by Ron Brooks: For More Info, Go Here…
ngd- Duh! of the week…
Virtually every transit agency has a few angry customers, and I used to be one. I depended on transit and when it failed, it was maddening. A late train, a crowded bus passing me by, a late or circuitous shared ride on paratransit — any and all of these relatively routine occurrences could send me into an emotional tailspin.
Earlier in my career, I would have speculated that perhaps those customers are just in pain, or don’t understand the nature of paratransit, or some other widely accepted sentiment. But customers with disabilities are just as smart as our other customers, and many live with discomfort all the time, so these explanations just didn’t ring true. Then, one day, as I was reading anti-paratransit diatribes on Facebook and thinking about my own strong emotional reactions to transit and paratransit service failures, it hit me. Most people have many transportation options: If the car breaks down, there’s often a second car, or transit, or a taxi or a rideshare service. But for people with disabilities, these alternates often do not exist: It’s transit or paratransit or nothing. Thus, when people with disabilities get mad about a transit or paratransit service issue, it’s probably not pain or confusion. Rather, it’s probably the fact that they had no fallback, and their day just took a turn for the worse.
