Well, I not only wrote to the New York Daily News, I have now written to:

The Mayor's Office
The New York City Department of Transportation
The Bay News (our own little Brooklyn Newspaper).
Congressman Rangel's office
And my representative (NYC's 13th District), Hon. Vito Fosella

Somebody HAS TO RESPOND!!!

Will update.

Way to go Melody.... Congrats!!!

Cathie

--he does have some interest in transportation issues, given that he represents Staten Island ( which is where I know him from) as well as southern Brooklyn--though he's not known for being that responsive to constitutents . . .

Nevertheless, you've done a good thing--let's keep the pressure on, as you know how these things are lauded as great ideas and then the politicians who don't want to pay for them, or organize them, quietly let them drop.

Good for you Melody! Our elected officials are there for a reason - to help us! And if you are going to continue to fight - then go girl.....

I've worked on personal issues no other agency would/could resolve in the last few years - and have been helped by a State Senator, the Mayor, and a Congressman (and when they intervened, each issue was taken care of asap)..... their staff typically handles all issues they can first... so maybe I can encourage you - be prepared with lots of facts!!!!!

I know you have Access - I can imagine the response of "why do we need two services? (or the funds?) Do we eliminate one of them?
What is the percentage of population who are disabled and/or elderly usuing the public trasnsporatation system? And those who are - do they want to be singled out? Would it be feasible to compromise a combined bus with a handicapped section? Could you give penalties to drivers who do not stop to pick up the disabled, and one could report this infraction by their bus number, line, etc..... Is there any type of discrimation going on by separting the "healthy" young public from the elderly/disabled in this type of situation?

If you could answer questions like this - maybe by talking to senior centers, using the net and/or agencies where you can get numbers on age of population, disabled, etc.... call agencies involved if need - etc.... prepared with numbers, dollars, etc. the more interest you can stir up the better....

Go get em! Those elected officials are supposed to be listening to people!

kmeb:

You're a genius.

Getting right on it (that is as soon as I get Alan to physical therapy and back home again.

Good suggestions.

Will update.

Getting a letter published in a newspaper is no small achievement.

I am confused, however. I live in Brooklyn, where you live, and we have access-a-ride vans. My parents use them all the time. They are public, city-sponsored, for the elderly or disabled. I don't even think my parents "applied". They're old and can no longer use public transportation, so they call access-a-ride.

This is from their website:


MTA Paratransit Services

The MTA has two paratransit services that provide shared ride transportation for people who are unable to use the subways, buses, or commuter railroads for some or all of their trips and their Personal Care Attendants (PCAs).

New York City Transit's Access-A-Ride serves New York's five boroughs. Access-A-Ride services are available for travel for any purpose 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


New York City
Access-a-Ride
New York City Transit
Paratransit Division
2 Broadway 11th Floor
New York, NY 10004
1-877-337-2017 (toll-free) or 1-646-252-5252
1-646-252-5287 (TTY) - Reservations
1-646-252-5104 (TTY) - Applications

I don't remember about the buses and train in NYC, but other cities have some seats where seniors and handicapped have priority seating. They are usually bench seats along the windows on both sides right behind the driver. The Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Vancouver, B.C. buses and trains even have a space next to those seats for a wheelchair.

The senior/handicapped bench seating can be used by anybody, but people have to give the seat up if a senior or handicapped person gets on the bus.

Even public-transportation averse San Diego has senior and handicapped ACCESS vans. There are problems with that. ACCESS requires reservations coming and going and is thus less convenient that buses. ACCESS times and distances are limited. When he stopped driving, my dad used ACCESS in Orange County, but only when desperate because it was such a hassle. So I agree that there is a compelling need for senior and handicapped access to regularly scheduled public transportation.

Whatever the solution, your letter will help tilt things toward providing better services to seniors and the handicapped.

Liza Jane:

Please allow me to ENLIGHTEN you on Access-a-ride. I have had it for over 10 years. Not a pretty story!! I got mine with no problem. Things changed when Alan applied.

Alan got it 4 years ago.

When you apply, you have to go down, there is an interview (then you go in another room to see a pschiatrist), then you go and sit down (along with hundreds of other people. Then they call you back and there is a mock-up of a bus and they tell you to get up on the bus. Of course the disabled person can't GET UP on a bus.

Then they make you walk back and forth on this corridor. Alan refused (he had the foot ulcer). The person argued with him. Oh, by the way, Alan had written letters from Dr. Fred and everything.

They tell you to go home and you will hear from them in 6 weeks.

Six weeks or so later, he got a temporary access-a-ride card good for 3 months. I looked at the card (3 months???).

Then I looked at the card again, and it said "only from Brooklyn, to NYC"

At the time, all of Alan's doctors operated out of Brooklyn, so ALAN WAS NOT ABLE TO GO TO ANY DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS. We had to appeal this decision . We won. He got a new Access-a-ride card and they gave it to him for one year.

For the past 4 years, he has had to go down every tiime. But it gets better.

Last year, when he had the appointment in August to go down for re-assessement, there is an appointment date and time on the letter.

He had to have some kind of foot surgery on his ulcer that day so he simply called the Access-a-ride office and asked to have the re-assessment appointment re-scheduled. They said no problem. WHAT THEY DIDN'T TELL HIM WAS WHEN YOU RE-SCHEDULE THE RE-ASSESSMENT APPOINTMENT, THEY AUTOMATICALLY CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP.

