As Orange County residents age, public transportation services that offer cheap or free rides to places like grocery stores and medical appointments can’t keep up with the booming demand.
Cities across the county are making service cuts to their local senior mobility programs for residents 60 years and older, forcing city leaders to limit offerings in order to stay within budget.
Officials with the OC’s Office of Aging estimate roughly one-third of county residents will be seniors by 2060 — something Orange County Transportation Board member and Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung says nobody is ready for.
“Forget from a county perspective or from an individual city perspective or even state — none of us were prepared nationally for what the senior tsunami has been,” Jung said in a phone interview.
The expected senior boom is pushing OCTA officials to look for more funding and consider different types of senior transportation services.
“The largest workforce ever on earth has now left the workforce en masse and gone into retirement,” Jung said.
It comes as Orange County officials struggle to address what’s been dubbed the “silver tsunami” — an expected demographic change in a couple of decades when one third of OC residents will be older adults.
[Read: Is Orange County Prepared to Get Old?]
So far, officials in San Clemente, Fullerton and Mission Viejo have approved cuts to their respective senior transportation services — limiting the total number of free or cheap rides that older adults can take or reducing the number of locations the service will bring them to.
Leaders in Costa Mesa are also at the beginning stages of deciding how they’ll cut down senior transportation offerings.
Contracted taxi services across 32 Orange County cities are funded in part through the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Measure M2 program.
Reductions in service come as county transportation officials note the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) hasn’t reduced funding for the programs, but the demand has surged in recent years as OC’s residents get older.
Eric Carpenter, spokesperson for the county transportation agency, said funding for cities from Measure M has steadily grown over the past five years.
Measure M is a countywide half-cent sales tax for transportation programs, and 1% of that net revenue is dedicated to senior mobility programs.
In 2021, $3.27 million from Measure M was allocated to fund transportation programs for older adults. That’s increased each year to $3.82 million in 2022, $4.21 million in 2023 and $4.34 million in 2024.
That funding level for 2025 stayed mostly unchanged at $4.44 million.
“Generally speaking, we have heard from some cities that their programs are facing cost increases as well as increasing demand for their services, which is a factor of an aging population,” Carpenter wrote in an email to Voice of OC.
“OCTA has not reduced the funding dedicated to the Senior Mobility Program,” he continued. “Cities continue to receive their allocations bi-monthly, and decisions about service levels, fares, ride limits and destinations are made locally.”
Grappling With Senior Boom, Transportation Costs
The silver tsunami is expected to affect the entire Golden State.
Across California, the number of adults aged 60 and older is projected to increase from 16% in 2010 to 25% by 2030, according to the OC Office on Aging.
Orange County is expected to be affected even more dramatically.
By 2060, county officials say the aging population is projected to be 36%, which will be higher than the projected state rate of 33%.
Fullerton Mayor and OCTA board member Jung said he’s currently exploring different options to expand senior mobility offerings through some kind of funding increase — potentially through the federal or state government.
“I’m currently working with the board at OCTA and our staff to explore expanding this program,” he said. “Programs are popular when they’re popular. They’re certainly popular when they’re free.”
Fullerton is one of the cities in Orange County that recently reduced some offerings for senior transportation in order to stay within budget.
“I’m exploring all avenues right now because I realize, particularly in the City of Fullerton, we have such a robust senior community that I want to make sure they’re not alone, they’re not lonely and they get to the services they need,” Jung said. “The senior mobility program is critical for that.”
OC Supervisor and OCTA board member Katrina Foley said cities could review their programming models in order to cut down on costs but keep up service levels.
She suggested that cities could move to a flat-fee model instead of a per-ride model.
“What are some models that are utilized in other communities and other counties that provide for senior mobility that aren’t based on a cost from the public agency to a contractor that’s a per-ride cost?” Foley said.
“I think that’s the way to reduce the cost because I don’t want to reduce the access. We don’t want seniors to isolate. We don’t want them to forgo visiting with friends and family because they don’t have transportation. We don’t want them to forgo medical appointments or appointments that are for their physical health.”
OC Supervisor and OCTA board member Vicente Sarmiento said county transportation officials will look at possible technology improvements within dispatch services.
William Go, city council member in Irvine and another OCTA board member, said funding will be the most difficult hurdle to clear.
“The best thing we can do is make these programs financially sustainable so that seniors can continue to benefit from them,” Go wrote in an email to Voice of OC.
OC Cities Cut Down Senior Transportation Services
Transportation was self-reported to be one of the most important services for seniors in Orange County, according to the OC Office on Aging’s Older Adults Needs Assessment Report.
And since that survey was completed in January 2024, access to transportation services for older adults is getting more difficult as cities dial back services.
In Fullerton, officials are gradually dialing back their senior subsidized taxi services in two phases.
From March 1 until the end of June, older adults will be capped to 30 free round trips per month to the Fullerton Community Center while still getting eight free trips for doctor appointments.
They will also still get eight trips for shopping and recreational purposes, and those trips will continue to cost riders $3 for travel within Fullerton and $7 for trips outside the city.
Starting in July, seniors will be capped to 20 round trips to the community center and trips to a doctor’s office within Fullerton or 10 miles outside the city is expected to cost riders $2 each way. Trips to grocery stores will also start to cost $2 per way for seniors that month.
In San Clemente, seniors will be limited to eight, free one-way rides per month — with an exception for riders traveling between their homes and the city’s senior center. Those new ridership limitations went into effect on March 1.
[Read: It’s About to Get Tougher For Seniors to Get Rides in Two OC Cities]
In Mission Viejo, seniors will be limited to 10 trips per month instead of having access to unlimited rides. The program will continue to offer free rides to city facilities as funding allows.
Rates will remain $5 for other rides, but certain trips to satellite locations will no longer be offered. That includes John Wayne Airport — previously, seniors were able to get a $20 ride to the airport with up to two guests. That service will no longer be available.
[Read: Another Orange County City Dials Back Senior Transportation]
Leaders in Costa Mesa are also considering cuts to their senior mobility program in order to stay within budget.
Earlier this month, the city’s parks and community services commission debated different service level options and voted 5-2 to recommend reducing transportation services for city council consideration.
That recommendation would limit rides to the city’s senior center, seven major shopping centers and Hoag Urgent Care. Those rides would include a $4 copay and would be limited to six, one-way rides per person.
That vote also includes a recommendation to permit another six monthly one-way trips to medical appointments at some facilities in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Fountain Valley at an $8 copay. Rides could also take older adults to medical appointments at Hoag and Kaiser Medical Centers in Irvine in addition to the Department of Veterans Affairs locations in Santa Ana and Long Beach.
Those proposed changes still need to be reviewed and approved by city council members before they can be implemented.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
