I was involved in a senior disabilities red-tape nightmare involving city transportation for my husband, 78, who has Parkinson’s disease.

We live in Westlake in Ventura County, close to the L.A. County border. My husband uses Dial-ARide in Ventura County. He has an Access card that we thought would help get him rides to both counties. Recently it was important to get to the San Fernando Valley. We were told to book the ride 24 hours in advance.

I naively called the day before and was told that I didn’t have the correct code. I needed to follow procedure and have his “profile” sent to a (213) fax number. After many tries at different numbers, the “profile” never appeared, although it was supposedly sent.

After two hours without results, I gave up. The 24 hours notice couldn’t be met.

The next day I called again. A very nice woman named Brenda, who tried to help us the day before, was finally able to get the profile sent to the correct place. I called, ready to get the correct code for Los Angeles and be allowed 21 days of “visits” to L.A. County.

Why did it not happen? We were told that he was eligible for pickup for L.A. County directly, so we couldn’t be given a code. All we had to do was fill out an application—to be mailed to us— and then he’d be eligible for an evaluation in three weeks or so and he could have an L.A. County card.

We complied.

Eventually we were picked up at 7:20 a.m. by Access and driven to East L.A. for the evaluation and interview. They said this would take four hours. We didn’t know we had to go to East L.A., and we didn’t know that the interview was 10 minutes and that the hours involved were waiting to be picked up and taken home.

We eventually did get the Access card. It’s still difficult to use, but that’s another letter.

We both have doctorate degrees, but we feel like idiots. We’re trying to smile, but it hurts.
Sharon Chernoff
Westlake Village