During the presentation yesterday at the Sioux Falls City Council informational meeting on transit, many of the councilors had the same question, “What about paratransit’?

(FF towards end of the meeting to hear several of us comment on transit)

There is NO DOUBT we need paratransit, our Federal funding is actually tied to it, but can we reduce costs by having agencies provide their own worker transportation and only use it for ‘other’ transportation needs?

Agencies could use their own shuttles, or if they don’t want to deal with the capital investment, they can certainly ‘contract’ the work. While I want to see disabled people working if they can and want to, I’m wondering why the taxpayers need to foot the entire bill?

We could restructure paratransit so there are different kinds of service, one for work transportation and one for other needs (maybe it is already set up that way?)

I think there are other funding solutions out there, but it would require the city to put their foot down and demand partnerships with the agencies and healthcare providers.

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