Speaker 3 00:01:00 Um, good evening. Thank you for joining disability and progress. You're tuned to cafe I 90.3, FM Minneapolis, and KFF dot O R G tonight. We, well, first of all, my name is Sam. I'm the host of the show. Miguel is engineering this episode. Thank you, Miguel. Charlene dolls, my research team. Thank you, Charlene. And hello, by the way.
Speaker 0 00:01:23 Good evening.
Speaker 3 00:01:25 And tonight we are discussing Metro mobility. We're talking about some new changes and we're going to visit some old topics of Metro mobility. We're speaking with Andy . Andy is the manager of customer service for Metro mobility. Hello, Andy,
Speaker 4 00:01:48 Thanks
Speaker 3 00:01:48 For joining us tonight. Yes, we appreciate you being on. Um, so I want to start out by, you've been with Metro mobility a little while. Can you tell us what brought you to Metro mobility?
Speaker 4 00:02:02 Uh, I'm a person with a disability myself. I have cerebral palsy, um, uh, and certainly, uh, lifetime public transit user, uh, either, uh, paratransit or, uh, more often fixed routes. Um, so certainly I recognize the intersection between, uh, accessible, vibrant transportation for folks with disabilities and all sorts of other, uh, quality of life, uh, supports and issues that face us as a community. So, um, something that I am, uh, fairly passionate about certainly directly impacted by. Uh, so when the opportunity came, uh, I was excited to take it on
Speaker 3 00:02:49 What is Metro mobility Or How many want to do it? Go ahead.
Speaker 4 00:02:59 Is ADA carrot transit? Uh, ADA, obviously that's probably anybody listening to this knows this Americans with disabilities act, uh, and here a transit, uh, really just means, uh, obviously any service that the government provides under title two of the ADA has to be accessible for folks with disabilities and one service that our government here provides regionally as Metro transit. Uh, so Metro mobility is the accessible version of that Metro transit system, uh, for folks who can't always take, uh, conventional Metro transit buses because of the symptoms of their disabilities.
Speaker 3 00:03:42 So is it, um, who's who was qualified to use Metro mobility? Is it limited to, like, if you can take a bus, can you not take Metro or can you, how does that work?
Speaker 4 00:03:55 Yeah. In order to qualify for Metro mobility, your disability does need to prevent you from taking the city bus at least some of the time. Now that doesn't mean that if you ever take the city bus that you can't be certified for Metro mobility, uh, but there do need to be some circumstances where your disability would prevent you from taking, uh, the city bus in your region. And it does need to be, uh, your disability that prevents you from taking the city bus, not just the limitations of the fixed route system. So, um, you know, the fact that the bus doesn't run over nights and you work third shift does not qualify you for Metro mobility, even if you have a disability. Um, but the fact that you have night blindness, um, and you cannot see well enough at night to access fixed route independently, and you've never had orientation and mobility training, uh, that could qualify you for Metro mobility.
Speaker 3 00:05:03 Um, so then what about if you, you don't have sidewalks to the bus stop, you can get there in the spring, but in the winter it could be dangerous for you to diverse the, the road because of visual impairment or being in a wheelchair that would obviously qualify you then.
Speaker 4 00:05:24 Yep. Pretty much anybody. Um, uh, in a mobility device is going to qualify for Metro mobility. Um, partially because we live in Minnesota, uh, and partially because we, as a nation, haven't gone as far as I would like to see with regard to having sidewalks, um, uh, incurred, cuts all over the place with the urban sprawl, but certainly, uh, even in the urban core where we're pretty good about sidewalks and curb cuts, uh, you know, you might be Charles Atlas with your upper body, but if you're headed off to catch the bus to go to work and the snowplow comes through and various all the curb cuts, probably if you're in a mobility device, you're not making it over that, that snowplow Mount. So, um, you, you qualify for, for Metro mobility,
Speaker 3 00:06:16 How does Metro mobility work,
Speaker 4 00:06:20 Uh, to get certified? There's a two part application. Uh, the first part is, is kind of just self reporting. Uh, what is your disability? How do you get around, uh, do your currently take public transit at all? Uh, those types of questions. And then part of it is a medical verification form or professional verification form, uh, that a wide range of medical professionals can fill out, uh, corroborating, uh, uh, some of the info and the part that the applicant themselves spills out. And then once we get that, uh, we will make a determination on a completed app within three weeks, uh, and currently we're at about a week out. Um, and then we will, uh, get someone certified after which point, uh, they can contact their provider, uh, at least one day in advance, uh, to book rides, uh, any place in the region that has, uh, transit service.
Speaker 3 00:07:19 So let's talk about how wide of an area Metro mobility covers currently.
