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2/89 New York Times

[Headline] Court Orders Buses Fitted for Handicapped

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 14 (AP) - A Federal appeals court ordered the Department of Transportation on Monday to require transit authorities around the country to equip new buses with wheelchair lifts.

In its ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, said another Transportation Department regulation allowing communities to offer the handicapped services like special vans hindered the spontaneous use of mass transit by the disabled.

The court also upheld a decision requiring the Transportation Department to eliminate a 3 percent limit on the amount of money transit authorities must spend to make transportation accessible.

The lawsuit, filed by Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, a coalition of disabled people, and 12 organizations, attacked a provision of the Federal regulations on public transportation that allows local authorities to offer people in wheelchairs transportation in buses, special vans or a
combination of the two.

Judge Carol Los Mansmann of the appeals court, writing the 2-to-1 decision, said, "Congress wanted to provide the disabled with the capability to utilize mass transit to the ‘maximum extent feasible.'"

Timothy M. Cook, director of the Washington-based National Disability Action Center, who argued the case before the court, said the ruling was "a major, major victory" for the handicapped. But a spokesman for transit agencies said the ruling did not address vexing problems.

Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of the American Public Transit Association, said wheelchair lifts receive limited use where they exist and are an added expense to transit agencies at a time when Federal subsidies have been dwindling.

Many local transportation officials declined comment on the ruling because they had not seen it.

But Peter Dimond a spokesman for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston, said, "we have made a pledge that all buses we purchase in the future will be lift-equipped."

It costs $15,000 to equip a bus with a wheelchair lift and buses cost about $200,000, according to Joaquin Bowman, a spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

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