|
"ACTION
ALERT!! Paratransit Policy Crisis"
From Marilyn Golden (mgolden@dredf.org) of DREDF (Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund) |
ACTION ALERT!! ACTION ALERT!! ADA PARATRANSIT POLICY CRISIS AT Department of Transportation (DOT) "Next Day Service is a Civil Right!" YOUR PHONE CALLS AND E-MAILS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED TO SAVE ADA PARATRANSIT Your phone calls and e-mails are urgently needed ASAP, insisting that DOT not compromise the ADA requirement that transit agencies must provide eligible paratransit riders with next-day service. DOT has been formally requested by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to interpret its ADA regulation in the case Anderson v. Rochester-Genesee Regional Transit Authority. At issue is whether the ADA requires transit agencies to plan to provide all next day service requests. DOT's response will have nationwide implications and will either make or break the requirement for next day service. It's crucial that DOT stand behind its own full next-day service and not give transit agencies legal interpretations or loopholes that undercut this mandate. Some of you may ask, why aren't we insisting on same-day service? Good question. The ADA law requires paratransit to be "comparable" to fixed route (bus and rail) service, and DOT's 1991 ADA regulation interpreted "comparable" to mean "next day." This regulation, which the court has asked DOT to interpret (but not change), is already a real compromise in the equal rights of people with disabilities. We will accept no further compromises! DOT's RESPONSE IS DUE TO THE COURT SHORTLY, SO TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE - RESPOND ASAP or within the next week at the latest. In brief, THE MESSAGE:
HERE'S WHAT DO TO: Call (or e-mail, if you can't call) the two people below. Please DO NOT send them this alert and DO NOT "cc" DREDF in your e-mails. Please DO feel free to add your own paratransit denial horror stories or those of your friends or clients. But give the above message first! Secretary Norman Mineta, Secretary of
Transportation Jenna Dorn, Administrator, Federal Transit
Administration |
