Friday, October 25, 2002

By Jason B. Johnson Chronicle Staff Writer Thousands of low-income residents from downtown San Jose to the East Bay suburbs have been left stranded by public transportation, unable to get to hospitals and medical appointments, according to a report released Thursday. And the worst place is in central Concord, where there are no bus lines to the hospital. The two-year study, by a group that advocates public transit and smart growth, focused on 15 neighborhoods in Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties, where it found large numbers of poor, elderly and minority residents with little or no access to public transit. The report -- Roadblocks to Health -- was unveiled at a Concord press conference Thursday by the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition. Among its findings: Only 28 percent of residents in Alameda County's disadvantaged neighborhoods have transit access to a hospital, leaving more than 160,000 people without access. Santa Clara County's low-income residents have the best transit access to hospitals and supermarkets of all three counties studied. But that system is threatened by the planned closure of the San Jose Medical Center, which would dramatically reduce hospital access. Along Concord's Monument Boulevard, there is no public transit to hospitals and only 1 percent of residents can get rides to area clinics, according to the report. Once a month, Glory James, 64, of Bay Point, spends up to six hours taking her 10-year-old grandson, Sean, to and from medical appointments at a health center in Concord. The 9-mile trip takes just 20 minutes by car. The pair must take two buses and a BART train to reach the clinic. James' grandson suffers from attention deficit disorder. "I just pull Sean out of school that day, it's so long," said James. "It's so aggravating. Most of the time is spent waiting." Race is a major factor that links health and transportation, said Mark Toney, executive director of Oakland's Center for Third World Organizing, a partner in producing the report. For example, black pedestrians in Alameda County are more than twice as likely than white pedestrians to be hit by a car and killed or hospitalized. The study also found that in Contra Costa County, two-thirds of low- income residents, mostly people of color, have no bus service to a hospital or community clinic. "We need to link (transit) services to work places, grocery stores and public parks," said Toney. The report recommends increasing funding of transit networks in these three counties $71 million per year above current levels. It also called for bringing low-income residents into the decision-making process for public transit planning. Jeanne Krieg, general manager of Tri-Delta Transit, agreed with the report's findings, but said it's hard to find the money to upgrade the region's bus and train lines. "We need more buses," said Krieg. "The problem, however, as we all know, is funding." Last year, the The Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved a plan to set aside some $1.7 million to provide free bus passes to low-income students in the East Bay. The program took effect this fall. E-mail Jason B. Johnson at jbjohnson@s...