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NEWS & LETTERS,
August-September 2002
Blockade hits transit discrimination
Memphis,Tenn.--We’re proud members of ADAPT (American
Disabled for Attendant Programs Today). We were waiting at the bus stop and saw
a bus with a wheelchair lift coming around 3:15 p.m. The bus driver saw us
sitting there in our wheelchairs, he braked slightly, then pulled off. He
refused to stop. The bus wasn’t crowded, he just didn’t want to pick us up. We started calling MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority)
mainline and MATAplus trying to get a ride back to work. MATAplus is the transit
system for people functionally unable to use the fixed route system. According
to the Americans with Disabilities Act, if the mainline bus fails in any way,
MATAplus is supposed to pick up the slack. We couldn’t get hold of any of the powers that be. We
called James Anglin, the MATAplus manager, and William Hudson, the MATA
president. Nobody was in their office and the staff at MATAplus kept
transferring us or wouldn’t answer our call or wouldn’t return our calls. We
just got tired. We knew the next bus would come at 4:08 p.m. Just as it was
coming around the corner we saw a MATAplus bus pull up across the street. I
thought, aha! They’re here to pick us up. Wrong! They picked up another guy.
We saw a mainline bus coming and decided to block it. We figured, nobody is
calling us, nobody is giving us anything, so let’s stop this bus and maybe we
can negotiate. We had been out all afternoon trying to get some way
back to the office. Then a MATAplus bus did pull up, and someone told us that
was the bus we were to get on. When we started towards it, the driver of the bus
we were blocking took off, and so did the MATAplus bus. So we decided to block
the van of a MATA supervisor who came out here. The police are here, but MATA is
not going to prosecute us for blocking their bus. They aren’t going to prosecute us because they know
that they’re in the wrong and totally incompetent. It’s 5:35 p.m. now.
Transportation in Memphis for disabled people is totally undependable. But a lot
of people with disabilities have no choice. You have to get to your job; get
home from your job; pick your children up from day care; go to the grocery
store; go to the doctor. You’re at their mercy. The drivers who passed us by
will probably not even be reprimanded, it happens so frequently. --Renee and Deborah |
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