THIS SENIOR is one of many who depend on the bus to get around, often with the help of a C-TRAN employee during the first few trips.
SENIORS SUCH as these find riding C-TRAN buses easy once they know how the process works.
C-TRAN officials know that understanding bus schedules can be confusing and that riding a bus can seem intimidating for those who have never done it before.
That’s why the agency established its Travel Training program to dispel the mystery surrounding bus travel. Veronica Marti is C-TRAN’s full-time trainer and will meet a new prospective rider at his or her home and ride to that person’s destination with them to show how it works.
“I go to the person one-on-one and figure out what they need to learn and the places they want to go,” Marti said. “I go with them to their destination.”
She’ll even accompany a person more than once, until they feel comfortable with the routine.
“There isn’t a limit,” Marti said. “There are times they might have learned one route and now want to go someplace else. We want to help them keep their independence and spontaneity in life.”
She also works with assisted living or senior living facility residents, often going with a small group to show how to reach a destination such as a mall. Often, Marti said, the clients are elderly people who have never ridden a bus before.
“We had a man in his 80s recently who had just moved to Vancouver,” she said.
Like many seniors his age, the man had given up driving and was now dependent on public transportation, but didn’t know how to begin. Seniors frequently need the bus for medical appointments, Marti said.
She’ll even respond to North County if someone calls the C-TRAN office at (360) 695-0123 and requests her assistance. Clients also may email her at veronicam@c-tran.org. Marti averages five to 12 clients per month, and those people usually end up being frequent C-TRAN riders, she said.
“Our Travel Training program started in 2010 with part-time trainers,” said Katy Belokonny, C-TRAN’s community outreach coordinator. “Now Veronica is full time and dedicated only to this program. Before, it was a piecemeal program.”
“I pretty much will work wherever someone can connect to the bus,” Marti said. “We have some service out to Ridgefield and Yacolt. If that’s where I need to go, that’s where I’ll be.”
