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Rocky Mountain News, Mon., June 7, 1982 Denver, Colo. p.37 WE’RE ACCESSIBLE! We set our sights on July 1 for increased accessibility. We've beat our goal by nearly a month. During peak hours 50 percent of all Denver-area local service is now equipped with wheelchair lifts. Nearly 100 percent of off-peak local service is now accessible. Please check your schedule for times of lift-equipped buses. Trips will be marked with the wheelchair symbol. If you need special assistance in learning how to use the lift, just give us a call at 628-9000, extension 2118. We are pleased to be able to accommodate our handicapped patrons with expanded service nearly one month ahead of schedule! (signature) L.A. Kimball Executive Director and General Manager 3 PHOTOS (in clockwise order; no credits given). First: A man in a wheelchair sits on a lift into the front door of a city bus. An access symbol is visible by the driver's door of the bus. Second: A woman in a manual wheelchair entering the front of an accessible bus, by the farebox. Three: An RTD bus with RTD "The Ride" written on the side of the bus. In large print at the bottom it says: Striving for the Best Service RTD The Ride
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RTD bobbles budget, buys rejected lifts By: Burt Hubbard News Staff The Regional Transportation District board of directors rejected to move to equip its new buses with wheelchair lifts but unknowingly included $1.2 million in its budget to buy them. The revelation came one day after the RTD board approved a $185.8 million budget that includes $21.4 million to buy 89 articulated buses for 1983. But the buses will cost the district only $20.2 million. The remaining $1.2 million is slated for wheelchair lifts that won’t be put on the buses. RTD Executive Director L.A Kimball has said that handicap ridership on the more than 300 buses that now have lifts do not justify the cost for the new buses. “WE HAVE CARRIED as many as 50 (handicapped) individuals on any particular day using 331 vehicles,” he told the board Thursday. RTD board member Charlotte Houston said Friday she didn’t realize that fact when she made a motion Thursday to add $1.3 million to the 1983 budget to outfit all 89 buses with lifts. The board defeated the motion 10-5. Those voting against the lifts said current low-frequency ridership by handicapped people doesn’t justify equipping more buses and cited increased maintenance costs of the lifts. Asked about the snafu, Houston said, “I guess I should have known.” Nor did RTD board member Tom Bastien know the lift money had been kept in the budget when he moved to equip half of the new buses with lifts. The board rejected the move 8-6. “THAT’S INTERESTING,” said Bastien Friday. “Why didn’t the (RTD) staff tell us?” Even Kimball said he wasn’t aware that the lift money was still in the budget. Kimball blamed the error on a staff member who, he said, apparently had failed to delete the money for the lifts from the budget. The confusion dates back to July 1981 when the district signed a contract with M.A.N. Truck and Bus Corp. to buy the 89 buses for $21.4 million with the lifts included. The buses were to be delivered between June and September 1983. But in December 1981, the RTD board voted to take the lifts off the buses and reduce the total price by $1.2 million. The 1983 budget, however, failed to reflect the reduced price. Kimball said the omission won’t alter the budget. “THERE’S NO NEED to change it,” he said. “We won’t spend it.” About 80 percent of the cost of the lifts would have been paid by a federal grant. And Houston and Bastien said the fact that they wouldn’t have had to increase the budget to get the lifts didn’t affect the vote. “I don’t think it would have made much difference,” said Houston. “We needed 11 votes to pass it.” The votes on the lifts came after about a dozen people, including several politicians, urged the board to make the buses accessible to the handicapped. The handicapped community has vowed to try again for the lifts after a newly elected RTD board takes office in January to replace the appointed 21-member board.
