| Wheelchair-accessible ramps
The University of Massachusetts Transit system added five new buses to its fleet in the middle of August, and plans to add another five by the end of the academic year.
The new buses were designed to be more accommodating to disabled passengers and are equipped with wheelchair-accessible ramps.
"On the older buses, passengers had to roll their wheelchairs onto the lifts in the back, and the bus driver would operate the lift. With the new buses, they can just roll on by themselves," said Transit Services manager, Al Byam.
The buses, which were manufactured by Gillig Corp. of Hayward, California, are run by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). They are blue and orange, seat 40 passengers, and are marked with the new PVTA logo.
"The new buses also have the most fuel efficient diesel engine," said Byam.
A story of survival: Hope gives strength to family of one injured ...
WOODBURN, Ore. - On the wall in the basement bedroom Jared and Amy Nelson share - his hospital bed snug up against her quilt-covered queen - hangs this cross-stitched message: "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."
That simple, framed sentence holds a truth that Amy has learned to live in the year since a van full of Utah State University agriculture students returning from a field trip crashed near Tremonton.
Eight classmates and their instructor died Sept. 26, 2005. Jared Nelson and another student, Robbie Petersen, survived.
While Petersen is back at USU, Jared, who turns 23 on Sunday, spends his days in a wheelchair, being ferried to doctors and therapists from Portland to Salem, Ore.
One of Washington's dirty little secrets: How to avoid ...
You won't believe this. Or maybe you will if you run and hide when you hear, "Hi, we're from your government, and we're here to help you."
In this case, the chilling greeting comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), those wonderful folks who since 9/11 (under strict orders from the recently-resigned Secretary Norman Mineta) have been wanding little old ladies from Keokuk, Iowa, at America's airports all in the name of political correctness. DOT now has decided that it will apply the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in such a manner as to make it theoretically easier for the wheelchair-bound to board passenger trains.
There is just one problem, and in a metaphorical sense, it comes under the heading of the old gag, "The operation was a great success, but the patient died."
DOT has proposed a rule requiring that every single passenger train platform in the United States (1) stretches the full length of the longest train that serves the route, and (2) provides level (no steps) boarding for all doors.
|
