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.

Created on

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Posted on

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Tags

articulated buses, Board Meeting, RTD, wheelchair lifts

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