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ADAPT (142)
Rocky Mountain News Sat., 11/9/91 PHOTO by Glenn Asakawa, Rocky Mountain News: A man in a wheelchair [Bob Conrad] sits on a lift in the raised position. A man in a dark suit stands beside the lift. The lift comes out of the center of the driver's side of the large over-the-road-bus. The bus fills most of the frame, and you can see another behind it. TheRide is printed on the side. Caption reads: Dean Shaklee, an RTD maintenance instructor, demonstrates the wheelchair lift on a new intercity bus to Bob Conrad of Denver. RTD unveils 21 intercity buses New coaches to serve routes linking Denver to outlying suburbs By Leroy Williams Jr., Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Commuters who ride buses between Denver and its outlying suburbs will soon be traveling in new comfort and style when $4.9 million worth of new buses hit the streets. Twenty-one intercity coaches were unveiled yesterday by the Regional Transportation District for use on the agency’s regional route network. They are expected to be in service by next week. The buses, similar to those used by Greyhound Lines Inc., will be used on routes that link Denver with such cities as Boulder, Longmont, Brighton, Evergreen, Conifer and Parker. “These are the first intercity buses we’ve bought since 1987,” said Dick Reynolds, RTD’s bus operation chief. RTD ordered the coaches, built by Motor Coach Industries of Pembina, N.D., for $235,000 each as part of a 150-bus order by the Dallas-area transit agency, RTD officials said. They carry 49 passengers and are equipped with side-mounted wheelchair lifts and space to tie down two wheelchairs. The practice of tacking smaller vehicle orders onto larger purchases made by another city saves money and delivery time. The new buses will replace several MC-5 intercity buses built in the mid-1960s, Reynolds said.
ADAPT (90)
Denver Post [This article goes with photo in ADAPT 89] [Headline] Wheel Chair Delegation Accuses Board of Ignoring Them Howard Pankratz, Denver Post Staff Writer A 17-year-old crippled girl Tuesday told the board of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) it cost nine handicapped adults in wheelchairs $90 to take a four-mile trip to a Denver Bears baseball game at Mile High Stadium last summer. Her testimony and that of other Denver handicapped individuals highlighted a public meeting at which the RTD was accused of not caring about the handicapped and elderly. By the time the meeting ended board members voted not only to intensify their efforts to help the handicapped but to do everything in their power to see that 120 new buses the RTD hopes to buy have facilities for the elderly and impaired. The board authorized chairman John Fleming Kelly, to file an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a $12.4 million grant to finance purchase of the 120 buses; and to build a new bus administration and maintenance facility and 100 bus shelters. At the meeting at the Colorado Highway Department building, it was obvious the board was moved by the presence of approximately 40 persons in wheelchairs, some who accused board members of not being “sincere” in their efforts to help the handicapped. [Subheading] NOT SURE OF CARE “I want to make sure we take care of these people,” board member Leo F. Sullivan, declared near the close of the session. “From the remarks I've heard tonight, I'm not sure we are." John Harper, another board member, assured the group that the RTD is sincere but he acknowledged that he thought maybe the RTD might have been a "bit-remiss" in regard to the handicapped and “could do a better job." The most moving testimony of the night came when Inez Regge, severely crippled and confined to a wheelchair, told of how nine adults from the Heritage Nursing Home had to pay $10 each to attend the ball game. “That is high by any standard, but for these young people whose total income was approximately $20 a month, it was exorbitant," she said. “There have been similar ‘rip offs’ in the past, including a $92 fare for one young man going from Heritage House downtown-and back." She said not all private companies who provide such services to Denver's handicapped are “mercenary,” but overhead forces them to keep their rates high. Until Sept. 7, the day Denverites approved the RTD bond issue, she said “there didn't appear to be any transportation alternatives for most of Denver's disabled. [Subheading] COMMITMENT SOUGHT But she said that a commitment by RTD officials prior to the bond election to provide bus service to the handicapped, plus a provision in the Federal Transportation Act which says special effort must be made to accommodate the handicapped on mass transportation, gave them an alternative. Miss Regge said Denver has one of the highest percentage of handicapped people in the country because of the large number of facilities here. “It is the goal of the handicapped community to see to it that all public transportation is accessible to the handicapped," she said. John D. Simpson, RTD executive director, said RTD had hired Al Coulter of the Denver Board for the Mentally-Retarded and Seriously Handicapped, Inc., to try to find out about the transportation needs of the region's elderly and handicapped. But he said RTD and Coulter had run into a business community which had refused to give the agency help in locating the handicapped. “We have been unable to ascertain where handicapped people want to travel to and from,” Simpson said. “There is some real difficulty in talking to companies — and we have approached half a dozen of the major employers - who have handicapped employees. “They either say ‘We don't know who they are' or ,‘We do know, but we don't want to tell you.'" Les Berkowitz, representing the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation for the Handicapped, reminded the RTD that not only does the organization have a moral and philosophical obligation to the handicapped, but also a “specific, expressed requirement” under federal statute. He quoted a public law which directs “that special efforts shall be made in the planning and design of mass transportation facilities and services so that the availability to elderly and handicapped persons of mass transportation which they can effectively utilize will be assured." Berkowitz, sitting in a wheelchair a few feet away from the 15 board members, said despite RTD assurance it is interested in the handicapped. “we have some reason to believe that RTD is not entirely sincere in its efforts." Although seeking assistance from a