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RTD Executive Promises To Try Wheelchair Bus Travel Firsthand ATLANTIS From 1-B The Handi Ride, 12 buses which provide curb-to-curb service for 150 handicapped persons each day on a flexible schedule, was to have been eliminated in July. It will be retained for the rest of the year, Kimball said. Starting in July, 334 buses equipped with wheelchair lifts — plus the Handi Ride - will circulate on more than two dozen routes, the RTD official said. Specially equipped buses now operate on only 11 routes. He also promised that the Handi Ride program would continue until another program has been developed. The official also told the group that “RTD alone can’t solve all (their) transportation problems" and urged them to think in terms of a “regional consensus” of agencies dealing with the disabled. He also suggested that they seek state funding. Spokesmen for the Atlantis Community for the disabled, one of the parties to the lawsuit, on Wednesday declared the Handi Ride shouldn't be phased out, and many attending the session agreed. They included Don Burton, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy, who said he feared many disabled persons would lack access to community services; Barb Sokol, a social worker with Western Dialysis Center, who said other transit alternatives weren't “as reliable or flexible,” and a number of handicapped persons, who asked for continuation or expansion of the service. Teresa Breda, executive director of Holistic Approaches to Independent Living (HAIL), said, “In no way do I want Handi Ride to stop. “But that’s just one segment of transportation services tor the disabled,' she noted, adding that it was “one part of a lot of needs.”
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Denver Post Tuesday, January 19th, 1982 Editorials, Opinion, 2, 3 Weather 4 Ski Report, 4 Suit over Bus Lifts Hits RTD By Howard Pankratz, Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer Some of Denver’s handicapped, who believe the Regional Transportation District has broken a promise to install wheelchair lifts on 89 new buses, turned that belief into action Monday by suing the district. In a lengthy brief filed in Denver District Court, seven wheelchair-bound individuals and the Atlantis Community for the disabled accused the district of violating both state and civil law and a settlement reached in federal court several years ago. In that settlement, alleges the suit, RTD agreed that all new buses would have wheelchair-lift equipment. But that promise has been broken, said the suit, which asks that RTD be required to install lifts on 89 new buses due for delivery beginning next year and on all new equipment in the future. The Monday suit is based on RTD’s having contracted for 89 new buses, worth $21.3 million. The suit says that 80 percent of the purchase price is to be paid by the federal government. Originally, said lawyer John Holland, who represents the handicapped, all the buses were to have had lifts to make them accessible to the handicapped. But last November, the RTD board decided not to have lifts installed. The total cost of the lifts would be $1.1 million, with the federal government again paying 80 percent of the cost. The suit alleges that it wasn’t the cost, technical feasibility or the maintenance of the lifts that caused them to be dropped, but rather a decision by RTD to use the new buses on “express bus service” from which the handicapped are to be excluded. This, claimed the wheelchair-bound complaints, blatantly violates the state’s civil rights act. Reacting to that alleged broken promise, handicapped individuals demonstrated on the RTD properly, for three straight days in early January, an action that caused the district to go to court seeking an order banning such demonstrations. However, late last week, Denver District Judge Daniel Sparr told both sides he feared that if he issued a restraining order against the handicapped, it would only widen the gulf between the two sides. He noted that the handicapped had legal avenues to follow if they felt a promise had been broken. On Friday, heeding Sparr’s advice, the two sides reached an accord, whose points will be made public February 2. RTD lawyers Alan E. Richman and Russ Richardson said Monday that RTD has a policy of not commenting on such pending lawsuits.
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Denver Post 1/82 PHOTO (no credit given): A man in a wheelchair (Stephen Saunders) is tipped back in a wheelie by one man, as another bends forward over his legs and reaches down on the side of his wheelchair. Behind them a couple of police officers are visible. Caption reads: Stephen Saunders is carried away from the offices of the Regional Transportation District during a January protest over an RTD decision to not make some new buses accessible to the handicapped. [Headline] RTD Fighting Handicapped Act By Howard Pankratz Denver Post Staff Writer The Regional Transportation District, long at odds with various segments of Denver’s handicapped community is asking Denver District Judge Harold Reed to declare the Colorado Handicapped Act unconstitutional. At the time the state Legislature passed the act, it said it was doing so to “encourage and enable the blind, the visually handicapped, the deaf, the partially deaf, and the otherwise physically disabled to participate fully in the social and economic life of the state and to engage in remunerative employment.” But RTD in motions filed in recent weeks with Reed, has charged that the statue is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. RTD also says that those who violate the act are subject to a criminal penalty. In particular, RTD lawyers Alan E. Richman and Lawrence D. Stone take aim at a section the act which says the handicapped are “entitled to full and equal housing and full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of all common carriers, airplanes, motor vehicles, railroad trains, motor buses, streetcars, boats or any other public conveyances or modes of transportation…” Does that mean, ask the RTD lawyers, that “cab drivers are liable for criminal