation to and from this meeting and trips can be booked immediately afterward. It takes about a week to get the official I.D card out to the customer but they are able to use any photo I.D in the interim period.

The contract provider for Metro Access is MV transportation. Their budget for the 2011 fiscal year was $103.1 million dollars. They service the Washington metropolitan area like the rest of Metro and since their inception have grown from 200,000 to over 2.4 million trips a year. This is largely due to the growing number of disabled people in the D.C area and the decreasing number of social programs that cater to this demographic. Metro Access has a current vehicle fleet of 504 vans and 95 sedans and also supplements this fleet with local cabs when needed. The vans are their most visible part of the fleet. They are large white vehicles that sport their red, white, and blue logo on the front of the hood. They are fully wheelchair accessible and load a wheelchair using customer by means of a double side door on the right side of the vehicle next to the primary entrance.

Metro Access provides door-to-door shared ride services most days of the year. It does not run on many holidays and does not run on weekends in some areas, such as where I live. Rides must be scheduled at least one day in advance and up to seven days in advance, either over the phone via an operator or through their website at metroaccess-wb.wmata.com. After logging in with a proper Metro Access ID and self-created password, customers are taken to a page where they have the option to review scheduled trips, schedule new trips, manage their account and cancel existing trips. Scheduling a trip consists of filling out a form detailing where a customer is going, where to be picked up, what day the trip is desired and a desired time to be picked up or dropped off. The system stores any previously used destinations in a drop down menu and checks new ones against a database of available addresses. If the address is invalid or outside Metro Access’ effective range the trip cannot be booked. Once a trip is booked the customer is taken to a review screen to see if all of the information is correct and then confirms the trip. The actual pickup time is shown on this screen and there is an opportunity to accept the trip and create a return trip or refuse the trip. The pickup time consists of a 30 minute window that the customer is expected to be ready during as Metro Access can arrive at any time during that window. Payment ranges between three and seven dollars each way and varies depending on distance and time of day. Payment is either received by the driver in cash or done beforehand through Metro Access EZ Pay. A customer receives an EZ Pay account upon joining Metro Access and can add any amount of money to the account to be used on future trips. Customers cannot add money while scheduling a trip however. Missed trips that were not scheduled in advance are fined a no-show fee and repeated no-shows result in temporary suspension from the service with each offense generating an increasingly long suspension.

As a user of Metro Access, I have found it to be a reliable, dependable and highly valuable service. It’s enabled me to commute to jobs otherwise beyond my reach and lets me travel most places I want to go at almost any time of any day, so long as I plan for it. This is where problems occur for me. Everything has to be planned a day in advance, meaning I cannot get to places on short notice. When I worked at Target over the holidays for example I was called on my day off and asked if I wanted to come in that day. Although I wanted to work, I could not do so because I didn’t have a Metro Access trip set up and calling for a cab would have cost more money than I would have earned. I have also found that Metro Access does not go everywhere every day. In my area for example it does not run on the weekends, thus making it difficult to travel without the aid of my parents, brother or friends. Since I often worked on the weekends I had to arrange for alternate transportation. There were many nights where I had to take a cab home which costs about double my usual fare. If I were lucky I could get a ride home from another employee but that didn’t happen too often. Even though the service always arrives within my trip’s pickup window it often isn’t the one I ask for. When making a trip over the phone, I can only choose the times the operator offers and these could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before I want to leave, or be picked up for return trips. When scheduling a trip online, I don’t know the exact window that the van will arrive until I’ve booked the trip so I have to schedule a trip time based on what they might give me. I’ve made trips that are between 30 minutes to two hours before my desired pickup time and have to refuse the trip and remake it between 2 and 4 more times to get a time I want. If I play around with the pickup time enough I eventually find a time that works. However, the system would be much more convenient if it offered a list of available times rather than assigning me a random one based on what it thinks I need. Even so, I enjoy the online system more than talking to an operator because I can make a trip any time of day, not just normal business hours. I also don’t have to listen to the operator confirm everything; I can just scan it to make sure everything looks right.

Overall, Metro Access is an invaluable service but an inflexible one. I’m largely independent under it but not completely independent. Not like the independence I would have if I were able to drive. Three to seven dollars a trip also adds up quickly. It ends up being about twice as expensive as taking metro rail or bus and about as expensive as driving and servicing a motor vehicle, but without the true dependence it offers. The only true alternative for someone like me would be a driverless car. Something that I can hop into like anybody else and go as far as my gas tank will take me. It would offer more range than Metro Access and more flexibility with none of the inconveniences. I would have to learn how to maintain a car, something that I’ve never had to do before, but the benefits would be well worth it. A driverless car would end my dependent independence.