It’s time for Honolulu to get real about TheHandi-Van: The service is not fulfilling its mandate to provide mobility to Oahu’s public transit riders who are disabled.
On Monday, the Star-Advertiser reported on Deborah Braiman, who is totally blind, and was left waiting outside Guide Dogs of Hawaii in Downtown Honolulu for over an hour as the Handi-Van failed to appear on time, or at the next scheduled time.
The passenger, who cannot see who is approaching her, was left on the street — feeling vulnerable to harm, without any avenue to find out what was happening with the Handi-Van delay, and with no option to wait inside until the transportation “service” materialized.
“We’re sitting out there like sitting ducks to get mugged, raped and robbed because they don’t have a van,” Braiman said. “And they don’t even tell us?”
Three years ago, similar complaints about call center response, passenger wait times and inadequate fleet numbers raised suggestions of federal intervention via the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that agencies providing public transit also provide transportation to people with disabilities who can’t use a fixed-route service. Honolulu added vans and improved its dispatch service, adding an online reservation system — but it did not go far enough.
As ridership recovers from a drastic drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Handi-Van service once again finds itself unprepared.
Last month, Handi-Van appeared in a spate of headlines over reports that its call center, operated by nonprofit Oahu Transit Services, is understaffed. Wait times for getting through on a call to book rides has lengthened, and the number of callers giving up on their attempts approached 1 out of 5 in September.
“Frankly, our record is unacceptable,” city Department of Transportation Services director Roger Morton told the City Council. “It just takes too long to get through.”
Meanwhile, 84 of 207 transport vehicles are presently out of commission.
This dysfunctional service is particularly hard on those who are blind or live with other disabilities that lead them to need assistance for mobility — and autonomy.
WITH A SERVICE as crucial as TheHandi-Van, it’s unacceptable to stall on rebuilding the fleet, staff and capabilities of the program. The shortage of working vehicles should not even have been allowed to develop to a point of crisis. But now that it has, the city must take urgent action to address the issue.
If short-term emergency contracts with existing private transportation companies providing similar services — transport to medical appointments, for example — are necessary to maintain function, these need to be considered. Ditto with operating the phone-in service.
Handi-Van’s reservation and pick-up service also needs to be modernized so that riders — and their families — can track rides as they approach and along the route, improving safety and eliminating a need to stand outside waiting for a late or no-show vehicle.
Given reports of sharply rising estimated costs to replace vehicles, a thorough analysis of Handi-Van’s budget, staffing and process for maintaining stable services may also be called for, to ascertain whether it is appropriately managed to account for future needs and expenses. Taxpayers should feel secure that the city is leveraging available funds to the maximum extent possible.
As a baseline standard, there should be zero tolerance for substandard operation of a lifeline service for people with disabilities and mobility impairments. Going forward, TheHandi-Van riders and taxpayers need a detailed recovery action plan from the city, with a sense of urgency and willingness to improve on past procedures.