penalty for refusing to buy cabs which can transport persons in wheelchairs? What about persons in iron lungs or on other life support systems? Does this mean that a private automobile has to be wheelchair accessible?” The act, they contend, is sweeping in nature and poses an “impossible conundrum… to an organization or a person who wishes not to violate its provisions on pain of criminal sanctions.” Those who violate the act are guilty of a misdemeanor and are subject to a maximum sentence of a $100 fine and 60 days in county jail. In January 1982, seven wheelchair-bound individuals and the Atlantis Community for the disabled accused the district in a lawsuit filed in Denver District Court of violating both the Colorado Handicapped Act and a settlement reached in federal court several years ago. Basically they contended that in the federal settlement RTD agreed that all new buses would have wheelchair-lift equipment. Although many of the new buses are accessible to people in wheelchairs, they contend that RTD has decided against making 89 new buses, due for delivery in June, accessible to the handicapped. By denying such access, says the lawsuit, RTD has breached both the terms of the federal settlement and the duties it owes the handicapped under the Colorado
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Denver Post (approximately 12/4/81) [Headline] Bus Life Decision Delayed By: George Lane Denver Post Urban Affairs Writer Local transit officials, noting that there were barely enough of them to make a quorum Tuesday delayed for two weeks any decision about whether to alter plans not to put wheelchair lifts on 89 new buses. It was suggested during a special Regional Transportation District board meeting that the board order wheelchair lifts on 45 of the 89 high capacity, articulated buses, rather than no lifts at all. Board member Norma Anderson told fellow directors that there was no reason for postponing the issue “when everyone on this board knows the outcome of the vote.”. She said following the meeting there aren’t enough votes on the board to reverse the earlier action, and the buses ultimately will be ordered without the wheelchair lifts. The announced reason for postponing the vote was that only 12 of the 20 board members attended the special meeting, and only 11 were left when the compromise proposal was presented. It takes a minimum of 11 votes for the RTD board to conduct any business. Postponing the action for two weeks could mean that RTD may have to pay some kind of penalty for not informing the bus manufacturer of the lift decision before the extended deadline of Dec. 10. But the board’s action delayed for at least two weeks another possible wheelchair-bound –sit-in following an RTD board meeting last month. About two dozen persons from the Atlantis Community for the disabled staged a 2 1/2 hour sit-in following an RTD board meeting last month. They claimed the board’s decision then not to order the lifts was a “breach of promise” subjecting handicapped bus passengers to second-class ridership. After the RTD officials agreed to hold a special board meeting to reconsider the decision against the lifts, the wheelchair-bound sit-in ended peacefully. It had been feared police force would have to be used to end it. Eighteen handicapped persons and supporters and representatives of disabled people spoke during Tuesday’s special board meeting. RTD officials again attempted to convince the disabled congregation that not putting the lifts on the articulated buses will free other buses with lifts and result in better service to handicapped people.
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The Denver Post Friday, Dec. 18, 1981 [Headline] Handicapped Will Protest RTD Wheelchair-Lift Ban By George Lane Denver Urban Affairs Writer The board of directors of the Regional Transportation District Thursday made it official – there will be no wheelchair lifts on 89 high-capacity buses expected to be delivered in 1983. The board actually decided a month ago there would be no lifts on the new buses, but they have been hedging on finalizing that action because of objections voiced by the area’s disabled community. Following the vote on the lifts, Wade Blank, co-administrator for the Atlantis Community for the disabled and organizer of the protest against the RTD action, told the transit directors that members of the handicapped community view the action as a violation of their human rights and they will respond to that violation Jan. 4. Blank later said members of the disabled community will be in “training for civil disobedience” between now and Jan. 4. He said beginning Jan. 4, 10 disabled persons in wheelchairs will stage a sit-in in the office of L.A. “Kim” Kimball, RTD’s executive director and general manager. “Everyday during the month of January, 10 disabled people will be occupying Kimball’s office,” Blank said. They won’t have any able-bodied people with them – and if they’re arrested they will be replaced by 10 more. At the conclusion of the board meeting, Kimball told the directors that the RTD staff will take steps to try to prevent this action, but he doesn’t think it proper to discuss those steps at this time. The RTD board during its Nov. 19 meeting voted to save more than a million dollars by not ordering the lifts on the new buses. The RTD staff recommended this action because they said the lifts are expensive (more than $12,000 per bus) and difficult to maintain. The staff proposal was to use the articulated buses on high ridership bus routes, freeing regular buses with wheelchair lifts to provide better service for the handicapped. A delegation from the handicapped community objected to this proposal, with arguments that RTD officials had promised several years ago that 50 percent of the district’s bus fleet would be made accessible to wheelchair-bound riders and all new buses would be ordered with lifts. About 25 disabled persons from Atlantis staged a wheelchair-bound sit-in following the November meeting until Kimball and three board members promised to attempt to get the entire board to reconsider the action. Thursday’s vote was the outcome of that promise.
