HCC [Handicapped Coloradan?] 2/84

Two photos by Bob Conrad: Top photo of person in a sports jacket and in a manual wheelchair on a lift getting ready to enter a bus with "Ride" written on the side. He is facing in toward the door of the vehicle.
Bottom photo is of a person in a wheelchair sitting on a lift facing out the door of a bus. A man [Wade Blank] with long blonde hair and a plaid jacket stands beside the lift watching.

Wheeler for a Day

Jay Bear Baker, an RTD district director, finds out first hand what it's like to travel via "The Ride" when you're in a wheelchair. Baker was accompanied on the mid-February excursion by members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT). Baker boarded buses at Broadway and Colfax and traveled along Lincoln and Alameda. Four out of the five buses he attempted to ride had functioning lifts. in the bottom photo ADAPT member Wade Blank watches as Baker is lowered to the curb. Baker's rides included a trip on one of the 89 new articulated buses. Those are the buses which were equipped with lifts only after the newly elected RTD board voted to reverse a decision made by the old appointed board and former RTD General Manager L.A. Kimball. "The lift worked beautifully, " Blank said. "I've heard that a lot of drivers are praising it, too. " The expedition with Baker is part of a plan by ADAPT to encourage RTD to continue to make its system totally accessible to wheelchair riders. Blank said he's encouraged by some of RTD's 177 more lift-equipped buses as well as to correct wiring problems in many of like current lifts. RTD has also approved the use of a lift equipped over-the road coach on the Denver-Boulder run on an experimental basis. Blank said he has met with new RTD General Manager William Colby and warned him that Colorado’s three favorite sports were "skiing, hiking, and criticizing RTD."

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Tags

ADAPT - American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, ADAPT 1989, articulated buses, Bob Conrad, Dennis Cannon, Intercity/Over the Road Bus, RTD, Wade Blank, wheelchair lifts

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• Denver RTD

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