PARATRANSIT WATCH

Accessible Public Transportation News, Issues, & Resources

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Advocacy In Northampton

NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS - As a follow-up to my last post on advocacy I'd like to provide a case in point. After only 6 months of service as Pioneer Valley Transit Authority's paratransit provider, the California-based MV Transportation's contract has been severed because of poor service. For months, clients had been voicing their complaints, as can be seen in a short clip from a Northampton Committee on Disabilities meeting which aired on YouTube a couple months ago: Problems with MV Transportation, Northampton Ma. Eventually, First Transit (which already provides PVTA's fixed-route transit service) was contracted to provide the paratransit service. Unfortunately, it was not soon enough for a 78 year old man who died of his injuries after falling down a flight of stairs at a house (the wrong address) where he had been mistakenly dropped off at by a MV paratransit bus.

The Committee on Disabilities (COD), created by City ordinance, is composed of 9 voting members and up to 5 members appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by City Council. The City's ADA (American with Disabilities Act) Coordinator is the staff assistant to the COD. They meet once a month to investigate the needs of people with disabilities in Northampton and to advocate for their full integration into the life of the city. As with all advocacy, it would be hard to know exactly how much the actions of the committee had to do with the cancelling of the contract. But, it is certain they provided the users of the system a recognized public platform to express their concerns, and those concerns were obviously heard and taken seriously by the PVTA. If there was no committee, or it was lacking in organization or validity things would probably have remained the same or gotten worse.

Posted by Paratransit Watch at 12:52 PM

Link here