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Denver Post RTD, Handicapped Protesters Come to Undisclosed Accord By: Howard Pankratz, Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer Heeding a judge’s advice that a court-imposed resolution of their differences could lead only to more problems, handicapped Denver residents and the Regional Transportation District Friday hammered out a solution to their dispute. Although the agreement’s terms won’t be made public until a court hearing February 2, representatives of RTD and the handicapped seemed quite pleased with the accord. A compromise was suggested by Denver District Judge Daniel Sparr. It ended a hectic several weeks during which RTD property has been the scene of demonstrations by wheelchair-bound handicapped and in which RTD sought a court order to prevent such demonstrations. The demonstrations were sparked by a decision of the RTD board of directors not to place wheelchair lifts on 89 high-capacity, articulated buses to be added to the RTD bus fleet in 1993. The RTD responded by going to court, seeking a court ban on demonstrations. But on Thursday, saying he was convinced the gulf between the handicapped and RTD would widen if he entered a court order at RTD request, Sparr called both sides into his chambers. He strongly suggested they work out an agreement among themselves. At all costs, Sparr told them, he wanted to avoid an “us-against-them” climate on both sides, which he said would result if he were forced to rule on RTD's motion for a temporary restraining order. After a total of five hours of talks Thursday and Friday, an agreement was reached. Both sides praised Sparr. “I think Sparr took the correct approach,” said RTD attorney Russ Richardson. “I believe his philosophy is right. When I was in private practice, I advised clients in divorce proceedings that agreements between them and their spouses were much better than a settlement imposed by the court. Court action is one-sided. One side will lose, or sometimes both sides will lose.” John Holland, representing the Atlantis Community for the disabled, said neither side really desired a restraining order and recognized each had rights. Holland said that the agreement is a “fair adjustment of those rights.” Holland added both sides “found out how to relate to each other. I think talking about it, and the judge’s input, were creative,” said the attorney for the handicapped. Richardson said that as part of the agreement, RTD will no longer seek the restraining order.
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Handicapped group sues RTD to have lifts put on new buses By Jerry Brown, News Staff The Atlantis Community for the handicapped and six handicapped people sued the Regional Transportation District Monday in an effort to force the transit agency to put wheelchair lifts on 89 buses to be delivered in 1983. The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, alleges that the decision not to put lifts on the high-capacity articulated buses violates: * A state civil rights law stipulating that handicapped people “are entitled to full and equal accommodation, advantages, facilities and privileges of all trains, motor buses, street cars, boats or any other public conveyances or modes of transportation.” * A negotiated 1979 court settlement in which RTD promised to put lifts on 176 buses it had purchased earlier and on all new buses, as required by federal regulations in effect at the time. RTD Executive Director L.A. Kimball declined comment. The lawsuit stems from a Nov. 19 decision by RTD’s board of directors to rescind earlier plans to put lifts on the buses. After members of Atlantis and other handicapped people protested, the board reconsidered the decision in December but stuck by its vote not to buy the lifts. According to RTD, the lifts would cost $1.1 million – or $ 12,571 per bus. Eighty percent of the money would come from federal funds, with RTD supplying the rest. RTD officials have said they plan to use the articulated buses – which bend in the middle and hold about 50 percent more passengers than a regular bus – for semi-express service on heavily used routes. RTD originally ordered lifts for the buses because federal regulations in effect when the buses were ordered required them. But the federal regulations were rescinded last summer.
