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 But the federal regulations were rescinded last summer.

Created on

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Posted on

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Tags

Atlantis, federal regs recinded, LA Kimball, RTD, state civil rights law, sued, wheelchair lifts

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