The Volen Center in Boca Raton has begun a taxi service for older adults who no longer drive or want to limit their driving.
The Lift recently debuted after the nonprofit senior center received a two-year federal grant. The grant included the purchase of four vans and two cars.
Boca Raton and Delray Beach seniors can schedule $5 trips to any destination in the two cities from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“It’s going to make a big difference in a lot of older people’s lives,” said Tomas Boiton, a senior transportation consultant who helped develop the service with Volen.
The taxi service is in addition to the group transportation Volen already provides to the center, and to locations such as doctor’s offices, grocery stores and meal sites with a fleet of small buses.
But the Volen taxis are geared toward individual service and providing quicker, more flexible transportation. Instead of waiting for a driver to pick up several passengers, seniors now can get quicker, direct service to their destinations.
The service boundaries are from Palmetto Park Road to Lake Ida Road and from the Intracoastal Waterway to Jog/Powerline Road.
The center prefers that customers schedule their trips ahead of time, but the Lift also provides same-day service like commercial taxis.
The Lift also is available for disabled people 18 and older.
The service is part of a growing effort to come up with innovative and inexpensive ways to provide alternative transportation to older adults who have relinquished their car keys.
Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service has a volunteer driving program. Volunteers, who get reimbursed for their mileage, take older adults wherever they need to go.
The Area Agency on Aging Palm Beach/Treasure Coast is planning a pilot project in 2012 of on-call volunteer drivers to help older adults who need transportation.
Wellington recently extended its taxi voucher program for a second year. The village provides vouchers to older residents that can be used for taxi trips within the community to medical offices, grocery stores, churches and synagogues.
“For a lot of seniors, it’s a big step to give up their cars,” said Danielle Hartman, Ruth Rales president and CEO. “If you’ve never ridden public transportation, just getting to a bus stop and getting to a destination is daunting. We have to look at alternative ways to keep seniors moving without a large cost.”
Older adults often list transportation as one of their top concerns along with health care and Social Security.
The big hurdle in Palm Beach County is the significant number of older adults who live in the western communities, far from public transportation routes.
They are in major clusters in gated communities west of Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton.
A Transportation for America analysis in June found that 66 percent of people 65 and older in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area will have poor or no access to public transportation by 2015.
“A service tsunami already is hitting us,” Boiton said. “We’re looking in the next five to 10 years where we’re going to be inundated.”
or 561-243-6537
