PARATRANSIT — An MV-1 van is the standard vehicle used by the Steel Valley Regional Transit Authority for its complementary paratransit service. -- Christopher Dacanay

STEUBENVILLE — When Melissa Ryan developed late-life epilepsy, transportation became an unexpected issue.

Based on her condition, Ryan cannot drive within six months of her last seizure. Even if she goes just shy of that threshold without an incident, one seizure will start the clock over again.

A licensed massage therapist and owner of Quality Health Massotherapy in Steubenville, Ryan lives in Mingo Junction, meaning she has to commute. However, she said, the bus stop nearest to her home is nearly a quarter of a mile away and on the side of McLister Avenue, where she has the risk of having a seizure and falling into the roadway.

Thankfully, for Ryan, the story doesn’t end there. The Steel Valley Regional Transit Authority has a service that accommodates individuals like Ryan, for whom fixed bus routes are inaccessible.

SVRTA’s complementary parataransit service offers specialized transportation for individuals with disabilities who, for physical or cognitive reasons, are unable to ride fixed-route public transportation. The paratransit service operates on any of SVRTA’s existing fixed routes, traveling up to three-quarters of a mile off the route to pick up and drop off riders.

Individuals enrolled in the service must call SVRTA’s office between one and 14 business days prior to schedule when and where they’d like to be picked up and dropped off. Come the service date, SVRTA will deploy one of its vehicles to the desired location — so long as it’s within the three-quarters of a mile radius of the fixed route — and provide curb-to-curb transportation to and from the destination, also within the allowed radius.

Paratransit costs $1 per ride, or double the normal fare rate, although a full year is covered by SVRTA’s annual $40 bus pass. The service operates at the same hours that its fixed routes do, from 6 a.m. to 8:05 p.m.

Offered since 1991, the service is guided by the Americans with Disabilities Act to make public transportation just as accessible to individuals with disabilities as it is to those without. The ADA requires all transit authorities in the U.S. that operate a fixed route service to offer a complementary paratransit service.

In the words of Tim Turner, SVRTA’s transit manager, paratransit’s role is to “give them the mobility of freedom that everybody else has.”

Heather Dinger, assistant transit manager, added, “It’s meant so that everybody has the opportunity to ride the bus.”

Just because someone’s in a wheelchair doesn’t mean they’re eligible, Turner said, because all SVRTA buses are equipped with wheelchair accessibility. To be eligible, individuals must be totally incapable of getting to a fixed route bus stop, whether that’s because of inability to navigate destroyed or snow-covered walkways, or even a cognitive inability to comprehend a normal bus schedule. Incapability can be conditional, Turner said, if, for instance, someone has a broken leg and can’t get around temporarily.

Additionally, Turner said, whether the fixed bus routes times are inconvenient for a person does not qualify him or her for paratransit.

Applicants to the service must provide a verification form in which a doctor agrees that the person’s disability makes riding normal fixed routes impossible, Turner said. Additional questions follow, regarding how many steps the person can board, how far the person can walk and how long the person can wait outside — all without assistance.

The application is reviewed, and the applicant is informed of the results. If approved, Turner said, the person receives a paratransit card that is compatible with other transit authorities for up to 21 days, if the person is visiting elsewhere and wishes to use that area’s paratransit.

Typically for paratransit rides, SVRTA mobilizes one of its MV-1 vans, which can accommodate up to one wheelchair and three people, including a rider’s personal care attendant, who can ride for free. Vans are equipped with extendable short and long ramps for wheelchair access or individuals who can’t get their legs up high enough to board. The vehicles come with security straps for wheelchairs, which drivers are trained to use, and rear-air conditioning control.

If more than one wheelchair or a particularly large wheelchair is present on a trip, SVRTA will usually dispatch one of its regular buses, Turner noted.

Dinger noted that paratransit is not a call-on-a-whim “taxi service,” nor is it a replacement for emergency medical transportation. Rather, she said, it’s for those who truly need the service.

Paratransit can be used for trips to the store, scheduled doctor’s appointments, hair appointments, the pharmacy, a friend’s house or basically “anything a regular person wants to do — it’s meant for them, too,” Dinger said.

The service is helpful for individuals who would otherwise be sedentary, Dinger said, which is important for an area where the population is aging across the board.

“Some passengers are able to stay home because of paratransit,” she said. “With the older population, they’re not being forced into nursing homes … because they have the freedom. They might not be able to drive, but they have the freedom to get their everyday needs met.”

“It gives them mobility they wouldn’t otherwise have had,” Turner said, adding that as long as the destination is within the three-quarters of a mile radius, “they can do whatever they want. We don’t restrict them.”

Sometimes, Turner said, individuals don’t know exactly when exactly they’ll need to be picked up, like in the case of doctor’s appointments. In these cases, they can schedule ahead of time a “will call,” letting SVRTA know to be on the lookout for a call when the person is ready to go.

It’s the type of effective communication that sets SVRTA’s drivers apart, Turner said, noting that drivers coordinate on the radio to ensure passengers don’t get left behind.

“All these years, we’ve never left anybody behind,” Turner said.

Last year, SVRTA saw 2,700 paratransit rides, and this year is expected to exceed that, with 2,200 rides as of Aug. 1.

Among grateful riders is Ryan, who has been enrolled in the service for more than a year. She uses it as needed, with her husband providing transportation when he’s not working. Additionally, Ryan had suspended her enrollment while experiencing a long stretch with no seizures, but when she had another, SVRTA got her back on the schedule with no fuss.

SVRTA and its drivers have been “nothing but fantastic” in accommodating Ryan’s schedule and its changes, which happen occasionally when appointments slip her mind. Overall, she highly recommends the service and wishes more people knew about it.

“I truly feel blessed,” Ryan said. “For someone for whom driving is not possible, this is huge, and I don’t know if the average person realizes it’s out there.”

Information on SVRTA’s paratransit service can be found at https://svrta.com/paratransit/.