Indian River County's Ride Program for Disabled Residents Ends June 30, Stranding 6,000 Riders

For 29 years, Rosemary Millar climbed behind the wheel and drove. She logged 1.8 million safe miles and 300,000 trips — carrying elderly residents to doctor appointments, disabled riders to work, low-income families to destinations with no other way to get there. On Tuesday, Indian River County's Transportation Disadvantaged Local Coordinating Board honored her as Community Coach Driver of the Year. A few minutes later, that same board confronted troubling news: one of the region's most successful mobility programs is about to vanish.

The Treasure Coast Advantage Ride Program, which provided 112,000 trips last year to developmentally disabled riders across four counties, will shut down June 30. The program isn't failing — it worked too well for too long. State rules cap innovative service grants at four years. Senior Resource Association operated the program for five, and state regulations bar it from reapplying for the same category of funding.

The consequences land hardest in St. Lucie County, where more than 60% of the program's 6,000 affected riders live. Those passengers will be absorbed into standard Transportation Disadvantaged services in their home counties — a system already strained by rising costs and surging demand.

Senior Resource Association has submitted a new grant application targeting cross-county and after-hours services, competing against 19 other applicants for six million dollars in available state funding. Results are expected June 11, when the state commission meets in Tallahassee.

The funding cliff is not the board's only pressure point. Monthly fuel costs for the Go Line fixed-route system have nearly doubled, jumping from $39,000 in March to $76,000 recently — a spike board members identified as a significant budget threat heading into the next fiscal year.

Against that backdrop, the Go Line posted numbers that underscore how much residents depend on the service: 387,000 riders last quarter, 95% on-time performance and 83% of county residents living within three-quarters of a mile of a bus route. The board also approved updates to the Transportation Disadvantaged Service Plan, setting vehicle replacement schedules through fiscal year 2028 and locking in trip rates of $34.68 for ambulatory passengers and $59.45 for wheelchair trips.

The board paused to honor the late Rebecca Lawrence, posthumously named Go Line Driver of the Year after 14 years of service, and recognized retiring School District transportation coordinator Jennifer Adelette, who served 31 years.

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