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The Denver Post? Decision Reserved In RTD Bus Case U.S. Dist. Judge Richard P. Matsch Friday reserved decision on a petition for preliminary injunction to keep the Regional Transportation District from using 213 new buses without equipment to aid handicapped and elderly persons. The petition, filed against RTD by the Atlantis Community, a residence for the handicapped, and others, originally had sought to get a preliminary injunction against the manufacture, purchase and delivery of the buses. On Friday, however, the attorney for the plaintiffs, John Holland asked the court to allow an amendment to his original petition which would prohibit only the use of the buses, not their manufacture, purchase and delivery. Matsch agreed to letting the plaintiffs amend the petition but reserved decision. RTD has ordered 213 buses from Flexible Buses and the AM General Corp. for delivery later this year. The buses won’t come equipped with and ramps for the handicapped, but could be outfitted with the special equipment. At the two days of court hearings which ended Friday, John Simpson, RTD executive director and general manager, testified the system currently has 36 of one bus for each 1,000 persons in the city, while maintaining 1.4 buses for each 1,000 handicapped persons. Simpson told the court if all buses were specially equipped for the handicapped, it would upset schedules and require more buses on the street. He pointed out the special lifts for handicapped take two to three minutes to operate. In its Saturday editions, The Denver Post erroneously reported that Matsch had denied the plaintiff’s petition for a preliminary injunction.
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Denver Post (This article continues in ADAPT 115 but the entire text is included here for easier reading.) "Talk,” Judge Tells RTD, Atlantis By Howard Pankratz Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer Citing what he fears to be increased “polarization” between some of the Denver’s handicapped citizens and the Regional Transportation District, a Denver judge Thursday abruptly halted a hearing involved the two parties, called them into his chambers and asked that they negotiate a settlement to their dispute. The unusual action by Denver District Judge Daniel Sparr came in the midst of a hearing on RTD’s request that Sparr ban some handicapped people from engaging in disruptive demonstrations on RTD property and buses. At all cost, said the judge, he wanted to avoid an “us against them” climate. “It appears it is a confrontation that is not going to do anybody any good,” he said. On January 4, 5 and 6, handicapped individuals, some organized by the Atlantis Community for the disabled, demonstrated at various RTD offices protesting a decision by the RTD Board of Directors not to place wheelchair lifts on 89 high-capacity, articulated buses slated to be added to the RTD bus fleet in 1983. Many of the estimated 16,000 handicapped people in the Denver area feel that the district broke a promise to them when the lifts weren’t provided. Sparr said he felt that if he had to issue a temporary restraining order against the handicapped at the end of the hearing it could only lead to increased polarization and animosity between the district and the handicapped, something he said needs to be avoided. The judge noted that if that order, or subsequent orders were violated, it might result in contempt citations, fines and jail terms for handicapped people.
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The Denver Post, Metro section, Tuesday Jan. 5, 1982 2 PHOTOS, The Denver Post / John J Sunderland: First: Through bars that look a bit like the ropes in a boxing ring, a man in a wheelchair (Mark Johnson) sits, chin resting on his hand, and looks on thoughtfully as a police officer writes something on a piece of paper on a surface in front of them. The officer is leaning forward almost over Mark, and Mark looks calm and very thoughtful as he watches. Caption reads: Mark Johnson, 30, was one of two protesters cited Monday at Regional Transportation District offices. He later left and was not charged. Second photo: In a brick covered room, a person in a wheelchair has his back to the camera and facing a man who is blocking his way. The man standing faces the camera and points toward it. Caption reads: Bob West, Regional Transportation District director of security, tells demonstrator he won't be allowed to obstruct business. Bus Plan Protesters Chain Selves By GEORGE LANE, Denver Urban Affairs Writer Wheelchair-bound protesters chained themselves to