This is the Empowered Caregiver Show.
If you are a caregiver or know someone who is,
this show is meant to uplift you through education and support,
while also lifting up every caregiver's invaluable role in society.
Now, here is the Empowered Caregiver and your host,
Liza Helen Brand.
You are listening to the Empowered Caregiver,
and I am your host, Liza Helen Brand.
And I am joined here today with my producer extraordinaire Nate.
Nate, you know, you've done enough shows with me to know that I can't say anybody's last name.
I have a whole bunch of guests on tonight.
I'm probably going to mess up all of their last names.
So let me start by messing up yours.
Do it.
Wiggy out?
That was close.
That was closer than I usually get Wiggy out.
Wiggy out?
Wiggy out. There you go.
You got it.
Wiggy out.
Okay, it just makes me want to say,
get jiggy with it.
I don't know what.
But I have heard every variation of my last name.
You could have done a lot worse.
All right.
Good to know.
So I have a question for you, Nate.
Right.
How did you get here today?
I drove in.
And how do you get to most places that you go whenever you leave the house?
I don't have a bike and I don't like to walk.
So I have to drive everywhere.
That's what I was thinking.
So I'm going to take this a few steps further and see if I can stump you.
Okay.
If you were to sum up what driving means to you in a word or a few words, what would
it be?
Oh.
And one word, I would probably have to say transportation.
Tramp.
One place to another.
One place to another.
Point A, point B.
Yes.
Okay.
To me, I was thinking freedom.
Okay.
Right.
Right.
I mean, being able to drive, like we're talking about being able to drive, gives you
freedom.
It just, when we had this snow storm, you know, not that long ago and then it got really cold.
I went to go to an appointment and my garage door wouldn't open.
It was frozen and all of a sudden, immediately, I started to panic.
Like, oh no, where else do I have to be?
Do I have food in the fridge?
You know, am I going to die?
And, you know, I'm not everyone is as over dramatic as I am.
But transportation is a big deal.
And so that is what I want to focus on tonight.
So last bonus question for you, Nate.
How many people do you think in the state of Wisconsin do not drive?
Do not drive.
Let me think.
I mean, I have a couple of friends who don't drive.
They never, never decided to get a driver's license or anything.
I would have to say.
Did I say percentage?
What percentage?
Oh, what percentage?
Yeah, let's go percentage.
Okay, percentage of people in Wisconsin.
Yeah.
I would say maybe six percent, five percent.
Five percent, don't drive.
According to Wisconsin DOT, approximately 31 percent of all Wisconsin nights do not drive.
That means that about 1.8 million people throughout the state rely on someone else to get them
where they need to go.
So what does this have to do with caregiving?
You might ask, well, if there's 1.8 million people that don't drive in the state,
that means that there's 1.8 million people relying on somebody to get them where they need to go.
And for the most part, that somebody is caregivers.
So transportation is a huge part of the caregiver role.
I mean, it doesn't matter if you're a parent transporting kids to school, extracurriculars, a friend's house,
or if you're an adult child, excuse me, child, trying to plan your day around your parent's medical appointments.
And if you are a parent of a child with special needs, don't even get me started.
Because I felt like some days that's all I did was drive my kiddo around.
So most of the time spent driving in the car really isn't the big deal.
It's being mindful that when you're planning your day, you need to consider the needs of others and where they need to go.
For many, it's the mental load that goes along with the responsibility.
In regards to transportation, it's managing all of the logistics involved.
And not only do you carry this responsibility or mental load while you're driving and organizing driving, it's also when you're not driving.
I mean, when my son goes to work and if things are slow, they'll send him home early.
So I need to be available to come get him because he is on the autism spectrum.
He does not drive. We're not rolling it out, but he does not drive right now.
If your mother-in-law is not doing well, you feel like you need to stay close in case you need to take her in to get medical attention.
So even when you're not driving, you know, there's still a lot of responsibilities that falls on your shoulder and that can make you feel like you're on standby or on call 24 hours a day.
So when it comes to caregivers facing burnout and chronic caregiver stress, a lot of it has to do with things like transportation.
