All that raising Cain did work!!
Well folks, all that Cainraising I did with Metro over the past couple of years has paid off! Dan Tangherlini, the interim General Manager of Metro responded to the invitation of the Elderly and Disabled Transit Advisory Committee (of which I am a member), and met with us for over an hour. He was very attentive and supportive, and had already instituted some positive changes. One of the things that was confirmed was that Metro has gotten rid of all of its non-lift buses, and have promised to turn their attention to the maintainence of the older lift buses. They have also committed to eventually phasing out the lift bises and replacing them with low ramp buses. I was informed that there are indeed several low ramped buses on the L2, the bus route that I use most of the time.
I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to see a low ramp L2 bus pull up at my stop downtown, as I was heading home after the meeting. The ride was nice, and when I went to alight at my stop, I was amazed at how fast everything was. I was off the bus in less than 30 seconds! I’ll have to let the Committee know that Metro has kept it’s promise.
While I must admit that I am, at the moment, savoring my victory, this will be short lived. There is more work to be done, more battles to be fought and won. This is merely the beginning.
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:36 am
And the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round…oh wait…just hit a curb!
Keep it up! As immediate past chair of the CAT (Citizens Advisory Team) for UTA (Utah Transit Authority) I can attest to the fact that the squeeky wheel gets the grease. Fortunately for us here in Utah, UTA has a Board of Directors that really listens to us and are willing to work for the betterment of our disabled community.
I went from being the one out of 5 people in wheelchairs
suppported by a few others standing by the sides that parked our chair in front of a light rail train and held up the system in Salt Lake City about 5 years ago until we could meet with the officials from UTA in order to get some headway on disability services and related causes.
It worked. Then I went from being an \’outside\’ agitator, to being called on to be on the CAT and after 3 years was elected by my peers to become the chair of that same committee, and was there during the preparations for the 2002 Olympics, as well as the debate over level boarding platforms for the soon to be built commuter rail in the valley.
I know you\’ve got the dedication and determination and are learning about the ins and outs of transportation-along with the screwed up politics with regards to the ever important local and federal funding!