LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Paratransit riders from across Las Vegas packed Thursday's RTC board meeting to demand answers about an app rollout that has left disabled and medically fragile riders stranded, routed on hours-long trips and missing critical appointments.
The Regional Transportation Commission adopted RideCo's booking and tracking app in March. It was supposed to make scheduling rides easier. Instead, riders have filed thousands of complaints about missed pickups and routing failures.
"On-time performance is the number one concern that they have," said RTC Board Chair Justin Jones.
WATCH | Disabled Las Vegas paratransit riders demand answers from RideCo CEO over months of app failures
Jones added that the agency has not yet met its own benchmarks.
"And while it is much better than it was in March, we're still not hitting an 87-percent on-time performance. We're still not to where we were with the old app. So, we gotta do better than the old app. We can add new features, and that's great, but if the on-time performance isn't there..."
Riders who came to the meeting described the impact in personal terms.
"This is absurd! It's ridiculous! Because if it was your people that take public transportation, you would make sure that they would get to and from their destination, so you need to take us into consideration as well," Shelley Jones said during public comment.
"As a blind person, we do need help and guidance and we understand that this is a work in progress. But you guys are serving the community under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it would be nice that we not do the minimum. You guys can do better," Sherry Green said.
With regard to routing and order of pick-ups/drop-offs, Deborah Barner, who emailed me with her concerns, wrote, "I am a rider who uses oxygen and (having to ride an hour or more in) each direction puts me in jeopardy of running out. There are instances when route pickup goes completely in the opposite direction of my destination. I have missed doctor appointments due to the number of pickups."
Steven Brewer, whose wife and son both use paratransit, described hours long rides where RideCo's routing keeps his son on the bus for two-and-a-half hours for a ride that should take less than one hour. Brewer told commissioners that his wife and her co-workers have had bathroom accidents on the bus because they're stuck riding for so long.
"It's just wrong and it's detrimental to clients' mental health. I mean, coming to work soiled because they spent two-and-a-half hours on a bus?!" said Brewer.
Another rider, who said the app repeatedly sends drivers to the wrong entrance of his mobile home park, challenged RTC officials to justify the problem.
"And not one person in here that has any kind of brain can make an argument to why that makes sense," Mr. Burrows said.
RTC bus driver Dennis Hennessey welcomed the media's presence at the meeting.
"I'm pleased to see the news media here. My friend Darcy Spears and channel 13 are here. I really appreciate (that). We need to make these meetings more public because maybe then--instead of going in one ear and out the other--maybe (you'll listen) when I get up and tell you what it's really like out there," Hennessey said to the board.
After the meeting, I spoke directly with RideCo CEO Prem Gururajan, who had just told RTC commissioners that on-time performance is improving. The app has been active in Las Vegas for more than 2 months.
"Prem, hi, I'm Darcy Spears from Channel 13. I'd love to be able just to talk with you real briefly and just ask you a couple questions one-on-one. Do you have five minutes?" I asked.
"Um, maybe less than five minutes, but I've got a few," Gururajan said.
When asked how surprised he was by the number of problems since the app launched, Gururajan pointed to the complexity of the transition.
"Um, you know, this is a large system transition that happens once every two decades or so, and there are a lot of moving parts involving operations, data, staff," Gururajan said.
RideCo has said address data did not transfer correctly from the old system, causing delays and missed pickups.
When we previously asked how RideCo has been held accountable, RTC Board Chair Jones told us that RideCo has not been paid since the app launched.
I asked Gururajan whether RideCo has received any payment.
"Um, I have to check with the finance team. I'm focused on resolving issues for the rider," Gururajan said.
When asked why the transition is taking so long in Las Vegas when RideCo already operates in other cities, Gururajan said the challenges come down to local details.
"It's the nuances of training the staff and making sure the operational things are addressed, and when something new comes up, we respond as fast as we can," Gururajan said.
Fanisee Bias, who spoke during public comment, also called on RideCo to engage directly with riders.
"I'm getting even more frustrated again and I hope y'all listen to me," Bias said. "RideCo, I'd love to talk to y'all directly. If the drivers and schedulers treated their grandmothers and grandfathers like they did paratransit clients, we would call it elderly abuse."
Problems persist, and so will our reporting — until there's proof the app's glitches are gone.
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