And I believe that transportation is such a huge part of the caregiving story yet, like most things caregivers do, it really isn't talked about.
So I started to get curious about the transportation systems throughout the state and how it impacts caregivers and of course, as a caregiver advocate, how can we improve things?
And I could not believe the number of people that we're willing to discuss this topic.
And to me, that's great news because that means that there's a lot of hard-working people like the guests I have on tonight that are dedicated to working on this issue.
So with that, I want to start right here in my backyard. In 2019, Madison was ranked number five in the country by wallet hub in their cities with the best public transportation report.
So I have with me tonight, Mike Roosh, Chief Developer Officer and Phillip Gadki Operations Manager, both from Metro Transit in Madison and Rebecca Hoyt, who works with the Department of Civil Rights and Equity and Social Justice Division, where she works to elevate disability access and inclusion programs and services within the city of Madison.
And I want to talk about public transportation first because that is a way that people can get from point A to point B if they are non-driver.
If public transit is accessible, reliable, safe, and I guess affordable, it relieves the caregiver of driving somebody around and it provides the care recipient, the freedom and the independence.
That I'm sure they desire just as I felt that the day that I didn't have my car available. But for the 70% of Wisconsin residents that do that do drive, they might not see or understand the value of public transportation.
So first, I want to start off with, Mike, thank you for joining me tonight, Mike, and looking at the big picture, why is investing in public transportation also beneficial for people who don't even use it?
So for here in the Madison area, Madison is a very popular place to live and we are expecting to see about 85,000 new jobs come into the Dane County area in the coming years and with that 100,000 new residents.
And we think that is going to create about 800,000 road trips, extra road trips, which is going to create well extra gridlock, you won't be able to drive as easily through the streets.
Wow, it's going to transit is going to help keep those keep that traffic at bay and it's going to be just make it easier for other drivers to get where they need to go because we'll be taking cars off the road.
Yeah, in addition, we are actually here in Madison, we're going to implement a brand new electric bus fleet. And so we are also helping reduce our carbon footprint by reduce having zero emission vehicles out on the street.
That is wonderful. Tell me that number again, how many new drivers do we see in the future?
You're going to see about we're expecting 800,000 road trips. So we're going to see you.
100,000, 100,000 new residents in the future here in Dane County.
Oh gosh, I can just picture the belt line right now with just, you know, 100,000 more cars on it, lovely, love it. So the bus system is really needed, even if you're not using the bus.
And I could go on as somebody that's worked in real estate in a past life for many years, just the value that it brings to the community and the property values, you know, having public transit available.
You're listening to the empower caregiver. And I am your host, Liza Helen, brand. I'm speaking with Mick. Okay, Mick, I said earlier, I always mess up everyone's last name. It could be Jones. It doesn't matter. How do you pronounce your last name?
It's Rouge. Rouge. And I've heard a different many different ways of saying it too. So don't worry.
All right. And you are the chief development officer at Metro Transit. So with the help of a federal grant, Madison will be rolling out bus rapid transit or BRT later this year.
Mick, what is bus rapid transit?
Well, it's a lot of the things you just said that caregivers need. It's basically frequent, faster, more reliable bus service.
It's going to we're going to have our first metro rapid route, which is going to go into effect this fall or later in the year.
And it's going to run from the east side of town all the way to the west side of Madison. And it's going to feature larger vehicles.
It's going to be frequent all day service. That's going to run every 15 minutes. It's going to have fewer stops. And it's going to utilize traffic signals so that buses will trip green light so they'll get through it'll cut through traffic faster than regular buses do today.
And also we're going to have new stations. So that'll be more pleasant experience waiting for the bus.
And to speed up boarding, you'll buy your tickets at a kiosk or you'll buy it online before you go out so that it won't take as long for people to board the bus.
So it's just a newer faster, more efficient way to ride the bus through Madison.
Well, I've seen some of the construction specifically on mineral point where where these stops are going in, but I have to say, infrastructure infrastructure is expensive.
So why not just add more buses?
