Activist claims Transit Mall project violates disabilities law

TriMet says project legal, but some details yet to be worked out

By Steve Law

The Portland Tribune, Jun 15, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (20 Reader comments)

Portland activist Michael Levine charges that TriMet failed to accommodate buses for disabled people when it redesigned the downtown transit mall, calling it a “multimillion-dollar” mistake that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Levine, who is legally blind and sits on city and TriMet advisory committees for people with disabilities, said TriMet’s LIFT buses can’t stop at the transit mall because of the new design. The 25-foot-long buses, provided via the Accessible Transportation Program, pick up frail seniors and people with disabilities at their homes, on appointment, and then drop them off at their chosen destinations.

TriMet expects it will drop people off on side streets when they are going to destinations on the transit mall, Levine said. That includes many well-traveled shops and office buildings along Fifth and Sixth avenues.

“ ‘Around the corner’ is not acceptable,” Levine said. “How does a blind person find a bus around the corner?”

“The law is fairly clear,” Levine said. The buses need to take people from “origin to destination,” he said.

TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said that Levine’s complaints are premature and he’s not interpreting the law correctly.

“We are going to have LIFT service on the mall,” Fetsch said, but in selected places only. The new design will make it harder to find places for the LIFT buses to drop people off and pick them up on the mall, and drivers will need to use cross streets, she said.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit