Complaints Rise from Disabled Bus Riders; AC Promises Relief
By Michael Welt
Michael Pachovas uses a wheelchair, and like many disabled residents of the East Bay, he relies on AC Transit buses to get around.
The buses are all wheelchair accessible and provide access to areas that BART doesn't reach.
But Pachovas, who lives in Berkeley and typically depends on the buses two or three times a month to go shopping, says mechanical problems and general service cutbacks have made travel harder in recent years. And, like many disabled passengers, Pachovas says drivers sometimes mistreat him.
"Some bus drivers have a real bad attitude about picking up people with disabilities, other bus drivers are sweethearts," said Pachovas. "It's very inconsistent."
"A lot of time lifts aren't working," Pachovas said. "Often times drivers will pass us by, just not wanting to deal with us, pretending to ignore us or pretending they're full when there's adequate room."
Craig Long of Alameda, who uses a wheelchair and has ridden the buses regularly for the last year, tells a similar story.
"The frequency of 'broken lifts' gives me the impression that the lifts aren't actually broken," said Long, "but that the drivers don't want to have to deal with a wheelchair sometimes."
"I've had them drive by me, and of course I always let the full buses go by anyway."
AC Transit said it is "keenly aware" of complaints that drivers sometimes pass by disabled passengers. The agency offers counseling to drivers in response to specific incidents, but spokesman Mike Mills said AC Transit doesn't publish the number or nature of disciplinary actions taken against drivers. AC Transit says 99 percent of its buses have functioning lifts.
"Anecdotally [from mechanics], we do have evidence that lifts are malfunctioning," said Douglas Cross, accessible services manager for AC Transit. Cross attributed lift problems to "old buses that are past their useful life and also more people wanting to use them."
Complaints from disabled riders rose sharply during the past year, although they remained low relative to the total number of rides on the system. AC Transit received 133 complaints about driver misconduct last year, up from 114 a year ago. Although complaints that drivers passed by disabled passengers rose just slightly from 40 to 43, complaints about inoperable lifts jumped from 14 to 47.
"I would say about 80 percent of the time [the lifts] work, 20 percent of the time they don't, or [the drivers] just don't know how to use them," said Long.
Many of the mechanical problems could be fixed when AC Transit upgrades more than half its fleet. The agency plans to replace 188 buses over the next year and, starting next year, plans to retrofit about 300 older buses with new lifts and systems used to keep wheelchairs in place. The new buses will be used on so-called "trunk lines," the 40, 51, 58, 72, and 82, which carry passengers long distances. The new systems are designed to accommodate a wider variety of wheelchairs and scooters.
When they arrive, the improvements will be welcomed.
"A lot of times we're sitting here on very cold days, waiting for a succession of buses that may or may not be accessible, or operable," said Pachovas. "We can do a better job here."