Speaker 4 00:07:27 Sure. Um, uh, the basic rule of thumb, uh, is that we are based on the 2006 transportation taxing district. Um, uh, but there is one recent, uh, exception to that. Um, at the time that their rule was kind of put into place. Metro mobility had, had served the same service area forever, um, uh, really going back, uh, to the, to the late seventies in a way before the passage of the ADA. Um, uh, and, you know, we had no intention of, of, uh, serving anything differently. Um, uh, however it, Metro mobility is an expensive program and, and, uh, there were some folks at the Capitol kind of sniffing around to see whether or not it might make sense to cut down the service area. Uh, the disability and senior communities did a great job of advocating and kind of formally, uh, codifying in law, uh, the service area as it existed then, um, which basically goes east to west,
Speaker 4 00:08:40 Uh, uh, from Stillwater to mound, uh, and north to south from, uh, the city of, uh, NOCCA, um, uh, down now, um, to Lakeville, um, which is the one exception to the, uh, taxing district rule. Lakeville was not part of the transportation tax and district in 2006. Um, but did, uh, joined shortly thereafter, uh, and just Murphy's law after the texting district having been unchanged for years and years, right after this law passed, locking it into the 2006 version for Metro mobility service, uh, Lakeville comes on, uh, and just a few years ago, they, they finally got incorporated international mobility's service area. So, um, our current service area is the 2006 transportation texting district plus Lakeville.
Speaker 3 00:09:33 Wow. So obviously there's been a lot of changes with the pandemic and busing and whatnot light rail is, is trying to grow and growing hopefully, um, you know, busing will ebb and flow, I think, but in general, hopefully we'll start expanding a little bit at some point again. Um, how does Metro mobility expand? What, what decides if you're going to expand Metro mobility or include another community in that?
Speaker 4 00:10:09 Sure. Um, essentially the rule is, uh, uh, at a federal level, if you have Metro transit city bus service, that is all day long, uh, non express local service, uh, then you get Metro mobility and you get it at the same hours, uh, that, that Metro transit, regular local service serves your community. So, uh, you know, if you live in Minneapolis or St Paul, um, uh, and you're traveling to a location within those core cities, Metro mobility obviously is going to run 24 7 because the city bus runs 24 7 in those communities, but you get out to a third tier suburb and maybe, um, there's only a very truncated service, particularly on weekends. The reasons for that are again, um, we are the accessible version of the city bus. So, uh, it is our job, uh, from a federal perspective, uh, to provide the same access to public transportation as somebody, without a disability could get using Metro transit. Um, now we do go a little bit beyond that. In fact, about a third of our service area is beyond what we would need to cover if we were strictly using the federal requirements. Um, but the short answer is that we basically go where the city bus goes from, the city bus goes there,
Speaker 3 00:11:39 But you do cover some non ADA areas. So how do you decide that,
Speaker 4 00:11:44 Uh, that is based on the 2006 transportation taxing districts plus Lakeville? Um, so we have, uh, portions of those outlying communities that are in the taxing district, um, uh, that have fairly little, um, or in some, on some days, no, uh, access to public transportation, uh, through, uh, Metro transit. And so we kinda, uh, pick up the slack a little bit, um, for folks with disabilities and provide some extra service in those communities. Um, less about providing service to entire communities that don't have have service, um, more about, uh, providing, uh, Metro mobility service to areas within those communities, uh, that don't have, um, public transit access. Um, the federal law says that Metro mobility would need to provide service within three quarters of a mile of every fixed route bus. Um, but in reality, what we do is we have just chosen to serve the entire community, uh, that, that fixed route touches. So, uh, if a bus goes into prior lake, um, one route that clips a corner of prior lake until 10 o'clock at night is going to trigger service to the entirety of prior lake, uh, for Metro mobility until 10:00 PM.
Speaker 3 00:13:18 And how, and I presume then the, the schedule of how long Metro mobility runs in each community is determined by the busing hours. Pretty much,
Speaker 4 00:13:32 Yes. The one exception to that is if you're as a community that has absolutely no service on a Saturday or Sunday, uh, we give a very short, uh, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, um, uh, amount of service just to give something, uh, to allow people to get out and run a day or done a Saturday or Sunday, even if there is absolutely no bus service in that community.
Speaker 3 00:13:55 Excellent. So what do you do, I know you manage customer service, but what does that mean?
