27:25-36 Findings, declarations relative to paratransit services.
2. The Legislature hereby finds and declares:
The current system for paratransit services is fragmented and includes various providers from different levels of government as well as from private enterprise in different regions, counties, and service areas. The ultimate impact of the current system is poor service, including but not limited to long trip times, poor communication of trip status, and high costs.
Access Link, which is a program administered by the New Jersey Transit Corporation that was established to enable the State to meet the minimum standards of the federal "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990" (42 U.S.C. s.12101 et seq.), provides the majority of paratransit trips in the State. The Access Link Program, which uses contract providers with a very high per trip cost, should restructure the program so that contract providers serve as a safety net for paratransit within the State, not as the primary provider of paratransit services within the State as is currently the case. Community organizations that provide paratransit services for individuals with developmental disabilities have provided evidence to the Legislature that certain paratransit services may be provided in a way that is objectively safer, has shorter average trip times, and costs less per passenger mile. The average cost per trip for Access Link trips is, in many cases, triple the cost of similar paratransit services. Accordingly, it should be an objective of the State to direct service for regular and recurring paratransit trips away from Access Link contract providers, where possible, and toward other providers, including those funded through the Department of Human Services and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, to both improve the quality of service and reduce costs.
In addition to Access Link, county transit providers provide paratransit services to senior citizens and individuals with disabilities. The level of service available varies widely from county to county and the source of State funding for these services, the Casino Revenue Fund, has experienced reduced revenues in recent years. Furthermore, organizations at the county level have been charged by the New Jersey Transit Corporation with developing local coordination transportation plans within each county but these organizations typically do not coordinate regionally and many organizations do not have common platforms or systems for requesting, sharing, and completing trips.
Direct administrative connections and coordination between agencies and organizations that provide programs and services for disabled persons, generally, and transit agencies that provide transit trips for those individuals would assist the State in improving the quality of service and reducing State costs.
Building these relationships will help the State, community organizations, and transit agencies develop best practices for providing paratransit services, which will lead to additional improvements in the quality of services and additional reductions in costs.
The current system is insufficient to meet the needs of persons with disabilities in the State, including the use of routing software that has proven to be wholly inadequate to serve the special needs of the disabled community.
It is essential that the State improve coordination, share best practices, advance proven models, and improve the efficiency of the system.
L.2020, c.114, s.2.