A Pox on Access Buses

I had a nice day driving my mom to appointments earlier in the week, so now I'm just finishing up all the work I had to reschedule. Glad it could be rescheduled. Of course, now I have to figure out when to do the stuff I was supposed to do today....

I'm going berserk about Access buses. Access has denied my mom's request for service. She's in her mid 80s and uses a walker due to disequilibrium plus she has bad knees and back pain that suddenly grabs her if she gets jostled or has to make any sudden movements. She has to move very carefully and not be rushed or there's a huge chance that she'll come crashing down and break something.

It's not like she's one of those whiny people who pout about having to ride buses. As a non-driver, she's been riding buses and streetcars in Seattle since the 1920s. She can still manage on those buses where there's just one step up, but she can't manage the more usual buses with the elevator platform. She has tried and it's just waaay too dangerous for her. She gets dizzy from the ride up and has to stand perfectly still for many many long seconds after the lift stops moving and then again after stepping off it -- she can't just briskly hobble over to the first empty seat. Most of the drivers get impatient and fling the bus out into traffic while she is still lowering herself onto her seat. She needs 100% of her drivers to understand the concept of "make sure frail, dizzy people are sitting down before you jerk the bus around." Only about 10% get it. Every time she rides a regular bus, she is a broken hip waiting to happen.

Access sent her their denial along with itineraries showing how she could get to her doctor's appointments in a series of one of two transfers -- assuming that all the buses, both ways, are the type she can get onto. "Oh, those routes usually have the kind of bus you can use!" burbles the dip at Metro, as if my frail, elderly, handicapped mom is supposed to risk ending up stranded five miles from home because today happened to be one of the days when the right shape buses were all on other routes. #$&%!