citizen’s task force, he said RTD has expected from that task force, composed entirely of volunteers, “far more than we can be reasonably expected to give.” He said the volunteers have had little or no training in the collection of data or research design. Further, he alleged that Coulter had only been hired for a 60-day period. While Denver's handicapped community asked that the RTD do more, a wide variety of spokesmen enthusiastically backed RTD's $12.4 million federal government application. They said the buses which the money would buy would do everything from helping alleviate Denver's air pollution problem to providing a badly needed form of economical transportation. State Rep. Richard Lamm, D-Denver, said that after Denver “won the dubious distinction as one of the nation's six most polluted cities.” the Colorado legislature created RTD and charged it with developing a transit plan. “Tonight we are here to publicly discuss the first and a vital phase of this plan -- the early action bus program,” he said. “RTD will be able to improve bus service by more than 60 percent in the region with this one capital grant alone. That, to me, is an important first step toward cleaning up the environment." Gordon Appell, principal planner for the Denver planning office, read a statement by Mayor Bill McNichols in which McNichols said the demand for public transit in the Denver area “has reached almost emergency proportions." McNichols noted that in January, the Denver Metro Transit system had 1.9 million passengers, a 22 per cent increase over the same month a year ago. He forecast that the number of passengers may exceed 25 million this year. Thus, he said, the money for the buses is imperative.
ADAPT (99)
The Denver Post PHOTO by John Prieto, Denver Post: A woman in a wheelchair (Carolyn Finnell) is surrounded four able-bodied persons. One man is kneeling down in front of her to talk with her. Caption reads: Carolyn Fannell (In wheelchair) discusses the protest with RTD executive director L.A. “Klm" Kimball. Boxed Text: "You were talking about a separate and unequal system." -- Protester Wade Blank Threat of Sit-In Over RTD Lift Plans Dissolves By GEORGE LANE, Denver Post Urban Affairs Writer [This story continues on ADAPT 113, but the entire text has been included here for easier reading.] After tense negotiations, Regional Transportation District officials avoided use of police force Thursday night to break up a threatened all-night wheelchair sit-in at RTD headquarters. The protesters want RTD to reconsider a decision not to put wheelchair lifts on new buses — a decision they say broke an agency promise made to them last year. Three district board members promised about 25 disabled persons they would try to call a special meeting to reconsider the anti-lift action. The sit-in was staged in the fifth-floor executive offices of the RTD at 1325 S. Colorado Blvd. by members of the Atlantis Community for the disabled. The promise, contained in a policy statement adopted by the RTD board a year ago, was that 50 percent of the existing bus fleet of more than 600 vehicles would be retrofitted with wheelchair lifts, and all new buses would be ordered with lifts. When the statement was approved, there was a federal regulation demanding that all federally financed transit agencies make transportation modes accessible to the handicapped, and all new buses purchased had to have the lifts. RTD was one of the only transit agencies in the country to take steps toward complying with the regulation. But the regulation was repealed last July. Thursday afternoon, the RTD board voted to save more than $1 million by canceling the order to have the lifts installed on 89 high-capacity, articulated buses expected to be delivered in 1983. Wade Blank, co-administrator of Atlantis, pointed out to board members before the vote was taken that the day the regulation was rescinded, RTD officials said lifting the regulation would have no effect on the district's commitment to serving disabled persons. “A week ago I came to a meeting, and about 10 minutes to four, it was casually mentioned" there would be no lifts on articulated buses, Blank said. "I was dazed... it took a few days to realize that you were talking about a separate and unequal system." Robert Conrad, also an Atlantis administrator, told RTD board members he feels "betrayed" because he has worked closely with RTD on providing service to the handicapped “and all of a sudden you spring this on us." Board member Flodie Anderson explained to the approximately 75 angry persons attending the meeting that RTD intends to use the articulated buses on express routes and other heavy routes. Under that plan, Anderson said, other buses will be freed that will be lift-equipped and able to provide better service to disabled people than is provided now. Board member Edward Cassinis told the group that buses currently equipped with wheelchair lifts are carrying a maximum of 270 wheelchair passengers per week. RTD's “handiride,“ which provides front-door service to disabled passenger, is handling 831 riders per week. When the vote was taken on the action, the outcome was 12-4 against installation of the lifts. Members of the Atlantis Community and several other disabled organizations then gathered ln hallway outside the first-floor meeting room and decided to “resume civil disobedience." The group of about 25, all from Atlantis, then rode the elevators to the fifth floor of the building and began their sit-in shortly after 4 p.m. Motorized wheelchairs were parked in the doorways of the three elevators to make it impossible for them to be used. Shortly after the beginning of the demonstration, Bob West, RTD’s director called for police assistance and paramedics “because we don’t want anybody to get hurt.” The police, however, didn’t arrive for more than an hour and when they did arrive, the negotiating session that would end the sit-in already was in progress in a fifth-floor conference room. During that session, board members Mary Duty, Kathi Williams and Thomas Bastien agreed to try to get their fellow board members to meet again to possibly reconsider the issue. L.A. “Kim” Kimball, RTD’s executive director and general manager, also agreed not to execute the board action until an effort is made to set up the special board meeting. “But I can’t guarantee they will” Kimball added. “We can guarantee that if they don’t, we’ll file suit for breach of promise,” responded Mary Penland, an Atlantis employee. “And we’ll guarantee those articulated buses won’t roll unless they roll over our bodies.”
