3/43
ADAPT (344).JPG ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)ADAPT (361)ThumbnailsADAPT (347)

Cheyenne Tribune 9/27/87

Title: Disabled to Protest for Public Transit Access

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -
Hundreds of disabled activists say they will demonstrate for more access to public transportation during the American Public Transit Association's four-day meeting, which starts Sunday.

Organizers of the protests, aimed at making a point to 4,000 delegates from 400 public transit systems, expected more than 600 handicapped and disabled people from all over the country to participate.

Groups including the September Alliance for Accessible Transit have been trying for years to get the APTA, the nation’s public transit lobbying arm, to declare a national policy giving disabled people the same access to buses and trains as able commuters.

“If it were women or blacks who couldn't get on the bus, it would clearly be a civil rights issue," said Kitty Cone of the Berkeley, Calif., group.

Her organization and Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit threaten to block city streets, hotel lobbies and entrances to the Moscone Convention Center to show delegates how it feels to be denied access.

Some demonstrators also promised to invade banquets and cocktail parties attended by delegates.

“We are not going to allow these people to have a good meal,” said Bill Bolte of the Denver organization. He was arrested earlier this year for a demonstration at a transit meeting in Phoenix.

The transit group's policy is that questions of access should be left to local transit districts.

“Mainstream access may work well in the Bay Area but don't tell systems in Akron, Ohio, or Buffalo, N.Y., that they have to do the same thing,” said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of the association.

He said many systems in smaller areas cannot afford to renovate buses and trains or to purchase new vehicles, so have chosen to provide door-to-door van service for the disabled.

He also said that protests or no protests, no major policy changes were expected to be adopted during the meeting.

Federal regulations approved in 1986 give local agencies the option of using mainstream or so-called paratransit services, such as the door-to-door vans.

0 comments