Speaker 4 00:14:03 Well, a few different things. Um, uh, I've worked with all of our contractors to help ensure, uh, obviously federal compliance, but then also just responsive practices that are, um, uh, aware of customer need responsive to customer need and responsive to customer feedback. Uh, I deal with, uh, specific instances that get elevated, um, beyond my staff. Um, and I supervise a, a great group of seven folks, um, who handled calls into the math council, uh, uh, at the Metro mobility service center, um, and to paratransit evaluators who conduct in-person assessments in cases where it's unclear from just the paper application, whether or not somebody might be eligible, might have them come in for an assessment or during the pandemic, uh, do a virtual assessment, uh, through WebEx or teams or something to, uh, uh, help them, uh, gain eligibility or make a determination. Okay,
Speaker 3 00:15:08 Excellent. We need to take a short station break and we'll be right back
Speaker 6 00:15:14 Programming and supported by the science museum of Minnesota, presenting sciences, all of us, a celebration of diversity and science featuring online experiences and activities, in-person events and exhibits about science connected to race and culture museum visitors can discover a scientific perspective on race in the race. Why are we so different exhibit and explore how generations of Dakota and Ojibwe people have made their home in this place now called Minnesota in the we move and we stay exhibit more
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Speaker 3 00:16:01 And this is KPI 90.3, FM Minneapolis and kvi.org. This is disability and progress. My name is Sam we're speaking with Andy Andy's customer service manager, um, for Metro mobility. And I want to talk about drivers. So with this, you need drivers. Let's talk about how many drivers mental mobility has,
Speaker 4 00:16:26 You know, I don't know, it would be a good question for our operations manager. Um, uh, but I can tell you that, um, uh, we have, uh, uh, you know, it's, it's in the hundreds, uh, in the, in the high hundreds, um, across all of our three contracts. Um, and we are in all three, the number is, um, influx because our contractor never stops hiring. Um, so they are perpetually hiring drivers, um, even in a non pandemic economy, it is a job that is grueling compared to, uh, the rate at which it is compensated. So, um, all the contractors and this is true throughout the country, that sound that it makes the most sense to just never really stop hiring.
Speaker 3 00:17:23 Um, and is there a Metro mobility in every state?
Speaker 4 00:17:29 I would assume. So, is the answer because any, uh, uh, municipality that has public busing needs to have ADA care of trans? So, uh, technically if there is a state that has no, uh, public bus system whatsoever, um, then they would not need to have a paratransit system, but I can't imagine that there's a state that doesn't have an urban area with public buses.
Speaker 3 00:18:02 I want to go back to the drivers and talk a little bit about, I'm sure they get training for Metro mobility for driving and knowing how to handle, uh, safety protocols and, and health health stuff. Now, as far as that goes, um, and sometimes, and maybe many times they have to assist people getting on and off the bus, uh, explain some of the, the things that drivers have to do and what kind of training they get.
Speaker 4 00:18:32 Sure. In terms of what drivers have to do. Um, obviously their primary responsibility is to drive the bus. Um, uh, but Metro mobility offers tore through door service, meaning that they get out of the vehicle at the pickup location and help escort a customer, uh, from that, uh, exterior door, uh, right onto the bus. Um, so they can, uh, you know, offer assistance with physical stability, you know, literally London arm, um, to help folks if necessary. Um, if someone cannot self propel, their mobility device, a driver can assist with, with pushing it from the door, uh, uh, to the lift of the vehicle. Um, and then, uh, we'll obviously operate the lift, uh, and, uh, help secure the mobility device for the customer that uses it. Uh, if customers who are ambulatory, uh, or in a mobility device need help with a lap belt, um, our drivers are trained to assist with that. Um, and then obviously, uh, driving, uh, safe driving records are, are essential. Um, they also do, uh, extensive training on conflict resolution, disability, sensitivity, uh, and basically deescalation. Um, we recognize that we serve a variety of people with non-physical disabilities, um, uh, who can sometimes face unique challenges, uh, when traveling on public transit and we expect drivers to employ deescalation skills and patients, uh, when trying to help folks, uh, relax and manage their symptoms, uh, including people with invisible disabilities or non-physical disabilities.
Speaker 3 00:20:26 So I know during the pandemic that you asked people to take just necessary brides, um, and knowing that, um, disabilities, you know, people with disabilities had a disadvantage already. Um, it got worse during the pandemic, and I know sometimes I have seen, um, especially people with invisible disabilities get a little bit out of hand or there's a problem, and that needs to be addressed. And what, when that happens on the bus, if it happens, uh, what is the role of, I mean, obviously the driver should be trained to deescalate, but is there anything, or what should the writers do?
Speaker 4 00:21:18 Well, similar to the, the, uh, conventional city bus, the Metro transit bus, uh, safety is really the primary concern. Um, so we would expect the driver to, uh, sort of gently try to deescalate things. Um, we would expect other customers, uh, to try and avoid interjecting one way or the other, and then any kind of disruptive activity or potential dispute. Um, and really 99 times out of a hundred, our drivers, uh, and customers, uh, can do a good job of, um, uh, deescalating the situation themselves. And the customer can kind of come to terms with whatever, uh, particulars were triggering some of their symptoms. Um, there are cases where street supervisors, uh, uh, who are employed by our contractors can come out and assist the driver. And if that's not working out, we are cases, uh, just like as is true on the city bus. Uh, we can employ, uh, transit police, uh, to come out, uh, and deescalate the situation they have way or in extremely rare cases, remove somebody from the vehicle. Um, uh, but for the most part, it really does solve the problem just to have drivers who are patient, um, willing to get yelled at a little bit, um, and kind of calmly, uh, walk somebody through the situation.
