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El Paso Times
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1989 p.6A

[Headline] Court: New buses must have Wheelchair lifts

Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court Monday ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation to require transit authorities across the country to equip new buses with wheelchair lifts.

Attorneys who brought the lawsuit that led to the ruling called it the most important decision ever handed down for handicapped people needing public transportation.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a Transportation Department regulation requiring all new buses to accommodate wheelchairs conflicts with another allowing communities to offer only an alternative service, such as special vans, to the handicapped.

The court said a rule requiring reservations 24 hours in advance for use of the alternative transportation hinders the spontaneous use of mass transit by the handicapped. As a result, the court ordered transit authorities to make “reasonable accommodations to their" programs, i.e. purchase wheelchair-accessible buses,"

The court also upheld a controversial decision requiring the Transportation Department to eliminate a cap on the amount of money transit authorities need to spend on making transportation accessible.

A coalition of disabled people and 12 organizations called Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation filed the lawsuit last year.

The coalition contended that a provision of the federal regulations allowed authorities receiving federal transportation money to exclude the handicapped from “effective and meaningful" access.

U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz overturned the provision in cases where the transit authority buys any buses.

TEXT BOX INSERT:
El Paso already buying buses with access

El Paso already has a policy that requires wheelchair lifts on all buses, said Mark Dorfman, director of the city's Sun Metro bus service.

The policy has been in effect since 1987, when voters approved a half-percent sales tax to finance the city's bus system. City officials promised voters that the additional money from the sales tax would allow all new buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts, Dorfman said.

“We’re getting ready to take bids for 84 new buses, and one of the specifications is that they have lifts,” he said.

Dorfman said wheelchair lifts add an average of $15,000 to the cost of a bus.



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