You should have seen his face when he tried to make an appointment with the doctor and the lady on the phone says: 'you do not have access-a-ride membership anymore". He said "I beg your pardon, I just re-scheduled my assessment appointment it's next month" and she said "oh, didn't anyone tell you, they cancel your card if you don't keep the original appointment that they give you."

Well, don't ask what happened that day. We had to use MY membership for all his appointments, until he got re-assessed. Then he had to wait 6 weeks.

But the best is when he got the new card. His expiration date is 2014. No one gets an expiration date of 2014.

I think someone took a look at his medical history and said "what the hell happened to this guy, give this to him for 6 years".

Now you might be thinking, Oh, you just call the day before and make an appointment and they pick you up and you go to wherever you have to go, and then they pick you up and return you home".

Yeah, on a perfect day, in a perfect world. This has happened to us exactly once in the 10 years I have had Access-a-Ride.

I usually wait one hour before they pick me up. So if you have an 8 a.m. doctor appointment, you have to tell them you have a 7 a.m. appointment.

They give you a 6 a.m. pickup time. They show up at 7 a.m. and that's when you GET THERE ON TIME.

Usually, when I go to Cornell, I get a 2:30 p.m. return home pickup. They never show up before 4:30 p.m. And god forbid if you are not outside, some drivers will leave you there. Also, if you get the bus number and bus name, even then they can screw you.

I was at Cornell, I called the Access-a-ride number, they told me (for example), "You bus is Atlantic Paratransit and your bus number is 803".

Yeah right. 15 Access-a-rides show up, none of them is Atlantic and none of them said 803.

So I wait the 30 minutes before I can call to ask 'where is my bus" and she said "oh he was there, I responded 'oh no he wasn't". She checked and said 'Oh we changed the bus number and bus line, and NOBODY CALLED YOU??? OH WE ARE SO SORRY". I got picked up at 5 p.m. And I was lucky to get picked up at all.

We once went to the Bronx and we had a 9 p.m return trip home. We got picked up at 9:30 p.m. and we never got home till 1 a.m.

They picked up five other people, returned to the Bronx to drop them off, and then took us to Brooklyn.

It's the absolute worst thing to depend on. I only use it for Cornell and for Alan's stuff at Beth Israel.

One time i was on the bus and a lady in a wheelchair wasn't strapped down right and the whole wheelchair fell over.

One elderly man came on the bus (he had been kept waiting for over 2 hours), he came on the bus and starting hitting the driver with his cane. They had to restrain him.


NOW DO YOU SEE WHY WE NEED OUR OWN BUS LINE????? lol

Hi - I was just going to answer when you posted Melody - I've had the very same experiecnes with access - they are contracted out to local agnecies - reservations have to be made very far in advance- you have to allow at lesat two hours to prior to an appt for pickup (if they show) - and they have left me sitting on a curb past pickup time for more then 3 hours (if you go inside a building and they show up - they can leave you..) I found them impossible to use for docs because they were so unreliable - and if my docs went late (which was often) and they showed up on time I was out of luck -I could call the and see if they had alternative ride for me - they never did... if you dont need to get somewhere in a tight time frame - and I can sit for long periods then they are inexpensive.....

We do have a local senior transport that diasabled are allowd to use in my city - BUT - reservations must be made two weeks in advance - which making docs appts if often very hard to do... and they will not leave city limits (all my docs are just outside city limits!)..... again, they are a good service for in town and if you dont need to go far.... but for actually getting me to my docs - completely useless.....

From Davids post - sounds like he too has some experience with others using Access - in concept they are great - and again - if you have all day and nothing urgent - great - but other then that - completely frustrating..... In order to me to even get to a public bus line in my chair would take about half an hour - I belive you have much better public transport back there - so being able to accomodate people in any situation I think is a great idea.....

all of this? And that is: Can you imagine what a nightmare it is to schedule all these folks going all over to all over elsewhere and back again? Usually on a very short turn around time? Then there are the drivers? Contract or not, folks often call in sick and then the schedules go waay down SOUTH [no offense meant here to Southerners, you know what I mean] and nothing ever goes as planned. Kind of seems like airlines during a pseudo-blizzard or other weather in one part of the country.
Next are volunteer services, or those that are 'marginal' social services [receiving some area subsidy to help] Well, with both there are heaps and heaps of liability issues [say the voluteer drives a person and they're in an accident?] I have tried to volunteer to drive cancer chemo and rads patients home from the hospital as I KNOW how crummy they feel and have never been taken up on it! Go figger-that liability stuff will get you every time?
As for eligibility for a 'disability' sticker? IN my state, I HAVE to present myself at every other renewall time - I guess they have to see IF I am a] Alive; b] disabled and c] Still me?
I suppose that I should be grateful that friends or others could drive me in for any renewalls in a pinch? I DO know I'm very grateful I can still drive to such things - Knock wood quickly!!!!!!!!!!! Hugs to all - j

OH! The DC subways? Yes the 'seats' for cappers should be surrendered...but most often are not. They just scrapped a plan to re-configure the subway cars to enable wheelchair and capper seating more safely. Too expensive and current riders 'objected'. Not that Anywhere I GO in DC could be accessed by the subway anyhow? That is a totally different issue!