Between 1997 and 2000, ADA paratransit ridership almost doubled in Santa Cruz County, California, and registration increased to over 7,500 - a remarkably high number for the population of less than 200,000. In the ten year history of registering applicants, no applicant had ever been turned down, and the files had never been purged. When the proportion of Santa Cruz METRO's budget allocated to paratransit began to exceed 10%, the Board decided to overhaul the entire registration process, and involve the community at each step of the way.

The key problems that were identified in the study were lack of customer friendliness, inadequacy of information to make an accurate determination, staff training, use of staff time, potential for fraud, and inaccurate information provided to the paratransit provider. After substantial community input, the key aspects of the new program that were implemented in 2002 included 100% in-person assessments (primarily interviews), elimination of the application form, no grandparenting, and an expedited recertification process. Key strategies in gaining community support were the elimination of the application form and education about the impact of the formerly wide-open registration process on capacity constraints, and presenting arguments for and against on each of the key program elements.

Disabled Services @ Orthopaedic Hospital (DS) was hired as the eligibility provider and software vendor. DS designed and implemented functional evaluations and customized software to expedite the recommended approach to eligibility. After one year of certifications and almost complete recertification of the whole registration base, the impact on containing paratransit demand was staggering. Metro's paratransit program experienced a 17% decrease in ridership and the agency was able to avoid capacity constraints and be compliant with the ADA.