ADAPT (117)
Handicapped reach accord RTD Wheelchair-bound demonstrators and the Regional Transportation District reached an “understanding” Friday in a conflict that led the bus company to seek a restraining order against the demonstrators a week ago. Both sides “agreed to agree,” according to RTD spokeswoman Kathy Joyce, who said they would work out the details of the agreement before the issue comes before Denver District Judge Daniel Sparr on Feb. 2 During that time, Sparr will make no decision on RTD’s request for the temporary restraining order. If a formal agreement is reached by Feb. 2, Joyce said the request would be dropped. The demonstrators began staging a sit-in at RTD’s headquarters Jan. 4 over the company’s decision not to place wheelchair lifts on 89 new buses scheduled for delivery next year. The wheelchair-bound activists were from the Atlantis Community and Holistic Approaches to Independent Living Inc. Several of the demonstrators chained themselves to stairwells in the main lobby of the building at 1600 Blake St., and others blocked the front entrance during the demonstration. Their anger was directed at RTD Executive Director L.A. Kimball, whom they blame for the decision to omit the lifts from the new buses. During the sit-in, the building’s elevators were shut off, making it impossible for the demonstrators to reach Kimball’s office. The demonstrators weren’t arrested, but they were escorted from the premises by police and paramedics. RTD requested the temporary restraining order against the demonstrators after the third day of protest, claiming the demonstration caused “disruption, obstruction and interference.” John Holland, an attorney representing the demonstrators, said the issues that led to the demonstrations are still alive, but that both sides will work out their differences in the next two and a half weeks in a climate of more open communication. He said that during that tie his clients will not be “disruptive.”
ADAPT (132)
Rocky Mountain News Tuesday, Jan. 11, 1983, Denver, Colo. New RTD board Oks lifts for 90 buses By Burt Hubbard News Staff The news Regional Transportation District board, to the applause and cheers of wheelchair-bound onlookers, voted Monday night to spend $1.3 million to equip almost 90 new buses with lifts for the handicapped. The decision, by a 13-1 voted, reversed a yearlong policy against the lifts by the old board. It was the newly seated board’s first official decision and was made despite a recommendation by the agency executive director L.A. Kimball not to buy the equipment. “It’s not a question of money,” said RTD board member Byron Johnson. “It’s a question of federal, state and local government recognizing that the handicapped person has been ignored.” About 30 disabled people at the meeting cheered and applauded the decision after the roll was called. Only RTD board member Ann Walton voted against the lifts. The 15th member, Mary Duty, was in the hospital. Kimball who opposed buying the lifts, said the decision would mean delivery of the buses will be delayed up to four months. The buses had been scheduled to begin arriving in August. The lifts will cost $1.3 million with federal funds paying 80 percent. In other action, Kimball reported that through 1983, the district has spent more than $9.3 million studying light rail and acquiring land for rights-of-way. In addition, six staff members will spend all year working on light-rail activities, he said. The old RTD board has proposed a 77-mile system that would cost at least $5.8 billion by the time it would be finished in 2002. But several members of the new board have said they want to consider alternatives to light rail. Boxed Text: New RTD board elects chief Retired banker William Johnson on Monday night narrowly was elected chairman of the new Regional Transportation District board after more than two hours of voting and 10 ballots. Johnson, board member from Jefferson County, won by an 8-6 vote over former state Rep. Jack McCroskey, board member from Central Denver. The decision came after three other candidates dropped out of the balloting. Other candidates who withdrew during the balloting were Bill Rourke, Don Feland and Ann Walton.