Actually, more buses just isn't enough. It's this is designed to get buses to move through traffic, you know, more efficiently. So there's going to be dedicated lanes.
If you just have more buses, that's just more buses that are going to get stuck in traffic.
And the larger buses that are going to carry more people so we can carry more people with one driver.
And it's just going to allow it's just going to actually the way it's all set up. It's going to be easier to ride transit. So we hope it will entice more people to ride.
And it'll just encourage encourage more people to ride and keep the existing riders that we have.
So you said the, I think you referred to it as the the AB rollout or the east west is going to be coming first.
Do we know yet when that's going to be up and running?
We are shooting for the fall, but it'll be at least it'll be it won't be this summer, but it'll be later in the fall, if not early winter.
It has been over 20 years since Metro Transit has undergone an overhaul to this scale.
What does the future look like for Metro Transit? What about the suburbs? And how can people learn to use the new system?
Stay tuned to find out.
You
You are listening to the empowered caregiver and I am your host, Eliza Helen Brandt.
I am joined here today with McRush chief development officer of Metro Transit. Metro Transit is overhauling its services, including adding the BRT bus rapid transit, which includes larger buses running from the east to west side of Madison approximately every 15 minutes.
What are the timelines on these initiatives we were talking about? It's going to be opening up by the end of 2024 for the east west route, but we've also got north south.
Yeah, we do also have a north south route that we're looking at and that route will probably be closer to, I would say, 2027, 2028. That's when we get the infrastructure in place for that.
But I will say that this electric bus fleet that we are putting out there, our route B right now is the route that the north south route would be. So we are going to put those electric buses on the route B at the same time we launched the route A.
We have electric buses running along that route. It'll just be 2027, 2028 before we have the stations in place and all the traffic signal prioritization and all the dedicated links.
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so next question for you. Will this BRT system impact one the time that people are spent on the bus and to the cost?
I can tell you upfront that's been a big question is it will not affect the cost. We are not going to raise our rates because of BRT. It'll be the same. You'll be able to pay the same amount of money that you're paying now and it'll be the same rate on BRT as all of our local routes. So that will not change.
As far as the time we don't have a good sense of that right now we actually put the route itself is running right now it's the route A.
And we have had some time savings because we've removed a lot of the stops that will be removed as part of the BRT. So we are moving along with that already.
BRT is in place we should save some time at the beginning of the route and the end of the route. But we don't have a good idea of how buses will move through traffic and how much time will actually be saved.
So that'll be something that'll be kind of worked out as we as we launch.
But what people will save is the amount of time spent planning to ride the bus you'll just be able to go out to a station and know there's going to be a bus there every 15 minutes.
That'll save you time you'll be able to save time boarding you won't have to wait as long to get on the bus.
So there's going to be a lot of savings that way and there'll just be just saving the time and traffic as I said I can't give you an exact thing but you won't be sitting in a car lane waiting to go through a red light the bus will trip the green light to go straight through.
And so currently oh no because you said that that it is already going this route because I was going to ask currently if people want to go from far east to far west does it take multiple transfers.
No, if you want to go that far you can ride the route eight that's already in place and that is running along the path of the stations that you're seeing through town.
So the route itself is actually running right now but they're running with our stand standard standard size buses and we don't have any of the dedicated lanes or the stations online yet.
Gotcha. Okay. And so the BRT can only be extended to the surrounding suburbs with the financial commitment from those communities right you just can't go all over the county.
Unfortunately, but what has been done so far and what do you see as like a possible need in the future to help people from the suburbs be able to use public transportation for things like work and meeting their medical needs.
But we already serve middle 10 and we also go out to Fitchburg and Verona and we recently started service with some prairies so we're already serving the region we are looking to become a system that serves not just Madison but serves the entire region we know there's people that come into Madison for jobs that live in these surrounding communities.
So we are looking to make travel you know that much easier. What I would say for people that are you know what for people in the suburbs like that is you know come try us out in Madison and then if you really you know if you are really struck by how much easier it is to travel using our system encourage your community leaders that transit is something that you want in your community and have them strike up a conversation with us to see how we might be able to make that happen.
