Our bus company has to do something

[Roon]

about their handicapped accommodations.. every bus can hold two wheelchairs. When I went downtown this week there was a couple in powerchairs that took up both spaces. We made a stop and someone else in a powerchair wanted to board and the drive had to decline him. The look on his face still makes me pissed off. RTD needs to reconfigure their bus' to handle at least 4 disabled people, the buses are packed today because of the gas prices. But do you think RTD will spend the money to re-configure their buses? Nope!

We also have a problem with the bike rack on the bus. Each bus can only have two bikes at a time, and like I mentioned earlier, with the price of gas, more and more people ride their bikes.They should set it up for four bikes, two in the front, two in the back.

If I spent a half hour waiting for a bus and then was told I couldn't board, I would be really pissed off!

I know this might sound nitpicky, but our bus system makes a lot of money off the riders and we also have the best bus system in the country. They should configure their buses..they can afford it..

[KamaAina]

1. Denver was the scene of the first protests on behalf of accessible transit

thanks to the disability rights group ADAPT, which is based there (though it is loosely organized and doesn't really have a national office). Originally ADAPT stood for "Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation".

http://www.adapt.org

In 1983, years before the ADA, ADAPT protesters blocked RTD buses with their chairs!

http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/summer07/herosum07.html

Almost thirty years ago, disabled activists, along with the Reverend Wade Blank, held hostage a public transit bus in Denver, Colorado. The activists were frustrated because the lack of lifts on buses prevented them from integrating into the community. Despite the fact that the 1970 Urban Mass Transit Act had required new mass transit vehicles to be equipped with wheelchair lifts, actions by the American Public Transit Association ensured that none were actually so equipped. Out of the successful Denver action, which resulted in the city retrofitting 250 buses, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) was born.

Members of ADAPT saw themselves as extending the example that Rosa Parks had provided in catalyzing the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott to end racial segregation. Michael Auburger, one of ADAPT’s key leaders, said about Rosa Parks: “Her genius was that she saw the bus as the great integrator: it took you to work, it took you to play, it took you to places that were never before seen.” Charles Wilson, WASH. POST SUNDAY OUTLOOK, Oct. 30, 2005, at B01. In Chicago in 1984, people with disabilities blocked a downtown street to protest the Chicago Transit Authority’s purchase of 363 new public buses without wheelchair lifts; every protester wore a name tag that said “My name is Rosa Parks.”

For the next seventeen years, ADAPT conducted a relentless campaign to ensure that buses would be equipped with wheelchair lifts. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people protested across the nation at every American Public Transit Association convention, in Washington, and at Greyhound stations. They carried signs, patched together personal-care services, and they called attention to their cause. They also chained their wheelchairs to buses, blocked traffic, and, as a result, were arrested. They used the panoply of protest and civil disobedience tools that frustrated and dedicated and patriotic Americans have always used. Their protests culminated with an unforgettable crawl up the steps of U.S. Capitol and the arrest of over half of the two hundred ADAPT members, led by Bob Kafka, the Texas ADAPT cofounder with Stephanie Thomas. Many credit this action with being the final push that was needed to energize the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Everything old is new again"...

[Roon]

4. I remember that!

Thanks for the post.

[Inchworm]

2. If you want to start - goto commisioners

It is quite possible that there are other means of transportation available to those in wheelchairs. If that's the case, there may be a sucky reason that people who "can" do not use it.

Usually the reasons are... It sucks! I had to ride 2 hours to go 4 blocks! I don't like scheduling a trip to the grocery 2 days in advance! WTF?, It costs 3 times as much as the bus/train. etc.

Get informed first. Then raise all the hell you can until it suits your vision. Make sure that the lifts on current busses even work. That is a fight I had once with them in FL.

:thumbsup:

[Roon]

5. We are slowly converting to a liftless bus

all the driver has to do is flip out the ramp and we are on our way. I really like. Not all buses have that though, but eventually they will.

Thanks for the contact information, I will look into it!

[mwooldri]

3. Is this "usual" or was this a one-off case?

If this is a case where there are regularly being people denied boarding because of no space then absolutely yes something needs to be done to reconfigure the buses. Changing some seating to fold-up so that able bodied people can sit there when there's no wheelchair needed costs money yes but is possible. That is presuming we're using normal transit buses that have low-floor, and that "kneel" so that they're wheelchair accessible. For transit buses, frankly there shouldn't be any special "lifts" for chair users, they should be able to board themselves with only a little assistance from the driver (quick ramp pop-out maybe, definitely "kneel" the bus down). I can understand with paratransit buses that there are ramps and lifts but these vehicles are meant for a different need.

Personally, I think with a little investment in some GPS, tracking and scheduling technology you can run a paratransit service on the lines of a taxi company. This would mean that you could call for a ride and instead of having to schedule a working day ahead of time, excluding weekends (scheduling works extended office hours but paratransit runs 24/7 here in Guilford County, NC), you could call up and have a vehicle available to meet you at your door in under 1 hour.

Be thankful that you have these options - I am happy we have what we have here in NC. We're lucky to have paratransit here in Guilford County - and a 24/7 system at that too (I'm not disabled but it's the "rural bus service" for outside Greensboro and High Point). Next door in Alamance, it's more restricted and much more expensive, and not 24/7. I mean, Burlington NC (along with Graham) is I guess about the same size as High Point, but they don't have a regular transit system.

[Roon]

6. Yes, we have access a ride

But no one uses it unless they are going to the DR..if they are going to a few miles down the street to safeway, they are going to use the bus.