Speaker 3 00:22:48 So there's a lot of, of rides that get made through Metro mobility. And there's now more than one different way to make a ride. Can you go through the different ways and how people can schedule a ride and how that's done?
Speaker 4 00:23:04 Yeah. We have a number of them certainly still by far the most popular way, and the classic way is to do so by phone. Uh, when someone is certified, they will get a temporary Metro mobility card that has the phone number of their particular provider on it. We kind of split our service area into three trunk, three chunks, um, one Western, uh, uh, which is kind of Minneapolis and the Western suburbs, um, one Eastern, um, St Paul, uh, and the east suburbs plus up into like an OCA county. Um, and then, uh, the Southern area, which is Bloomington and Richfield on south into the Dakota county. Um, uh, and each of these has, you know, is held by three different contracts, uh, three different phone numbers, uh, three different stats. Um, and calling is still the way the vast majority of, of, uh, bookings are made.
Speaker 4 00:24:07 Uh, however, it is not the only way as you pointed out, we have an extremely small number of folks for whom it works best to fax. Um, and you can do that at each of the providers. Uh, uh, we still require that they have the old Relic, the TTY, so you can use a TTY still, um, uh, to book the ride at the providers. Um, and then, uh, you can email, uh, which is, is gaining popularity. You can fire off an email to book a ride, and then finally, uh, another way that is back and increasing in popularity is the online booking app. If you go to Metro mobility.org, uh, under the scheduling, a header and the book, your trip online, uh, button that's within the scheduling header, uh, then you can book a trip yourself online without interacting with a reservationist at all. However, before you do that, you do need to call my staff at six five one six two zero two one one one one. Um, and, uh, just get set up with a password. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:25:23 You talked about the Metro mobility app. I think that's happening more and more in regards to having apps to schedule things where does one find that and how does that work?
Speaker 4 00:25:37 Well, the Metro mobility online booking app is set up to be mobile site friendly. So it functions like an app, but it really is just a, it's a website. It is, it is within our website. So if you go to Metro mobility again, dot org, go to that scheduling trips section, and then within the scheduling trip section, there'll be a book, your trip online, you just click that and you'll be right at the online trip booking site for the core Metro mobility service.
Speaker 3 00:26:09 Now want to point out that I think, um, if I'm correct that if you're going to book of ride like that they had has to line up as far as the times that your trying to, to book, not that you're asking for, but the T when you're, when you go to make the ride, it has to be during, um, Metro mobility, um, service hours, right? Like from six to five or whatever, right. You can't go schedule right after five, right.
Speaker 4 00:26:44 Uh, you can do that, uh, for days that are not, uh, uh, the next day. Um, so if, if you wanted to book a ride, uh, today for Saturday, and you can book rise for Metro mobility up to four days in advance. So on a Thursday, you can book a ride for a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, um, and you could call or go online rather right now. Um, and book arrived for Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. Uh, however, you could not do it, uh, for Friday, um, because reservations is closed and we didn't want to give, you know, unfair advantage to folks who have the means, uh, to afford a computer, uh, somebody who does not have a computer for whatever reason can no longer book a ride, uh, for the next day after 5:00 PM. And we wanted to make sure that that was also the case, um, uh, for folks who did have internet access.
Speaker 3 00:27:43 Gotcha. Um, during the pandemic, you did something that I thought was really awesome, and it was called curb to curb service. Talk about what that is and how does it work and do we still have it, and are we keeping it?
Speaker 4 00:28:02 Yeah. Um, the curbside service as we kind of named, it was a response to the pandemic and specifically a response to, uh, the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, where some dispensary's and, uh, shrug stores, even, and banks were closing their stores, not letting people come inside, but we're allowing them to pull up and pick something up, you know, use the ATM in the case of a bank, or just come and grab a script and the case of a pharmacy or dispensary. Um, and in response to that, um, we, we kind of altered how much the mobility does things in those cases typically, um, each, each one way trip for Metro mobility is a separate ride on a separate bus with a separate driver, both of which need to be booked at least one day in advance. You know, we, we don't do a will call type thing, right.
Speaker 4 00:29:02 Um, uh, you've got to book your ride at least the day before and say, what time either you want to get picked up, uh, at your starting point or what time you want to be at your destination. And then again, what time do you want to get picked up at that destination and brought back, uh, to your point of origin? So what we changed is we said, basically you can have up to 20 minutes, um, where you're still paying two different fairs and it still counts as two different rides. Um, but that plus we'll just wait for you curbside, where if you call and book a curbside ride, that bus will pick you up, bring you to wherever you're going and wait for you up to 20 minutes. Um, and that, uh, has been, I think, a real success. Um, think customers have liked that convenience, particularly for just real short trips, if they just needed to run in and grab something quick, uh, not just in those examples that we gave, but in, you know, in any number of situations where you really just needed 30 seconds or a couple of minutes or anything up to 20 minutes to run in and take care of something real quickly, uh, just to save on the hassle of having to wait for another bus.