That's that is wonderful and that's something that I say over and over on the show that things just don't happen in our communities right it takes the residents to to make the cause and to start expressing their needs so the leaders and the people that have the ability to make the changes know what those needs are so
thank you for for adding that into this now the good news from what I heard earlier is it sounds like things are going to change in regards to getting the bus your bus fare your bus tickets but I'm not going to lie.
I learned a few things that baffled me regarding the bus fares so let me see if I got this right currently if you want to ride the bus you need to pay an exact change.
Go to a specific retailer to purchase bus bus passes or order them online and have them snail mail to you is that is that right is that currently how you're.
That is correct it's not a very efficient system it is not easy to get a bus pass right now that is correct okay i'm so glad that you said that because I was thinking gosh it's not really easy to get a bus pass right now so especially for you know seniors and those with disabilities I see that is a
barrier so what's the future look like the future looks like we are actually going to start talking about this at a January 31st we're going to talk at our transportation commission we are implementing new fair technology as part of the BRT project and this new fair technology is going to be on BRT buses and all of our local routes and basically we're going to switch switch to a smart card system and a personal account system it's going to basically involve having fair readers at the front of every bus or and actually on the b
rt you'll be able to board in the middle of the bus and in the back of the bus they'll be a fair reader there and you can just get on quickly and tap your card which you what you won't have to do is pay for a pass like right now we have a 31 day pass for adults at 65 dollars and you have to pay for that in advance to ride.
With this new system you will put money into your account and it will give you all the you'll basically pay as you go and you'll get all of Metro discounts along the way so our fair cost two dollars we're going to fair cap that you're right for that that day we have a day pass of five dollars so if you ride three times in a day we're just going to stop charging you at five dollars and you're going to ride free the rest of the day.
So we are going to do this faircapping system that is going to make it very easy to just put money in your account you're not going to have to call us you're going to have to get a card once and then you can just reload it either online or you can go to a sales outlet in the area to reload it, but you won't have to.
Get a new pass every month you're not going to have to go get tickets every week you will be able to just if you're into using your computer you can do it online otherwise we will have options for people that aren't comfortable with that.
But it's going to make it much much easier I was going to say that that is going to be great news for a whole lot of people I can imagine one last question for you real quickly where can you go or what resources are available if you want to use the bus but it's overwhelming you don't understand it you need some help getting started.
Well, you can call our call center they are available 6 am to 6 pm they're at 608 266 4 4 6 6 or you can email them at my metro bus at city of Madison.com we also have two people that is that are outreach people and they actually will come out to your business they'll come out to your your your your group and they will talk to you about riding the bus you just need to give us a call and let us know when where you'd like us to meet it we will come to you and give a presentation and.
Answer all your questions on anything that has to do with Metro so give us a call and we can yeah and they are there to help you out and I even say I think we're going to run out of time but I thought I saw that there's some things going on at various libraries or things around town to but I would say this go to the website and all the information is there what's your website address make it's my Metro bus dot com wonderful thank you for being with me next we're going to talk para transit.
you are listening to the empowered caregiver and I am your host Liza Helen Bran I am joined now with Philip
guide that operations manager with metro transit in Madison now Philip you kind of work are at least to oversee part of the para transit transportation issue and for those that aren't familiar can you give me a brief 101 on what para transit is.
Sure para para transit is a complimentary service provided for writers with disabilities that are unable to access fixed route service based on their their physical or sure other needs that that may prevent them from from accessing fixed route.
And then I know I was being chatty before and I got off off schedule here with the questions that I that I have for you guys I want to make sure that I get as much covered as I can for the listeners i'm just going to.
mention this and you tell me if I got it right so if you want to use para transit though that's something that you need to qualify for so you start by going on your website and filling out an application do I got that right.
correct there's an application and an assessment process for people okay and then the ability in which you can take people is pretty much the current bus route right I mean you're not taking people out to de forest or other outlying areas.
