Category: Transportation

As someone who had been driving since age 18, I wasn’t the most critical person to speak. More important spokespeople were those directly affected by the cuts. We joined forces to educate Commissioners on how lives would be negatively impacted if riders couldn’t take the bus to medical appointments, work, stores, and the like. Further reduction in public transit would result in medical emergencies, unemployment, and malnutrition.

Riders dependent on public transit were trained to confront commissioners with emails, letters, individual appointments, personal impact statements, and public comments at weekly BOCC televised meetings. One rider was applauded in the BOCC chamber after telling how she was forced to ride her bike seven miles to her doctor’s office in a heat index of 107℉. This was bad enough, but what about the majority of riders who were unable to compensate by riding a bike.

The action climaxed on June 17, 2008, when 17 Community Coach public transit riders and advocates followed through on their plan to picket at the Martin County Administrative Center.  The picketers were blind or visually impaired, brain injured, mentally ill, and wheelchair users carrying hand-made pickets that read:

■ MARTIN NEEDS COACH ■ SAVE THE COACH, SAVE JOBS ■ LET ME RIDE ■ COACH IS MY LIFELINE ■ COACH IS CRITICAL ■ FULLY FUND COACH ■ NO COACH NO ALTERNATIVE ■ NO COACH NO WAY OUT

Three of the five commissioners responded to my request that they talk to individual picketers during a break from the BOCC meeting. The commissioners responded favorably to the demonstration and went on the record assuring riders that funding for the bus service would remain. Two commissioners agreed that cutting bus funding would threaten the jobs of both riders and bus drivers.

Several media reports spotlighted how proposed budget cuts negatively affected people with disabilities:

• Daphne Duret, “Elderly and disabled ask Martin commission not to cut buses.” Palm Beach Post (June 17, 2008).
• George Andreassi, “Disabled fight for Stuart public transit.” Stuart News (June 17, 2008).
• R.J. Harrington, “Community Coach riders protest to keep a slice of Martin budget.” Stuart News (June 18, 2008).

Despite the warm reception at the demonstration, riders continued advocacy at the July budget workshop to be sure the commissioners didn’t renege on their agreement to spare transit from budget cuts. And the commissioners were true to their word.

So what action have you taken in response to a funding crisis? This post is a condensed version of Chapter 18, Transit Funding and Public Participation, in “ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities” coming in October 2021. Go to my website for book updates, https://angelamuirvanetten.com/books.

We wait for someone to lift our carry-on bag onto the conveyor belt and pass a bin in which to place items for scanning or examination. And then we wait for an agent to direct a bypass from the metal detector for a personal pat-down and test for any trace of explosives on our hands or mobility device.

The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), TSA PreCheck™ program, expedites security inspections with removal exemptions for shoes, belts, light jackets, laptops and 3-1-1 compliant liquids, but travelers and their medical equipment are still subject to imaging and inspection. Plus the TSA PreCheck™ background check, fingerprinting and personal interview are conducted off-site prior to traveling and cost at least $85. Not worth the effort for occasional travelers and definitely a problem for people like me whose fingerprints are no longer legible.

After security clearance, there’s waiting in line for a cup of coffee or a restaurant table. Despite the generous number of stalls, there’s often a line in the bathroom. It’s especially annoying when waiting outside the accessible stall occupied by a nondisabled person changing their clothes and doing hair and makeup. Transit layovers involve lots of waiting in gate lounges and restaurants. Media, meditating/praying in the chapel, people watching, reading, shopping, writing cards and emails, and sleeping fill the time.

People mistake our priority boarding status for less waiting. But when deplaning, they learn we’re last off. We wait for baggage handlers to bring our scooters to the jetway. On a good day, the scooters are brought to us; on a bad day, instructions are ignored, the scooters are delivered to baggage claim, and we must wait for a skycap. Arriving early in the morning or during peak hours means a long wait. For example, when our plane arrived at Heathrow airport in the UK at 5:00 a.m. we had to wait one hour before any transport staff came on duty. The upside is that by the time we make it to baggage claim our bags are either circulating on the carousel or have been off-loaded. The downside is that off-loaded bags are often taken to a storage area where we wait for staff to retrieve them.

Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Isaiah 40:31

To read more, go to my website at  https://angelamuirvanetten.com where you can subscribe to my weekly blog and find several retail links to my book, “Pass Me Your Shoes: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith.”

if they are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability. Miniature horses and emotional support animals no longer qualify as service animals, in the context of air travel, and will be treated as pets subject to more restrictions and fees.

The DOT made the rule change fully aware that removing emotional support animals from the service animal class was a contentious issue with no perfect solution likely to satisfy all stakeholders. Here’s why they made the rule change anyway:

(1) the increase in service animal complaints from passengers with disabilities;

(2) the inconsistent definitions among Federal agencies of what constitutes a “service animal;”

(3) the erosion of public trust in legitimate service animals due to requests to transport unusual species of animals onboard aircraft;

(4) the increasing frequency of travelers fraudulently representing their pets as service animals; and

(5) the increase in misbehavior by emotional support animals—including urinating, defecating, growling, and in some instances, harming people and other animals at the airport or on the aircraft.

Of the approximately 15,000 comments in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, more than 10,000 concerned the transport of emotional support animals. About one-third of the comments favored excluding emotional support animals from the service animal definition and treating them as pets. The two-thirds who opposed emotional support animals being treated as pets instead of service animals highlighted the needs of those with a wide range of serious mental and emotional disabilities for whom medication is ineffective in relieving stress, anxiety, and depression. The low income of many in this class of disability would also make flying unaffordable given what airlines charge for pets.

Among other things, the new rule allows airlines to require—

—passengers to submit forms related to the service dogs Health, Behavior and Training and, for flight segments of eight hours or more, to attest that the dog has the ability either not to relieve itself on a long flight or to relieve itself in a sanitary manner.

—a service animal to fit on their handler’s lap or in their foot space on the aircraft.

—a service animal to be harnessed, leashed, or otherwise tethered in areas of the airport that they own, lease, or control, and on the aircraft.

There is so much more in this final rule published on December 10, 2020. You can find it in the Federal Register at 85 FR 79742, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/10/2020-26679/traveling-by-air-with-service-animals.

Your comments on this controversial rulemaking are welcome.

For more of my writings, go to https://angelamuirvanetten.com where you can subscribe to my weekly blog and find several retail links to my book, “Pass Me Your Shoes: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith.”