Human Rights for Paratransit Riders

In every neighborhood, someone knows a person who is disabled--a parent, grandparent, child, student, war vet, employee, or employer.   IMPRUVE does not know everyone who is disabled, but needs your help to get the word out.  We fight on behalf of very paratransit rider in NE IL while working to organize paratransit riders in other states.  We are also supporting students who effective June 1, 2009 will no longer be able to use their CTA U-Pass to ride Pace paratransit in Chicago. This is the agency that in this economy gave salary increases to 20 executives while riders struggled to pay their fares.  (Pace gave only two days notice that they would no longer accept the U-pass effective May 1, 2009, then changed the date to June 1 after they were informed that the semester does not end until May 13 or later.) 

 IMPRUVE  waged an 18-month battle in Northern IL District Court to regain the human and civil rights of paratransit  riders beginning with the right to choose; the right to safe, affordable, fair, equitable  and respectable (SAFER) service; and the right to receive equitable public transit that is accessible, whether door-to-door or curb-to-curb regardless of race.  

You can help through IMPRUVE Paratransit Minuteman Campaign.  Join and sound the alarm on Pace and the erosion of human rights of paratransit riders.  And please sign the petiton and ask your friends, family, healthcare providers, paratransit riders, and co-workers to sign.

The Pace Paratransit system is run by a board that serves people who are disabled, or of which 71% are Black, 56% are seniors, and 86% do not own their own vehicle. 

Pace has divided the riders such that those in certain zones are no longer able to receive equitable service and the trip length (ride) and wait time too often far exceed the fixed route sometimes by hours of difference. Some wait 6 hours to be picked up and 7 hours or overnight to get home. We are talking in the city, not across country or continents! These are medically fragile people and people  with spinal and bone or joint issues who are subjected to brutal punishment by riding in vans in Zone 3 in the Pace Chicago Paratransit system that are better equipped to haul tools and metal than human beings. 

The riders, who incidentally are clients or customers, do not receive a free ride. They pay to be maltreated, left behind, exposed to the indifference of a board that mostly transports Blacks, but has only one Black director and no Black advisors on its Citizen Advisory Board, and though most of its ridership is in Chicago, it has no public office in Chicago.  Riders are treated more as commodities than customers.

Instead of working with its original Pace ADA Advisory Committee, when the riders made recommendations that Pace did not like, it disbanded the Committee and set up a different advisory council with a staggering 30 members.   It will be a wait and see game to assess if any agreement favorable and fair to the riders comes from 30 people selected by a transit board that does not accept public input that is critical of its abuses. 

Public opinion of Pace is at an all-time low.  As the nation%u2019s largest paratransit provider, it is another embarrassment to Illinois to have an ineffective and biased service board shuttle around people who are disabled, young and seniors, as if dead meat or cargo, on top of IL just having to impeach a governor.  This governor also failed to bailout the paratransit riders though he was instrumental in getting the state legislature to offer free rides on the bus and train for seniors, veterans and military personnel, and low wealth riders who are disabled.  

Though not communicating effectively and sometimes not at all about random changes and policy decisions, Pace took it upon themselves to be sure that riders were used to lobby legislators and advocate before the media and at public hearings with their scripts to acquire more funding from the state legislature.  While six--plus execs accepted raises, Pace cut routes and services even as it raised the monthly pass to $150, double the prior price of $75. The monthly pass remains out of the reach of its major customer base: Blacks, low wealth riders, and most seniors. Meanwhile, they tell their story to FTA (Federal Transit Administration)  and RTA  (Regional Transit Administration) of the riders being unfair when we have a right to better service, reasonable accommodations under Transit Equity law, The Americans with Disabilities Act , Section 504 of the Rehab Act, and the U.S. Constitution, and should have protection from retaliation for filing  a federal complaint.

We merely exercise our rights and demand the service that our tax dollars pay for, but we do not get.  This is only part of the reason why we demand public ownership of the paratransit.  We will proceed to help other states as soon as we prevail in our case. 

This is a national  problem.  If the largest agency is failing its riders, what of the smaller service boards that run paratransit in other states? 

Moreover, how does a carrier with a poor track record in every state in which it exists (26 states) get a lucrative contract for city and suburban paratransit service in Chicago and the south suburbs, and not be required in Chicago to at least provide better and smoother riding vehicles and a variety such as the other carriers have (i.e. vans with ramps for those in wheelchairs or who have back injuries or bone and joint pain who cannot ride their rough riding mini buses)?  Only in Chicago--where everything has a political agenda or requires political influence to have a lifespan.

We are not petitioning our government. We are petitioning you the public to speak out and speak up for us, or sign the petition demanding  that our human rights and civil rights be restored as people who are disbeld and ride paratransit.   We have declared our rights with the government and public entities that include Pace.  Email us at impruve2@yahoo.com, if you would like a copy of our Declaration of Transit Freedom and Justice. You do not have to live in IL to support us.

We want amnesty for those who are disabled, so they do not have to be ashamed because they cannot ride the fixed route bus or train in Chicago, or have to stay home, because they have been told they can only ride paratransit in the winter or during inclimate weather.

Well, this is the windy city. It was 73 earlier-- the day I wrote this, 60 when I left home, and down to 38 by the time I returned from a stroll by wheelchair and visits to a few businesses 75 minutes later. Thank God I wore my winter coat anyway. It could be sunny in the morning and snow by late afternoon.  Yet, the rider coded as conditional could be refused a trip, because of the prior forecast of  sunny weather. 

Though IMPRUVE has withdrawn as a plaintif in the class action, or members remain witnesses or plaintiffs.   The lawyers are proceeding with the class action.

 And we are proceeding at the grassroots level--help us get the ear of the right  people  to  reinstate the humanity of paratransit and accessible transportation and rights of the paratransit riders and perhaps gain public ownership by people who are disabled to create a green paratransit: that means clean energy, safer vehicles, socially responsibe management, integrity, and green collar jobs for people who are disabled, too. 

In order to Fix Transit, we must Fix Paratransit Now!!!