Do U Know Who I Am Part Duex??

I was contacted by the ADA Rep of the local transit authority yesterday to ask what my feelings would be to withhold accessible transportation from a the train on a couple of routes they serve. Ok Ok, so I had better give you the pre amble. The transit authority of our city has a light rail system( if you have been following my blog you know that, I use the system daily and am a committed public transit consumer. About two years a go about the time Olympics were held in our fair city, the authority purchased a bunch of “doggy” cars, throwaways from a transit system in San Jose. These cars are junk-in my opinion , they are old and non-ADA complaint, their old and they were a “good” deal so the board of directors and General manager bought the cars; essentially the cars were cheap. The old adage of “you get what you pay for” has never been more true. The problem is the bridge plate the device the driver uses to “bridge” the space from the loading platform to the train itself. The bride covers the stairs the able bodied consumers use to access the car. The newer cars have them but the older cars the San Jose cars do not and must be fitted with the bridge plates. This is going to take some 45 days. I was asked if this was going top be a problem with me and would I make a fuss about these cars not being accessible by wheelchair? The authority has been using the homemade piece of wood to bridge space. I have used these wooden bridge plate and they are just plain dangerous. I can see a power chair user running right off the edge and into the stair well and possibly death. The Authority's solution—and really the only solution is to not board wheelchair users onto these cars until a better bridge plate can be fabricated and installed.

You see the Authority wants to use these non accessible cars on the University leg of their routes to carry students and personnel up to the campus. The plan is to use the the San Jo's as little as possible, always with an accessible train 15 minutes behind. This is a pain in the butt for a wheelchair user expecting to board to be told “no-you'll have to wait for the next train. I have had this happen to be and it pisses me off. I just do not know what else the Authority can do. I told them if they were sure it would be no` longer then 45 days then I could accept it. I was not happy but I could deral with the inconvenience. In the old days when I was transportation Coordinator for the Independent Living Center I would have scoffed at the offer. Why the hell should I be inconvenienced or the people I served be inconvenienced just so the able bodied, once again, get what ever they want!? I'm old, now, I'll still fight the fight but the other folks with disabilities do not seem to be interested...I doubt these folks even know the arguments and they have a right to expect more. I feel key organizations of empowerment have failed their responsibilities. I rarely use this line so I have little investment now. It's going to get cold out there on the platforms real soon. I think 45 days is wish full thinking n the Authorities part. I feel like a Transit Judas selling out my people for a handful of train tokens.