"She saves so much wear and tear on her car now"

I was talking to someone at work.  Car people don't get my transportation, and I was attempting to explain. 

I don't know why I try, they don't want to hear it and they don't want to understand. 

I mentioned paratransit to one person at work and she went "Oh!  Them!  My friend loves them, she uses them all the time!"  OK, so far.  She continued "She has a car but she doesn't like to pay for all that gas, and repairs, so she uses paratransit instead." 

That's not how it's supposed to work.  It's supposed to be for people who can't drive, can't ride the bus, to get around.  Not a convenient "extra" transport for people who don't want to use their personal cars. 

In my opinion, if you can drive - drive.  Everyone does.  Having a disability does not automatically qualify you for nearly-free transport all over town.  If you can drive - do so. 

Not having a car isn't an excuse, because it's been my experience that a motivated poor person will find something to drive. 

Someone like Ron cannot drive.  He is blind, and has a head injury.  Those prevent him from driving.  His other qualifying disabilities just add to that.  Someone with seizures would be another example.  Intellectual limitation.  A quadraplegic.  But "Arthritis in one hip and has a car at home?"  no. 

Sometimes we pick up people who have literally 3-4 working cars in their driveway.  Either they belong to the client, or someone in the family, who is most likely living there for free and can certainly "pay rent" by driving them around.  One lady was always talking about "her little green truck" and used to get so angry when her neighbors would park by the wheelchair ramp.  She did not require a wheelchair, she walked fine.  She didn't even need a cane.  We saw her a lot for a while.  She would talk all the time about driving her truck and how, every time she moved it, one of the neighbors would park in front of the wheelchair ramp (which she did not require) before she got back. 

Just a gripe of mine that has been bugging me for a long time.  There is not enough money to pay to drive everyone all over Houston.  I don't worry about them cutting Ron's service because he is so disabled, but I think a lot of the "drivers" are in for a rude shock one day.