Public Transit and People with Disabilities

Listen 29 min

Whether you ride the rails or roll on the wheels, getting where you need to go takes constant effort. Today we focus on transportation problems for people with disabilities.

The issues are universal but these particular devilish details reside in the bay area of California.

If you gotta go, you gotta go, but where’s the restroom? Is it open, accessible? And the latest problem, are the BART cars of the future a giant leap backward for people with disabilities?

Wheelchair user with the disputed pole.

We talk to Peter Mendoza, community organizer at Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco, about the progress and setbacks for people with disabilities since the transit protests of the late 1970s. With an interview with Linda (Ant Buddy) Picton, a Sonoma County activist bus rider.

Both of our guests are long-time public transit users and all-round activists.  Peter Mendoza has worked on transportation accessibility for most of his life.  Linda Picton is the recipient of the 2013 “Unsung Hero” award by the Sonoma County Peace and Justice Center.

Sheela Gunn-Cushman and Adrienne Lauby host.

Four Important Transit
Meetings This Week

Linda Picton. Photo by Alvin Jornada / Press Democrat

Stand Up for Justice: Just Education, Just Transit
“Public transit and para-transit are keys to opportunity”
Sunday, June 8th, 4 – 5:30 pm
St. Clare’s Episcopal Church
3350 Hopyard Road, Pleasanton
To reserve your space on a FREE shuttle bus from Corpus Christi Catholic Church (322 St. James Drive at Park Blvd, Piedmont), contact John Claassen 510-482-2075 or email jpclaassen@comcast.net . Please arrive @ Corpus Christi by 2:45 pm.   Sponsored by Urban Habitat.

A BART Access Committee meeting
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
10 am to 11:30 am
BART Headquarters
300 Lakeside Drive, 18th Floor Conf. Rm
Discussion of two alternatives that are being considered that remove some floor to ceiling poles on the new cars.

Public Hearing – AC Transit
Consideration of Revisions to Board Policies to Meet Title VI (Civil Rights Act) and Environmental Justice Mandates
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
5:00 p.m.
1600 Franklin Street
Oakland, CA  94612

Peter Mendoza

BART board meeting
Thursday June 12, 9 am
344 20th Street, Third Floor Board Room
Oakland, CA
The BART Board of Directors will discuss “The
Fleet of the Future Design” at this public Board meeting.

 

If not otherwise credited, photos on this article were taken during recent protests of the BART cars.

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