stairway railings and blocked the main entrance to local transit offices for about 90 minutes Monday until police removed them from the building. Two persons were cited for trespassing as 13 disabled persons in wheelchairs and about an equal number of attendants and supporters participated in the protest at the offices of the Regional Transportation District. Spokesmen for the group vowed they will return today. The demonstration was organized primarily by members of the Atlantis Community for the disabled and Wade Blank, co-administrator of Atlantis, to protest a decision by the RTD board of directors not to put wheelchair lifts on 89 high-capacity, articulated buses slated to be added to the RTD bus fleet in 1983. RTD officials allowed the demonstrators access to the building at 1600 Blake St. about 11 a.m. and raised no objections as the protesters held a press conference. During the press conference RTD was accused of reneging on a promise and violating the civil rights of the disabled by not ordering the lifts on the new buses. Following the press conference, “out of order" signs on two elevators foiled the group's plan to stage a sit-in at the third floor offices of L.A. "Kim" Kimball, RTD's executive director and general manager. “Kimball is as accessible as his buses," remarked one of the demonstrators. A brief scuffle occurred about 11:20 a.m. when Blank and several attendants attempted to carry three wheelchair occupants up a spiral stairway to Kimball‘s office. Mike Hughes, an RTD security officer, blocked the trip up the steps. The three wheelchairs with their occupants eventually were chained and padlocked to the handrailing of the stairway. Two more wheelchairs later were chained and padlocked to the landing of another stairway. The front entrance to the building was then blocked by five or six motorized wheelchairs as about a dozen policemen waited across the street. Capt. Bill Brannan ordered the demonstrators to leave the building. He then said those refusing to leave the building would be cited and ordered to appear in court it he believed they understood what they were doing. When the policemen and paramedics entered to evacuate the building, only Stephan Saunders, 31, and Mark Johnson, 30, would give their names to police. Both men were given misdemeanor citations for obstructing a government operation and obstructing a public passageway. The charges against Johnson, however, weren't filed because he later decided to leave the building voluntarily.
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Denver Post [This article continues on in ADAPT 123, but the entire text is included here for easier reading.] Photo by Lyn Alweis: A short haired man in a jacket and dark slacks [Mel Conrardy] is lifted in his wheelchair from the sidewalk to a bus. The lift comes out of the front door of the bus and has railings on either side of the lift almost as tall as the seated man. Just by the bus door is a sign on the side of the bus that says "RTD Welcome Aboard." Caption: An RTD bus with wheelchair lift provides mobility for Mel Conrardy Title: Leaders of handicapped rate RTD service best in country By Norm Udevitz, Denver Post Staff Writer Disabled Denverites just a few years ago had as much chance of riding a bus as they did of climbing Mount Everest. “It was brutal the way RTD treated us,” said Mike Auberger, an official in the Atlantis Community, for the disabled and a leader in the fight that has turned the Regional Transportation District’s handicapped service around. In the 1970s and early 1980s, RTD busses then rarely equipped with wheelchair lifts, often left wheelchair-bound riders stranded on streets. Drivers, lacking training in dealing with visually or language impaired people, panicked when blind or deaf riders tried to board buses. “It used to be that even in the dead of winter, when it was below zero, those of us in wheelchairs would wait 2 or 3 hours for a bus to finally stop," Auberger recalls. “And often the lift was broken and we couldn't get on the bus anyway. And usually the drivers were rude and angry. They would tell us that we were ruining their schedules." But conditions have changed, Auberger says: “Right now, Denver has the most accessible public transit system for the handicapped — and all the public - in the country." Debbie Ellis, a state social services worker who heads the agency's Handicapped Advisory Council, agrees, saying: “It took a lot of pressure, but RTD has responded and now the bus system is doing a good job of serving the handicapped." Leaders of national programs for the disabled also agree. In