The para transit does have an associated service area with it so anywhere in our current service area that fixed route goes all day like has all day service carries para transit service with it so for example sun prairie recently added fixed route all day service so sun prairie now for the most part has para transit service.
and so for the most part has been literally to middle 10 or all of the city of Madison so it's based on the fixed route service and where it goes but yes it it has to stay within.
the designated service area sure sure and i'm sure that something that you can call or go to the website to find out exactly where those those areas are.
i just wanted to share so after reading about paratrans that online i apologize for saying this but the current system sounds cumbersome i mean that what if i'm reading it correctly you have to call the schedule a ride and then confirm your reservation that day and make sure that you cancel in time so it doesn't impact your eligibility for future rides is that correct and if so is that going to be changing.
you don't need to apologize for being the system does need an upgrade with new technology that's out that that wasn't available to us before but yes.
right now our ride scheduling process is over the phone with our call center we do have email available for people that are unable to call we have an email group that.
that people can.
work through their rides schedules if they need to but it's primarily.
completed with our call center reps.
there are methods where a rider can set up standing rides which it let's say you.
ride utilize pair transit for work you go to work Monday through Friday you can set up standing rides so you don't need to call every day.
so those rides are scheduled automatically.
similarly for school or.
other regular type.
travel sure and what's the future look with all these big changes and overhaul now that's a system that i feel needs an overhaul so what's that going to look like.
i feel the same way and the.
paratransit scheduling software that we currently use is pretty old and needs to be upgraded and as we all know with technology and how things have grown over the years and.
there is new tech available so what we're looking at is similar to what mick was talking about and having an account.
for fairs of similarly on the paratransit side you could have an account to manage your rides on your own rather than having to call us and schedule and.
make sure you call in by 4 30 every day cancel rides if you have a schedule change things like that where you can it allows more.
independence in your in your riding ability and in scheduling abilities as a rider i can only imagine i think fill out we were talking a little bit about this to over the break that is going to make so many people's lives so much easier i can't wait for that roll out thank you for joining me tonight and.
explaining paratransit like i said i have a son that is a non driver and and that's something that i probably am not there yet but will end up utilizing so thank you for sharing.
i want to switch gears and make sure that i have time to talk to rebecca hoi rebecca works in the department of civil rights equity and social justice where she works to elevate disability access and inclusion in programs and services within the city of Madison thank you rebecca for being with me tonight regarding transportation what is the city of Madison doing to increase accessibility and inclusion.
thanks so much live at the pleasure to to join you on your show and this is such an important issue for the disability community, thank you for giving it a platform i want to say we at the city recognize that transportation is a key element and people's ability to access work to get to needed services and to really engage in the community and have friends and a social life and all those things we enjoy.
And so we have a lot of things coming up and I want to thank and acknowledge a lot of our local self advocates and advocacy organizations that continue to speak up and hold us accountable because I think that is really the amusing for the upcoming projects.
Last year we developed a grant program to fund the cost of accessible taxi cabs a wheelchair accessible cabs.
For Madison taxi companies to apply to that would make accessible taxis available on the road 24 hours a day and 70s a week so that's another component of transportation we also have a space on the metro website where folks can log on and let us know.
If there are any accessibility issues with their bus stop and the city will work to prioritize and address those and in the coming year we're going to be updating and consolidating our 88 transition plan and that's a citywide plan that examines like we're compliant with the Americans with disabilities act and areas where we need to improve.
And so that will take place in the coming year and in cohort with that also consulting with our planning division to develop some community surveys so folks can let us know what their experience has been with the new metro redesign system and also with para transit so those will be forthcoming.
That is wonderful Rebecca I can just you know as you're saying all the things that you're you're trying to do and the changes to make and how people can involve get involved in the back of my head I'm just thinking this is why Madison is such a wonderful place to live so I just want to thank you for the work that you're doing and you know you had mentioned earlier where people can leave comments or get involved.
There is a community conversation that is going to be coming up. Can you share some of the details about that.
Absolutely so whenever residents really raised and elevated the issue of pedestrian safety and that is something that many of our programs are already working on through our vision zero and safe streets for all.