Speaker 4 00:30:19 Um, and, uh, on the contractor side of things, it was nice for them not to have to try to find another bus, uh, uh, that would fit for the return trip and route that, so it's not without its advantages also for the contractor, um, uh, seemed like a win-win as long as it was used sparingly. And, uh, we've got a very savvy ridership. And what did happen in some cases is we had, um, customers booking a chain of curbside rides to essentially commandeer a bus for an entire day. And we clearly can't do that. So what we did is we started to limit curbside rides to one per customer per day, one round trip, or it doesn't necessarily have to be around strip, but, uh, one ride where the bus will wait for you one time at the curb for up to 20 minutes. Um, and as long as, uh, customers can keep it to, they have, we do have hopes that that's going to be sustainable, uh, even post pandemic. We are still doing it now. Um, we are doing it on a pilot basis, hoping to continue to do that indefinitely into the future.
Speaker 3 00:31:32 And is it monitored beneficial for the providers?
Speaker 4 00:31:38 Um, you know, not, it's not necessarily, um, but, but perhaps, you know, they're not having to spend the time trying to, um, find another home, um, for that return ride. Uh, they're not having to spend the time trying to physically, you know, move that booking onto the bus and those types of things. Uh, but a bus is sitting idle for up to 20 minutes to that could otherwise be in use. So there are a monetary, uh, advantages and monetary disadvantages potentially. And I think it depends on the particular case to say whether or not, um, you know, that sort of a financial benefit to the provider. Uh, what I can say is, is, uh, all things considered. It is never a substantial detriment, um, that as long as we're limiting it to one a day, um, it's really, uh, you know, not, not ever a substantial detriment compared to sending a second.
Speaker 3 00:32:41 So Andy, besides the great curb sides and, um, Metro mobility making ride system, there is something that does happen called same day. Can you explain how that works?
Speaker 4 00:32:57 Sure. Um, ADA paratransit really is designed to be shared by public transit. So yeah, we're picking you up right at where you're starting from and dropping you off right. At wherever you're going, but in between there, we're picking up and dropping off other people too, just like other forms of city busing do. Um, also, uh, uh, function inherence to ADA paratransit is that you've got to book the ride at least one day in advance. Um, but we recognized that, um, for some folks, a shared ride, transportation just doesn't work well for whatever reason. And, um, there are times when needing to book a ride one day in advance, uh, doesn't avail itself to spontaneity, um, or emergencies that might pop up. So to kind of address those things, uh, we have partnered with a cab company, uh, taxi services, Inc, uh, to provide a premium same-day service, uh, which is just a private taxi cab, uh, does not have the same escort rules or anything. It it's just, uh, your typical cab ride like anybody might take with, or without a disability. Um, but Metro mobility subsidizes, um, uh, some of that fair, how it works is, uh, the customer pays the first $5 of the metered fair. And then Metro mobility pays up to the next $15 of that fair. And then the customer is back on the hook for anything over that.
Speaker 3 00:34:33 Okay. So my rides 30 bucks, I pay for the first five, you pay for the next 15, and then I pay for the rest of the 30 after. All right. There is an app though that works pretty nifty with this. Talk about that.
Speaker 4 00:34:53 Sure. Uh, similar to the way that you can go to Metro mobility.org and book your Metro mobility trip online. Um, uh, there is, uh, uh, wide, uh, hailing service called I hail, which is an imprint of taxi services, Inc. Um, and it basically makes it function sort of like a transportation networking company, like an Uber or Lyft, uh, you can rate your driver. Um, but obviously you can, you can book your ride, um, tell where the cab is as it's on its way to you and those types of things, um, that is available for Android devices and iOS. And it's just called . Um, uh, I am inhale like hail a taxi, H a I L um, I should point out too that, um, uh, for folks who want to use it on a desktop, uh, you can also do that rather than having it just be on a device to access it on a, on a computer. You can go to E ride dot T plus ride T for transportation plus ride.com/i hail
Speaker 3 00:36:13 As the iHealth app in that, in the app store. So one of the neat things I think now is that when you're booking your ride, um,
Speaker 3 00:36:26 Can, you can see where the Metro mobility or where the cab is, you know, the same day cab, which is a discount cap pretty much, but you can see where that is, how far that is from you. So if they're just two miles away, it might say two miles or five minutes or something like that. So it gives you a timeline to kind of work with, um, you know, because stuff happens, you need to go use a little girl's room, or you need to grab a drink of water, or, um, your kid, all of a sudden tuck their shoe off and, and you are frantically searching for it. So, so many things can happen. And so it gives you an idea of where that right is so that you can be more properly prepared. Um, How do you schedule these, rises it just through the app, or do you go through Metro mobility or what do you do now?
Speaker 4 00:37:22 Uh, you know, logs go through Metro mobility at all the schedule premium same day rise. Uh, the app is definitely the preferred, um, um, method, um, uh, but you can call the cab company directly at 6 1 2 8 8 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 to book a ride also.
