An initiative was announced Friday to remove transportation barriers for local veterans who need to travel extensively to receive routine medical treatment.
The Veterans Transportation Initiative is a collaborative effort to establish a transportation program to address the needs of veterans, for whom travel to medical appointments at the Loma Linda VA can prove costly and/or time-consuming.
The initiative was announced by Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, Fourth District Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, SunLine Transit Agency, the Riverside County Transportation Commission and the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System.
“Our collective vision is for every veteran in our region to have easy access to transportation so they can get to their needed medical appointments,” Ruiz said. “I have heard disturbing stories from our veterans who have had to spend all day — from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. — traveling for just one 30-minute appointment. That is unacceptable. This exciting new collaborative will come up with an innovative regional transportation program for our veterans that is easy, timely, affordable, and coordinated, and I thank Supervisor Perez and all our partners for committing to make this a reality.”
Those behind the initiative say veterans face a shortage of available drivers, inefficient public transportation, complicated and underutilized veterans transportation programs, and costly alternatives such as taxi services.
They say programs established by the collaborative will seek to make transportation simple, accessible, and affordable.
Many of the issues were raised by veterans during a series of meetings held earlier this year, which led officials to create the collaborative, with plans to conduct additional stakeholder meetings with local veteran service organizations, transit agencies and local governments to work toward solving the ongoing issue.