fact, the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped will bring 5,000 delegates, many of them handicapped, to its national conference in Denver in April. This will be the first time in four decades the group has held its national session outside of Washington DC. “One of the key reasons we're meeting in Denver this year is because it just might be the most comfortable city in the country for the handicapped,” says Sharon Milcrut, head of the Colorado Coalition for Persons with Disabilities, which is hosting the conference. “A very important aspect of that comfort," she notes, “is how accessible the transit system is for the handicapped.” It didn't get that way easily. In the decade between 1974 and 1984, handicapped activists had to pressure indifferent RTD administrators and directors. Each gain was hard won. “We used every tactic in the book, from lawsuits to bus blockades on the street and sit-ins at the RTD offices," says Wade Blank, an Atlantis group director. “The lawsuits didn't help much but when we took to the streets in the late 1970s, I think that's when we started getting their attention." Blank and others also say the 1984 hiring of Ed Colby as RTD general manager helped. Before he arrived, less than half of the 750 RTD buses had wheelchair lifts, which often were in disrepair. Training for drivers to learn how to deal with handicapped riders was minimal. Agency directors resisted change. RTD relied heavily on a costly special van operation called Handyride - a door-to-door pickup service for handicapped. It has cost $13[? glare makes number hard to read] million to run since it began in 1975. “Over the past couple of years the turnaround has been phenomenal," Auberger says. “All of RTD's new buses are being ordered with lifts and older buses are being retrofitted." By 1986's end, almost 80 percent of the bus fleet — 608 of 765 buses — had wheelchair lifts; 82 percent of the fleet's 6,242 daily trips are now accessible for the disabled. Plans call for the fleet to be 100 percent lift-equipped by 1987's end. “The lifts aren't breaking down all the time now, either," Auberger said, noting that agency officials found drivers had neglected to report broken lifts: “That way the lifts stayed broken and drivers had an excuse for not picking us up. A bunch of people were fired over that and others realized that Colby wasn't kidding about improving handicapped service." Driver training also has improved dramatically. “It isn't perfect yet,” Ellis of the advisory council says. "But everyone is working hard at it. What we are finding is that 20 percent of the drivers understand that they are moving people, all kinds of people, and they're really great with the handicapped. “Another 20 percent figure their job is to move buses and to heck with passengers, all kinds of passengers. That bottom 20 percent probably won't ever change. So we're working real hard on the 60 percent in between," Ellis says. Drivers, for example, learn to help blind riders. “That’s an improvement that helps the disabled, but it also helps regular passengers who are newcomers to the city,” Ellis says. All the improvements haven't come cheap. Since 1974, more than $5million has been spent on lifts and lift maintenance, most of the expense was incurred in the last three years. RTD plans to spend $9 million more in the next six years to keep the fleet up to its current standards and pay for more driver training. Another $4 million will be spent on HandyRide service. Ironically, Auberger and Ellis both say one of the biggest problems remaining is getting more handicapped people to use mass transit. “There are no reliable figures," Ellis says. “But we think there are about 20,000 handicapped people in the metro area and only about 200 or 300 are using buses on a regular basis." Auberger, confined to a wheelchair after breaking his neck in an accident ll years ago, complains: “The medical system builds a bubble around handicapped people and makes them think they have to be protected. "That's just not true in most cases. So one of the things we're doing now is educating the handicapped to overcome their fears. We've finally got a bus system that works for us and we want the disabled to use it." Photo by Lyn Alweis: A rather straight looking man [Mel Conrardy] in a white jacket, big mittens, and a motorized wheelchair, wears a slight smile as he rides the bus. Someone in a dark jacket stands beside him, and behind him, further back on the bus, other riders are sitting on the bus seats. Caption reads: A bus seat folds up to anchor Mel Conrardy's wheelchair to the floor. Conrardy commutes to work at the Atlantis Community.
