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Capital District Coalition for Accessible Transportation (518) 273-1110 (A Grassroots Disability Coalition located in Albany, New York's Capital Region)
Members of: The Council for Community Service of NYS, (CCSNYS) The National Alliance of Public Transportation Advocates, (NAPTA) Americans for Transportation Mobility, (ATM)
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Once STAR learned there would be a FTA Compliance Review, there were many changes made. Suddenly, people started getting trips they requested. STANDBY, which we've fought for 3+ years, was finally ELIMINATED. STAR personnel learned customer service and now, for the most part, answer their phone professionally, including stating their name. (something else we've worked on for 3 years). Some employee changes were made as well. New buses arrived, lifts, doors and ramps were repaired, those old Orion buses are finally beginning to be replaced. - Wow, so much accomplished! But now, the review team is gone and some problems still, for now at least exist. There's still a large improvement compared to 5 years ago but there are still improvements to make. We sincerely hope that STAR keeps working to improve the quality of their service. STAR has no excuse for not providing service now. They have received all of the new buses and they are STILL denying trips! This after we heard, "When the new buses arrive we'll have enough buses to handle capacity". We're talking in Summer and Fall and STAR still has denials. Wait till Winter, when more people ride. Lets hope they improve on scheduling - SOON! STAR Last Resort: TAXI SERVICE STAR is now using TAXIS for ambulatory customers, and reportedly, moving ambulatory customers pickups to taxi when needed to accommodate non ambulatory customers on a STAR bus. This is supposed to be a last resort for STAR, (when they have no buses available) to ensure that all customers get ALL of their trip requests. (We'd suggested this 2 1/2 years ago but that's a different story.) Did you know that you are entitled by Federal law to receive each and every trip request you make? It doesn't matter if you use STAR 1 time a month or 10 times a day, you are entitled to every trip, just the same as everyone who uses line buses does. Here's the thing: STAR drivers also report that many times they have only one person on the bus at a time. That's not the way for STAR to save money or time! Why not take two people at a time, or three?
STAR seems to have forgotten the NEGOTIATE part of the trip reservation process. Much of the time, the scheduler simply asks you, "What time to you want to get to your destination?" If you simply answer that, you later called with a pickup time, which may or may not be what you were looking for." The scheduler should be saying: "What time to you wish to reserve your trip?" and then, "Did you wish to schedule this trip as an appointment?" If yes then, "What time is your appointment." You really don't have to give them your actual appointment time. Give the time you want to BE THERE. This allows you to give yourself an extra 10 or 15 minutes. The problem is, STAR much of the time will just take down your trip requests. When you are finished, they may read them back to you and ask if you have more. If you say that's all, the call is ended. They MAY tell you to call and confirm the trip time they've set later/tomorrow or whenever. That isn't NEGOTIATING. Inflating the travel time so you schedule earlier: There is a Federal limitation on how long you should be in transit once your bus shows up. The rule of thumb states that a ride shouldn't take more than it would by someone using the fixed route buses on the street. This is being, we believe, misused or misunderstood by STAR. They are translating that into an excuse to tell customers to schedule their times to leave earlier by using the absolute longest times they are allowed to keep you on the bus without it being called excessively late by the Federal Government. That is using the regulation incorrectly. We've seen people who want to be somewhere by 8:30am be told they need to request a pickup time for 6:30am to allow 2 hours (or more) to get to their destination (Albany to Cohoes, Albany to Troy) because it would take that long on a fixed route bus. This is incorrect. By those standards, you could even be told to allow 1 or 1 1/2 hours to get from downtown Albany to Crossgates. STAR normally (not during 5pm traffic) takes:
45 min -1 hour to go from Troy to Albany or the reverse. 15 minutes to go from Latham Circle Mall to Latham Farms 10 -20 minutes to go anywhere in Brunswick, Troy and much of Lansingburgh to Downtown Troy 30 - 45 min to go to Troy from Cohoes 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours - Schenectady to Troy or Cohoes 45 min - 1 hour - Albany to Schenectady 40 min - 1 hour - Troy to E. Greenbush
If you are going out between 7 and 9am or 4pm - 6:00pm, yes, you probably should allow a bit for more time because of traffic AND perhaps others on the bus with you, but NOT 2 hours. It's rare - or should be, that STAR keeps someone on a bus more than 1 hour unless all of your trips are from or to distant areas. Keep in mind that STAR picks others up too. This will effect times. Times above do include perhaps one pickup and/or drop off. You can ask for the pickup time you want. You can tell them not to pick you up before that. You can tell them you need to be at work (or wherever) by a specific time so long as you aren't limiting them. ADA 1 hour window and scheduling Normally, if you just ask for a 5pm pickup, without setting a limitation, STAR will use what is called the ADA 1 hour window. This "window" gives a range of time that STAR schedulers can "NEGOTIATE" the trip time with you. If you say you want to leave at 5pm, the scheduler has a range from 4pm - 6pm as the negotiation window. Customers are being told that they can not schedule trips where they can't leave before a certain time and have a time to be at their destination. As an example, if you don't get off of your job till 5pm, and you must be at your once every year family reunion party at a nearby restaurant, by 6:30pm. You may be told that you can't set your trip up by saying "Don't pick me up till at least 5pm to be at the restaurant by 6:30pm. Never mind it's 8 blocks away and you are allowing 1 1/2 hours to get there. Some schedulers will tell you that you can't do it! That's ridiculous. So long as you allow STAR enough time to get there (remember, they may need to pick others up too before dropping you off.) then you should be able to schedule your trips by locking in the times. If you are having trouble scheduling trips in this manner or have questions on scheduling trips, call CDCAT. 5. When STAR does send a taxi, they don't always tell the customer to EXPECT a taxi and not a bus. Make sure to call if STAR is late, they may be sending a taxi or not know your bus is late. This allows them to check on your bus. Ask if you are being picked up by a bus or taxi. Be aware that a taxi may show up. Our suggestion is to make sure you call more than one day before your trip. That way, you can check your scheduled times on the day before (or sooner) and have time to call STAR to actually NEGOTIATE your trip times, like they are SUPPOSED to be doing. 6. STAR isn't informing customers of any policy changes. When we call STAR, they claim there are many new rules that schedulers must follow. When was the last time you received information or rules on how to use STAR? Those semi-annual newsletters are nice - maybe they could put some useful information in them like updates on STAR policies? 7. Be careful of mischeduled trips. Call the day before (up till 9pm) and check on your trip times, especially if you received a call from STAR and a trip is missing or sounds incorrect.
"To never try, is to never succeed. Reach for your dreams."
Last Updated: 01/02/2008 |
STAR
REPAIRS: Did STAR Drop the Ball?