Speaker 9 00:37:44 Okay. So do you have to have a code to, to, uh, act, uh, begins using it?
Speaker 4 00:37:51 Yes. Uh, the, uh, you have to register for the app so that it links you to your Metro mobility account and notice that you are eligible for that up to $15 subsidy, uh, per ride, um, uh, and your, your code for, um, uh, the cab registration, uh, will contain your Metro mobility ID. Um, but it needs to be seven digits long for the cab company, and it needs to start with an eight, the number eight. So, uh, the longest Metro mobility ID numbers are six digits. And if you've got a six digit Metro mobility ID number, it would just be your Metro mobility ID with an eight in of it. If you've got a shorter Metro mobility ID, it would be, uh, your ID number with an age in front of it followed by however many zeroes it takes to get to a seven digit number. So, uh, if your ID number is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, um, uh, your, uh, number for registering on the cab will be 8 0 1 2 3 4 5.
Speaker 9 00:39:01 So you don't have to call the service center to get any permissions or
Speaker 4 00:39:06 Nope.
Speaker 9 00:39:06 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:39:10 So as with anything, Metro mobility is not without its issues, um, and they, that can be a number of things that go wrong and, and taking a trip, including missing your ride time, having like pickup, maybe being on the bus too long, um, maybe you've had a difficulty with a driver, anything like that. How do you initiate a complaint?
Speaker 4 00:39:43 Uh, you can do it a number of ways, uh, similar to booking a ride. You can, uh, TTY us or, uh, email us or call us, um, all of which, uh, all, all the contact information for the Metro mobility service center, which is housed at the met council is part of the met council, um, is included in a welcome packet that folks will get, um, w when they get certified. Uh, and I, I do want to say, cause I take every opportunity I can to say this. Um, I really like complaints, you know, I, I know that nothing is perfect and I'm just, like you said, everything has some issues in life. And, um, the way that we know something isn't working, uh, is when somebody calls up and tells us about it, you know, I can monitor overall stats and see, you know, within this hour we have this on time percentage and that hour, we've got that on time percentage.
Speaker 4 00:40:43 Um, and we're meeting maximum onboard times and blah, blah, blah. But all of that is in aggregate, you know, it's, it's, uh, just a statistic, really hearing those individual stories. Um, lets us know when something isn't working for somebody and reminds my, myself and my staff about the importance of the work that we do and why it is, you know, we need to make sure and take our jobs seriously. Um, so I appreciate complaints. It really helps us, you know, lets us know how our providers are doing in a particular situation. Um, and I have run across folks who are sometimes, uh, trepidatious about complaining. Um, I mean the reality is that that, um, in our society we've got a long, long history of treating us people with disabilities pretty poorly, um, and people can feel vulnerable and people can be conditioned to just kind of shut up and, and take whatever they can get. Um, uh, that's not what I want for Metro mobility customers. I, I appreciate squeaky wheels who, um, are willing to let me know if something isn't going the way they think it ought to be going.
Speaker 9 00:42:02 So we call cause, okay. Uh, so which should we do? Something happened on the bus and should I call my provider or should I call the service center,
Speaker 4 00:42:14 Call the service center every time please, um, contractors should also be forwarding, uh, uh, those calls to us or, or making a record of those calls themselves. Um, but we have a complaint or a customer feedback module. Um, uh, she called it customer feedback because we do take compliments, uh, for drivers to, and other staff. Uh, but we track, uh, uh, customer feedback and we also track provider responses. Um, but in order for us to get that into the module and make sure that it's there, um, and make sure that we can track those numbers, those calls do need to come into the Metro mobility service center at the 6 5 1 6 0 2 11 11 number.
Speaker 3 00:43:03 Yeah, it was going to say recently it was driver appreciation day. Um, and so I presume that number, you can still, um, give some customer fee or driver feedback and compliments, if you have had an awesome drivers, just some driver who went above and beyond, and that does often happen, um, where a driver does more than they need to, or it's just extra friendly and, and just a good overall personality and, and helps make things flow nicely.
Speaker 4 00:43:37 Yeah. I really appreciate you bringing that up. Sam, I did want to try to sneak that in before or closing cause it's actually tomorrow, um, transit driver appreciation day. So anybody out there listening is taking a Metro mobility trip tomorrow, if you just want to, uh, take an extra minute to thank your driver. Um, you know, these are men and women who, um, you know, if they get into this thinking that it's just a driving job and that's it, they don't last too long. Um, the people who stick around recognize that this is, um, an independent living gig, you know, and that they're, um, uh, having a positive impact on the lives of, of folks with disabilities. Uh, they work really, really hard and they don't make a ton of money for it. So, um, if, uh, if folks want to take some time to, to thank, uh, your driver any day would be appreciated, but tomorrow is sort of a formally event at the national level, um, to kind of take some time and, and thank your transit driver.
