Disabled Upset over Removal of Bus Stops

By Beth Wolfson

JAMAICA PLAIN-- Kathy Podgers walks slowly down Centre Street guided by her Siberian husky. She needs the dog to help keep her balance after health problems led to a spinal collapse. When she gets to the route 39 bus stop, she is excited to find a bench, which many of the stops lack.

“The busses are supposed to come every five minutes, but they don’t. I sometimes wait up to 40 minutes,” says Podgers, a former JP resident who represents Citizens for Feasible Compliance, a committee that works to ensure that public palces compy with disability laws and regulations.

When the bus arrives 10 minutes later, it does what Podgers calls “a nose dive” into the curb. Traffic prevented the driver from pulling up to the curb in a parallel fashion making it more difficult for the disabled and the elderly to access the steps to get on the bus.

Podgers stands and steadies herself against her dog and attempts to step off the curb. The bus doors open and the dog walks on first. Then with her right hand on the rail she climbs the steps, placing one foot in front of the other. She pays her fare and walks to the back of the bus, where open seats are available.

“This was easy,” Podgers says. “About one in four times I hear, ‘You can’t bring dogs on the bus’ from the bus driver, and not politely. Sometimes they call the cops.”

Podgers is one of many disabled individuals who struggle with the MBTA busses, especially those on bus route 39. She was at a transportation meeting on Feb. 25 when MBTA officials announced that some of the route 39 bus stops would be removed to save time along the bus route and curb bump-outs, which consist of extra sidewalk space at stops to ensure the bus driver can access the stops, would be put in place at the remaining stops.

“The bump-outs will be good, but having fewer stops is very bad," Podegers says. "These people (disabled and seniors) can’t walk that far to the bus stops."

For others, removal of bus stops will mean faster bus service.

“Some of the stops are a block apart, and it’s kind of silly,” says Sarah Wermiel, a JP resident and member of the Better Transit Without Trolleys organization. “Removing some stops would make the ride faster, which would be an advantage.”

Members of Better Transit Without Trolley Committee say that removing the right spots is key to its success.

“The proper approach to consolidation is outlining target spacing and picking the right locations to remove,” says Paul Schimek, JP resident and chair of Better Transit. “Stops near senior housing developments obviously need to be kept.”

Erik Scheier, project director of MBTA Operations & Service Development says a date has not been set for the stop removals and bump-outs.

“We need to have consensus within the community,” Scheier says. “If the people with disabilities, or any other group for that matter, don’t want these changes, it takes longer. And of course, there are always funding issues.”