BOCA RATON, Fla. – Ronald Mendonca works at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton as an accessibility consultant.
"I leave work at 5 (a.m.) and don't reach home until 7:30 to 8 o'clock -- and that's a good day," Mendonca said.
"I spend about 3 to 4 hours a day traveling to and from school," one student, Farrah Robles, said.
Broward County residents Mendoca and Robles rely on paratransit services to get them to and from FAU. The service is for the disabled or those who have a condition that prevents them from using a regular bus.
The day starts with Broward County's TOPS paratransit.
The current service area does not have a FAU stop, which means they are dropped-off at the route's most northern point, Mizner Park.
There they must transfer to Palm Beach County's paratransit system Palm Tran.
That's where their commute, they say, gets both tricky and expensive.
"If the connection is not correctly made, one can miss the ride and literally wait hours to get a ride rescheduled," Mendoca said.
"It is frustrating. It is really frustrating," Robles said. "You are depending on this system that may or may not be on time. Sometimes, I am here an hour early, sometimes I am here late. It is very difficult to manage."
TOPS and Palm Tran cost $3.50 each way, so a daily commute runs $14 dollars day.
Mendoca said it is an expensive and time-consuming connection to take the disabled FAU students and staff just under two miles from the current TOPS Mizner Park drop-off site.
Adding a stop at FAU would be a shorter distance into Palm Beach County than TOPS currently extends south into Miami-Dade County at Golden Glades.
"Why would it be difficult to make FAU a stop? I don't think it is difficult," Broward County Commissioner Louis Wexler, who reviewed the service map, said. "This is how far into Miami-Dade we go. Why can't we go that far into Palm Beach County?"
"We are working extra hard in every aspect in our lives and it is overwhelming, and having that one extra thing that could make our lives easier would be wonderful," Robles said. "I feel that if we were more accessible with coming from Broward straight to FAU, we would be encouraging students who want to come here and get an education because education equals opportunity."
"For a person with disabilities, it's very important to have an education," Mendoca said. "It is unfortunate that some students are discouraged to make the trip. There is policy but there is no compassion."
In an email, Broward County Transit stated, "While the transfer situation is not ideal for Broward County residents who want to get to FAU, it is not feasible to extend the service. If this occurred for one customer, thousands of trips for others in the same situation would also have to be considered. Those changes would substantially impact our ability to serve other customers, due to additional time, scheduling and cost."
Records show 862 students are registered with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at FAU this spring.
"As we shared with you, our students have a number of transportation options including Palm Tran and Tri-Rail," FAU Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Cory King said. "However, now that we have been made aware of this issue, we will open conversations with Broward Transit and Palm Tran to work for a solution that best serves these specific students."
BROWARD COUNTY TRANSIT:
From Jan. 1, 2015 - Feb. 29, 2016 here are the number of trips taken outside the county on Paratransit (TOPS).
· The total trips on BCT Paratransit (TOPS) to and from Palm Beach County was 3,146 trips
· Total trips to and from Miami-Dade County on BCT Paratransit (TOPS) was 12,336 trips on Paratransit from Jan. 1, 2015-Feb. 29, 2016.
· Total trips to surrounding counties for this time frame: 15,482
Rules for paratransit service areas:
"The entity shall provide complementary paratransit service to origins and destinations within corridors with a width of three-fourths of a mile on each side of each fixed route. The corridor shall include an area within a three-fourths of a mile radius at the ends of each fixed route."
Based on that definition, the BCT TOPS Paratransit service must extend three-fourths of a mile radius from the end of each route (1, 10, 18, 19 & 28) currently going into neighboring counties:
- The #1 & #28 routes terminating at the Aventura Mall.
- The #18 route terminates at the Golden Glades Tri-Rail station.
- The #10 bus route terminates at East Palmetto Pkwy and North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
- The #19 route terminates at Sandalfoot Plaza on State Road 7 in Boca Raton. The Paratransit system by law must provide service ¾ miles north of that point.
FAU STUDENT ON-CAMPUS TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS:
FAU does offer on-campus transportation for students. The three options are as follows:
Owl Express Shuttle: Parking and Transportation Services provides two free on-campus shuttles as a service designed to help move people quickly around campus. One of the shuttles is wheelchair accessible.
Night Owls Boca: The Night Owls program is a student run evening escort service. FAU students who need a ride to or from class, the library, residence halls, parking lots, or any other location on the Boca Raton Campus can call the Night Owls for a free ride. Night Owls operate from 7p.m.-1 a.m., Monday-Friday. The Night Owls have one wheelchair accessible golf cart.
Night Owls Davie: This Night Owls program is a student run service that promotes campus safety by providing students who need a ride to or from class, the library, parking lots, or another location on the Davie Campus. Students will be able to call for a free ride. Night Owls operate from 7:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday.
Students can use the Palm Tran bus services; Bus 94 goes to the Tri Rail station and 91 goes around town and into West Boca.
Students can register for the Palm Tran Connection in Palm Beach County and TOPS in Broward County for door-to-door pick up. Students have to be visually or physically impaired or have medical equipment (oxygen tank) for this service. Students coming from Broward County to FAU Boca Campus have to use the TOPS vehicle, which drops them off at Mizner Park. They then can then register with Palm Tran Connection in Palm Beach County.