On February 7th from 5 to 7 p.m. and it's virtual no transportation required you can join us for a community conversation to talk about how we as a disability community can work together to better engage with the city around existing efforts and to reduce traffic related death and injury which is a big safety concern for folks with disabilities.
Definitely and where do people go if they want to be a part of that.
Folks can there's no need to register if you'd like you can email me and I will send you the registration link I'm sorry the zoom link my email is our point H O Y T at city of Madison dot com.
Okay, you know I probably can ask you this off air but if it's something excuse me that you can share I would be happy to put that on my Facebook page as well so.
That would be great yeah yeah if you can share that with me then listeners can go to Facebook and and join the meeting and then I also want to ask you.
If they can't make the meeting what are some other options are there other ways for people to get involved and have their voices heard.
Absolutely so again I am here to like serve the community so please feel free to call me or email me again my email address is our point at city of Madison dot com and my direct line is 608 266 6511.
Okay and you know when we were talking earlier you and I off air you had mentioned something about transportation discrimination which I found really interesting I don't know a lot about can you expand on what is transportation discrimination.
Absolutely so the Americans with disabilities act has several different titles and each title has a different area where it gives protections for people with disabilities so title to covers transportation and it requires that public transportation has accessible information available in lots of formats so people can get the information they need.
It also requires that they have equipment on vehicles and buses like lifts and ramps and communication devices.
It gives people with disabilities the right to use a service animal which is an animal train to provide assistance for a person with a disability on public transportation.
And it also requires that drivers and operators have training on how to properly assist writers with disabilities and how to be respectful and courteous to passengers with disabilities.
Oh I'm sorry no go ahead.
Well sometimes discrimination happens outside of the transportation system as well so you might find that if you're applying for a job it might say something like have a valid drivers license but the job actually doesn't require you to drive you just have to get there and so that might be an example of a discriminatory practice that excludes people with disabilities.
Oh that is interesting I had never thought about that because I I have seen job posts where it says valid drivers license required huh.
Next question for you what are some options available for those that don't qualify for para transit or might need more assistance or support in bus training.
Yeah great question and I think this is really important for caregivers if you're a caregiving care recipient is a special education student you can ask for the school district to include transportation training as part of their transition plan so that's something that you can receive from the school district.
If they're no longer a special education student vocational rehabilitation programs can provide transportation training for folks who need to learn how to use the bus in order to get to work or school.
And then there's also lots of organizations like Wisconsin Association for the blind that provide specialized mobility and orientation training and help people learn how to navigate their community independently and with the freedom that you talked about at the beginning of the show.
Yes and I will say that my son did go through some bus training and and it was very helpful because you know it was extremely nervous and scared so they went through the process and then I think at one point his the agency that we were working with through DVR you know they dropped him off at point a and I don't know if they drove in their car to see if he came out and point B if I if all went well but it was very helpful and it gave him.
The confidence that he needs to be able to go around town and not tell his mom where he's going so.
I can vouch that the that the transportation training is good and that there are people there to help you is there anything that I'm that I'm missing Rebecca I feel like I'm.
I just wanted to just add a couple of notes about pair transit services and I I'd love to share with folks there's a kind of a myth that this is an income based program and it's really not there's no income requirements it's available for anyone who's unable to use public transportation.
And the big difference is that it's a door to door service so you actually get dropped off that door that is wonderful news thank you so much Rebecca for sharing and I will be back after this short break.
You are listening to the empowered caregiver and I am your host lies the Helen brand today I have been talking about transportation did you know that approximately 31% of Wisconsin residents do not drive for many organizing and providing transportation is a significant part of the caregiving role.
Many people have access to transportation funding through programs like iris so iris is a program for adults with disabilities and seniors in Wisconsin for which you can be eligible if you have Medicaid you can apply I believe that's one of the factors.
But even if people have this iris funding they still struggle to find the actual transportation providers so joining me today is Marshall Rosman from Union cab thank you Marshall for joining me tonight let's see how did I do on that last name.
You did pretty great it's Rowsman okay thank you for correcting that and I wanted to reach out to Union cab because you're the only cab company in town accepting iris funding to the best of my knowledge is that correct.