Speaker 3 00:44:40 I do know that one of the other methods of communicating with kind of speaking about what's going right, and what isn't through Metro mobility is the meetings that you guys used to host. I know we, we kind of had to smooth it out during the pandemic, but hopefully now that things are lifting a little more, um, there'll be coming back more reliably and you do them twice a year. How does this work?
Speaker 4 00:45:08 Yeah, we do, uh, two of them a year. Um, the last one because of the pandemic was virtual and this next one because of the pandemic is also going to be virtual. Um, uh, we're going to hold, uh, two different days on, on the 10th and the 12th of May. Um, uh, I was going to be our next one and it's just an opportunity to come and give some feedback and also listen to Metro mobility management, talk about anything that's coming down the pipeline. Um, uh, we typically will go back to this, certainly when we're doing them in person have one sort of midday. Um, and one in the evening, what we ran into virtually, uh, is the mid day one was very well attended. Um, and with the one in the evening, uh, staff way, way, way out numbered, uh, members of the public or, or riders. Um, so for this next one coming up, uh, in may, uh, we are doing both of them in the midday. Uh, again, May 10th and 12th, uh, starting probably around 1145.
Speaker 3 00:46:17 I do, I did miss the cookies, um, during some snacks that were offered in them real life. Um, so I do want to take this opportunity to, to, um, you know, part of the thing is, is it's really hard to alert writers on things that are happening, changes that have been made and new changes that are coming up. But I even find as much as you guys try to email, there's always somebody who misses or somebody who didn't get it or somebody, whatever it might be. So what are the best ways that people can find out what's coming up in any changes that have been made from Metro mobility? Also, maybe you can talk about any new things that are coming up.
Speaker 4 00:47:06 Um, sure. You can always check our website. Um, you know, we don't, uh, we don't tend to change a lot in typical years, but boy, these last few years have been, uh, nothing, uh, if not atypical. So, uh, there were some changes you brought up, uh, curbside, um, uh, we have never accepted applications by fax or email. They had to be physically mailed. We've begun to accept applications by fax and email and are likely to continue doing that, uh, post pandemic. Um, so there have been some changes that we are keeping on and then some that we have jettisoned, uh, has the pandemic winds down, probably most notably. Uh, we were transporting members of the general public who worked, uh, as staff in healthcare facilities. Uh, even if they didn't have a disability to bring them back and forth, to work so they could treat people, uh, during the pandemic, but that healthcare worker ride, uh, situation has since ended.
Speaker 4 00:48:09 Uh, cause obviously our main job is, is transport and folks with disabilities. And once our ridership started to bounce back and go up, we no longer had capacity to do the healthcare worker rights, but, um, yeah, you can check our website. You can call in to that (651) 602-1111 number and make sure that you are signed up for the list, serve that the email, this serves so that, um, if we do have, uh, changes that go out or if we do want to send you an electronic category of the newsletter, we try to send out a couple of times a year, um, that we make sure and include you on that.
Speaker 3 00:48:50 Let's talk masks. That's been a big deal, obviously. How long is the mask mandate going to keep going as of now? And also when you go back to having these meetings in, in life, do you think you'll always keep some option of having some virtual now that that Pandora's box has been opened?
Speaker 4 00:49:17 Well, you know, it's difficult because you know, a virtual option is really nice, but some of our committee meetings aren't governed by a public meeting law, um, which pretty much precludes, uh, virtual participation in non-emergency situations. You can participate virtually. Um, but if you're on a committee that is subject to public meeting law, um, your location needs to be disclosed where you physically are and needs to be made open to the public. So basically, um, public would need to be able to attend where you are, um, which doesn't work real great if someone's trying to attend such a meeting from their house as a committee member sample. So, um, Uh, so there, there are some challenges there, but we absolutely see the benefits of virtual participation, um, in our interested in China make that, that fit well, you know, where we can
Speaker 3 00:50:19 And the masks
Speaker 4 00:50:21 Masks have been extended out. They, uh, um, uh, the executive order that requires masks on public transit, uh, uh, was going to expire tomorrow on the 18th. Uh, and it's been extended out for one more month, at least. Uh, so that will now expire on April 18th. So at least until then, uh, drivers and passengers on Metro mobility are required to wear masks.
Speaker 3 00:50:50 I think we have one more station break to get to, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 10 00:50:55 Programming is supported by north point health and wellness center located at Plymouth and Penn in north Minneapolis. This winter north point reminds you to follow the three W's wash your hands. Where are your mass at what's your distance north Barnes provides COVID-19 vaccinations to everyone, ages five and up visit their website at north point that org to keep up with their vaccination plans and find out about their walk-in hours.
Speaker 11 00:51:20 Programming on KFA is supported by south side pride, monthly newspaper, locally owned and operated and south side pride support the racial and cultural diversity of the many neighborhoods that make of south Minneapolis. More information is
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Speaker 3 00:51:47 And caviar 90.3 Minneapolis is where you are or KFC IDET O R G you're listening to disability and progress with Andy street, sick customer or manager of customer service for Metro mobility. Andy, I know there's a couple of different kinds of vehicles that are used for Metro mobility, which are sedans and vans or buses, right? How do you decide what you're going to send for home?