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Rocky Mountain News 12/15/1985 Disabled Protest RTD Buses By Joseph B. Verrengia Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Denver police Thursday, arrested a handicapped protestor who ignored police warnings and rolled his wheelchair in front of a Regional Transportation District bus on East Colfax Avenue. Police said Mike Auberger, who belongs to a Denver-based, militant disabled-rights group known as ADAPT, was arrested at about 1:30 p.m. at the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and Cherry Street. Auberger, who also was arrested in Washington, D.C. last October for a similar disturbance at a national transit convention, was booked into the Denver County Jail for creating a traffic hazard. He was released at 6 p.m. on a personal-recognizance bond. A court appearance has not been scheduled. He was one of four disabled demonstrators who disrupted bus service at the East Colfax intersection for about one hour. They were protesting RTD’s delay in repairing broken wheelchair lifts on 303 buses. Squads of four wheelchair-bound protestors also blocked buses at the intersections of the 17th and California streets and Broadway and East Colfax Avenue. Wade Blank, an able-bodied demonstrators who organized the protests, said ADAPT will hold similar “hit-and-run rallies” at randomly selected bus stops throughout the six-county transit district until the RTD directors vote to fix the lifts. "RTD spent $250,000 moving Ed Colby’s furniture,” Blank said, referring to the amount RTD reimbursed new general manager Ed Colby for his 1984 moving expenses and related taxes, plus his regular salary. “But,” Blank said, “they won’t spend money to make these lift s work.” RTD has budgeted $753,059 to modify the lifts’ electrical systems, where transit officials estimate about 75 percent of the lift breakdowns occur. On Tuesday, the agency’s planning committee voted to delay the lift repairs until the directors reconsider the agency’s handicapped-passenger policy at a Feb. 26 board meeting. With lifts on about half of its 750 bus fleet, Denver has one of the nation’s most accessible public transit systems. However repairs to the unreliable lifts are so costly and disabled ridership so small – 12,000 rides a year – that some board members would prefer to transport handicapped passengers in specially-equipped vans. Blank and his protestors reject “dial-a-ride” and similar van service as separate–but-equal treatment. RTD spokeswoman Diana Yee said Thursday’s incidents caused brief “inconveniences” for passengers and forced several bus routes to run behind schedule. She said transit officials would call the police again if protestors continue to do lay bus service. “We cannot solve this issue on the street corner,” Yee said. Yee said RTD has scheduled two meetings next week in which handicapped protestors can challenge the agency’s decision to delay lift repairs. Photo by staff Frank Murray [in the Top Right Corner]: Two men in suit coats and ties cross the street in from of a city bus that is being blocked by two people in power wheelchairs. A man [Larry Ruiz] and a woman [Ellen Liebermann] sit in their power wheelchairs in front of the middle of an RTD bus, #28 headed to Applewood Village, blocking it from going forward. Caption: Larry Ruiz, left, and Ellen Liebermann park their wheelchairs in front of an RTD bus at 17th and California streets Thursday as part of protest of chairlift repair delays. Similar rallies are planned at other bus stops. Highlighted quote on top left of page: “We cannot solve this problem on the street corner.”- Diana Yee, RTD spokeswoman
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Denver Post 1987/1989? PHOTO by Denver Post's Duane Howell: A man [Greg Buchanan] in a motorized wheelchair is being wheeled up a very steep ramp into a van. A uniformed policeman is pushing him up, and another man is standing behind them. Greg has a sign taped across his legs and on the side of his chair is a bumper sticker that reads "S.T.E.P.S. spells discrimination." Caption reads: ACCESS PROTEST: Police Capt. R.H. Kaspersen carts away Greg Buchanan, one of 26 wheelchair-bound protesters arrested Monday outside the entrance of the Radisson Hotel. RTD move to privatize bus routes praised: Transportation leader says city a step ahead. By Terry Kilewer Denver Post Stafl Writer Denver’s Regional Transportation District, which is contracting 20 percent of its service to private operators, may be a step ahead of other public transit systems with dwindling public money, delegates to a transit symposium were told Monday. Alfred DelliBovi, outgoing head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, praised Denver’s move to the forefront of privatization -- a trend toward government disengagement from transit that is catching on nationwide. RTD expects to save millions in future operating costs by farming out some bus routes to private companies, state Sen. Terry Considine, R-Cherry Hills Village, told an audience of 800 at the opening session of the two-day conference. Considine sponsored a bill last year to privatize a fifth of RTD's service. Now he wants to go even further by redirecting RTD tax revenues toward other transportation needs, notably a Denver encircling beltway. He said it’s time to reevaluate public transit, which is “21 times the tax cost per passenger-trip taken by private automobile." And he charged Gov Roy Romer with failing to “tackle the tough decisions that need to be made“ in state transportation legislation. A transit-and-highways bill Romer favored and Considine opposed died in the legislature last week. Romer disputed the senator's claims in remarks to the conference. Later, in an interview he said Considine is "out in left field" and out of step with his own political leadership on transportation issues. I agree you‘ve got to take advantage of all the savings you can. You've got to innovate with RTD; I signed (Considine’s) privatization bill last year. But more privatization won't take care of our highway problems." Considine and DelliBovi seemed in-step on privatization; though. The UMTA boss said the key to emerging federal policy in the public arena is "dwindling resources." During DelliBovi's two-year tenure at UMTA, the agency maintained the Reagan administration's bent toward frugal funding for transit construction and operations.