If you need a ride to the grocery store, to the doctor, or to the bank, Alamance County Transportation can take you and if you are 60 years or olde.  It's free through the Dial-A-Ride program.

ACTA continued Dial-A-Ride when it was established July 1, 2002. The program offers free transportation to the elderly of Alamance County. Aside from being 60 years of age or older there are other requirements to qualify for the service.  A person must be a resident of Alamance County and live on their own.  

Within the Dial-a-Ride program there are two services offered, general and medical.  A person signed up for medical will automatically qualify for general. Call the Dial-A-Ride Cordinator ay 336-222-0565 to verify qualifications for the program.  If a person has Medicaid, they will still be able to sign up for general rides.

“Any Medicaid client can sign up for dial-a-ride general, they may want to get out of the house and walk in Wal-Mart, go to the mall and walk, or visit their spouse in a care facility,” Dial-A-Ride administrator, Barbara Smith said.

Under dial a ride general, ACTA now offers services to Alamance Community College for those clients who take classes such as knitting or art, Smith said.

Dial-A-Ride medical not only offers service within Alamance County, clients can also be taken to Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Durham.

“Clients may just feel like they cannot drive to the other side of town or Chapel Hill or Greensboro,” Smith said.

Previously clients could only go on two trips a month, today clients are able to make medical or general trips whenever they need them within the week Smith stated.

Clients have also seen a change to the different places they can be taken. No longer are clients just offered services to the doctor and grocery store, today they can go to the bank, to visit their loved ones on a care facility, etc.

Dial-A-Ride had grown exponentially in the number of clients it transports since its beginnings. From 2003 to 2006 trips increased by 3,230 and this fiscal year it projects to handle over 13,000 trips.

Smith stated that the service has grown to the point where children who live out of state, but have parents who live in Alamance County call inquiring about the service.

“I get calls from children who are happy not to have to get out of work because ACTA can take their parents,” Smith said. “I am just glad the service is available, older people deserve it, they have earned the right to use it.”

“ACTA is happy to be able to provide transportation to our older clients,” Executive Director, Dennis Williams said. “They, like others, are very special people.”