So the other cab company in town Madison taxi accept iris funding another government funding for services but we're the only company in town that provides 24 hour assisted transit services so they might accept it for providing other services for non emergency medical transportation type of things.
But we accept it specifically for our ATS our assisted transit vans and providing that service 24 hours.
So I referenced iris earlier are there I don't even know what other funding sources really are out there but are there other funding sources besides you know the private pay that you union cab accepts.
Not generally unfortunately I'm not in the I'm not in the finance side of it I'm more of getting vehicles onto the road and getting people serviced so I can't speak to where the money comes from no no no problem and like I said I know I know that there's some transportation grants I'm doing this as it as a two part series because I feel like it's just such a big deal it just impact it impacts everyone's life how can it how can it not.
So I know that there's some different funding out there but iris was really the only one that I could that I could think of but I'm curious what is the supply and demand look like for you are you meeting the needs with those with disabilities could you you know double your fleet and still be busy but how are things going.
We could definitely double our fleet and be busy so what happens is we are we have a number of vehicles on the road and they they are just.
They're constantly moving around the day and county area I've definitely sent a cab or two when I was dispatching down to Chicago to like pick someone up in Madison take them to Chicago picks them up in the Chicago bring them back to Madison that sort of a thing.
So it happens and that can put a larger burden on it because obviously that takes someone out of Madison for a while but because we are a service provider will pick you up wherever you are whatever building you're in front of and take you where you want to go.
Wonderful and how do you well you know what this is probably another trick question for you that I guess I don't know I expect you to know the answer to but do you know the percentage of.
Of rides that you provide that are for people with iris funding or are people with with disabilities.
Oh I know I can say that our.
I mean the number of rides that we give for people with disabilities that are.
Wheelchair vans accommodate is going to be small because we provide a large number of rides.
So the assistant transit vehicles for that is going to be lower but as far as who's paying for the rides I don't I don't go into that either yeah yeah I just curious because I would I would imagine it to be a lot.
Yeah what are some of them I don't think it's going to be small I'm sorry to interrupt I don't think it's going to be small because I do hear that discussed a lot in my hallways sure.
Making sure that everyone's accounts are up to date and that we're not messing with people's government funding over drawing them if you will but we definitely provide those services all the time well you know and I know that working with government funding even I mean just put those two words together and yuck it's got to be extremely hard I mean I would imagine it's like taxing some taxing no pun intended on your.
Your operation so my point is hats off to you guys for doing it because you are doing the community a huge great much much much much needed service but what are some of the challenges that you face.
So when when I first became aware of Union Cab I knew that we had a service called Union Transit that was specifically it was a like a quarter of our fleet specifically designed for for transit for individuals with any kind of disability and that was door to door service 24 hours a day scheduled and that went away before I came here.
To work but it is it's always been around in the form of our ATS and the form of our standard service that we offer.
The challenges for it and one of the reasons why it's difficult to pick up is because you have to kind of orient your finance office around the ability to risk to accept and.
It's important to report how that money is being spent and so that can become like you kind of have to create a whole packet just for that funding and that becomes complicated when you're trying to provide that for everybody.
Everybody who sends funding wants to have it wants to know how it's being spent to make sure it's being spent the way they want which is correct but that becomes just a complicated thing.
Probably why other companies either to solve or unable to provide it 24 seven because they don't have that dedicated staff that are able to to.
Right and and I may be wrong on this but I think most iris like funding can't happen until after the event occurred so I'm not sure again this is probably more of a billing and a finance question but if you guys don't get paid until some time after you provide.
Oh yeah yeah definitely it definitely gets paid up after the ride is done for sure yeah and that alone will send a lot of people running so we're up on time I just want to thank you so much Marshall for one the work that you guys are doing into coming here and talking to me tonight about it and I'd like to thank our new sponsor the Wisconsin family and caregiver support alliance you can learn more about them and have access to countless resources by visiting with.
Conson caregiver dot org or checking them out on Facebook at Wisconsin family caregiver support programs.