Speaker 4 00:52:19 Yeah. Um, almost all of our vehicles really are low floor buses. Um, we have a very small number of SUV's, um, which in our nomenclature, we, we often still refer to as sedans cause they used to be crown Victorias until they quit making the crown Vics. Um, uh, but we, so we have a small number of SUV's, which obviously we just send to folks who are ambulatory. Uh, but the vast, vast majority of our vehicles are, uh, short cutaways, uh, uh, small buses that are lifted quick.
Speaker 3 00:52:57 Okay. The, um, when you're, when you're taking Metro mobility, let's say I'm going to go, which I recently did in the fall, um, to North Carolina and I wanted to use their Metro mobility there. Can you talk a little bit about if that can be done and how you do it or how you go about finding what their roles are? Okay.
Speaker 4 00:53:25 Uh, being certified for any ADA paratransit, uh, allows you to use any other one in the country for up to 21 days as a visitor. Um, so all you need to do is find out from the municipality who their paratransit provider is. Um, and then you can, uh, have my staff at that again, 6 5 1 6 0 2 11 11 number, um, uh, send your certification information, uh, to that municipality or that entity, uh, that does the paratransit service wherever you're traveling to. Um, and then you can ride as a guest for, again, up to 21 days in a year.
Speaker 3 00:54:10 And if you're bringing your family somewhere or something, how does that work? If you want to schedule a ride and, and bring your family with you?
Speaker 4 00:54:19 Uh, every rider for every trip has the rights to be guaranteed to bring up to, to, uh, uh, additional folks, one, uh, who would function as a PCA. Uh, anybody who wants to bring somebody along to help can bring along somebody as a PCA. Um, and, and for us, that's not somebody who needs to necessarily be getting paid as a PCA. It could be anybody coming along to help you with anything. Um, and then everybody also has the right to bring along one. Jess was just coming along to come along. Um, guests pay the same fare as the customer does. Um, there is no fair for a PCA.
Speaker 3 00:54:59 Excellent. And then presumably when you're calling the disability service center and they send her information, they might be able to give you the phone number and con info for that disability in that city and state that you're going to be in that Metro mobility in fall.
Speaker 4 00:55:22 I'm sorry, I'm not following the question. What's the question.
Speaker 3 00:55:24 Yeah. If I contact, if I contact customer service and they send my info to, let's say, I'm going to San Diego, California, um, they should be able to give me the number for that disability center so that I can say,
Speaker 4 00:55:40 Oh, no, yeah, no, there is no network of paratransit providers. So a person interested in traveling would need to call the city to which they're going, or the municipality say, call the city of San Diego and say, you know, who provides your ADA paratransit service and would need to get the number themselves.
Speaker 9 00:56:02 So the customer would do the legwork.
Speaker 4 00:56:04 Yup.
Speaker 9 00:56:05 Yup. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:56:06 And wouldn't necessarily be named Metro mobility or could it be named any number of,
Speaker 4 00:56:12 Yeah, not at all. Metro mobility is our own name for a government program that the met council does, uh, within the twin cities. Um, uh, so in all likelihood it's going to be called something else
Speaker 3 00:56:28 You would just ask for the parrot transit for people with disabilities or what would you ask for
Speaker 4 00:56:34 Yeah. ADA paratransit provider.
Speaker 3 00:56:38 All right. Well, we have to wrap it up. Is there anything else you'd like to leave us with Andy?
Speaker 4 00:56:45 Well, I want to say thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here and I thank you so much for the invite and I thank you for your time
Speaker 3 00:56:54 And where can those people go if they want to apply to be a med mold driver?
Speaker 4 00:57:00 Yeah. Uh, go ahead and call the service center or email us. Um, uh, you can email at Metro mobility, all one word at met C short for metropolitan council like Marvin, Edward Thomas, charlie.state.mn for minnesota.us again. Metro mobility at met C that states that MN dot U S. Um, and depending on which area you'd like to mostly do your driving in, if it's again, east, west, or south, uh, we can put you in contract with the, in contact with that provider.
Speaker 3 00:57:42 Andy, we always appreciate your knowledge and love having you on to inform everyone of what's going on. So thank you so, so very much, we appreciate it.
Speaker 4 00:57:53 Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 00:57:56 This has been disability and progress. The views expressed on this show are not necessarily those of cafe or its board of directors. My name is Sam. I'm the host of the show. Thanks so much for tuning in Miguel. Vargas has engineered this episode. Charlene doll is my research team. We've been speaking with Andy . Andy is the customer manager of customer service for Metro mobility. This is cafe 90.3 FM Minneapolis, and kfi.org. If you'd like to be part of our email list, you may email
[email protected]. Thanks for listening tonight.
