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IT doesn't matter how old you are, you must move to another space if you are in a w/c designated space if someone in a w/c needs it, assuming there is another seat that would suit you, which there clearly was, and this woman could clearly have used. This isn't just a bus rule, it's pretty universal when it comes to ADA and w/c spaces.
She is probably a little bit demented.
Those regulations are very confusingly worded. The title references "Seniors" along with 'Persons with disabilities," but the text does not. Can seniors take the priority seating for the disable and refuse to yield it, or not?
And how do those regulations accord with the Priority Seating sign posted above, which states that the seat in question must be yielded to "people using wheelchairs or other mobility devices"? A number of people have disabilities which do NOT require a wheelchair/mobility device. Are they required to yield, or not?
The whole point is that the standards need to be made clearer, not left so vaguely worded that a cranky but able-bodied 65-year-old can refuse to yield the only wheelchair-accessible seat in the entire bus to an actual wheelchair user.
It looks to me like that provincial law mimics the US Americans with Disabilities Act., and expands on it to include pregnant women. So yes seniors can use the priority seating, as can pregnant women, in Toronto.
From the TTC FAQ:
Quote:
Is priority seating only for people with a mobility device?
Priority seating may also be used by the elderly or pregnant women.
Do I have to move for a person with a disability?
If you do not have a disability and are sitting in one of the designated priority seats, you must give up your seat for a customer with a disability, the elderly or a pregnant woman. A customer with a disability occupying a priority seat is not required to move for another customer with a disability. In this situation, use of the seats is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Well, this is just my opinion, but the "TTC FAQ" is ridiculous. Priority seating for disabled, elderly, or pregnant? Any woman under the age of 50 could claim to be pregnant and take a priority seat, and any human being over 60 can play the "elderly" card. How many priority seats are there anyway?
Actually, pregnant women are not disabled in any way unless she has some other complicating factor like, say, a broken leg, or quadruplets. I say that as a woman who's had three babies. Even in the ninth month, I would not have dreamed of taking a disabled seat and leaving a wheelchair user out on the street; that's shameful.
I'd like to know if there is an update on this story.
Me too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
What kind of update would there be?
They said they were going to look into what happened so it doesn't happen again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz
The seats are first come first serve. Non-wheelchair disabled passengers have an equal right to access to public transit as those in wheelchairs. You do not ask one disabled passenger to give up a seat for another disabled passenger. That is just wrong, and it is also a violation of the law.
You are assuming the lady was elderly or disabled. None of us even know. Either way she could have shown proof of either. If she's a senior she should have had some sort of ID on her with DOB and if disabled she would have a disabled person's card.
Either way; the people in this thread that are disabled including me, have said they would move for the man in the wheel chair.
She may be disabled but it didn't look to me like she needed to sit in a wheelchair-designated spot. If this occurred in a Portland city bus she would have been carted off by the transit police for causing disturbance ~ I guarantee it (and, yes, we have transit police).
She may be disabled but it didn't look to me like she needed to sit in a wheelchair-designated spot. If this occurred in a Portland city bus she would have been carted off by the transit police for causing disturbance ~ I guarantee it (and, yes, we have transit police).
And then she would sue the transit police for violating her ADA rights. Again the law is clearly on her side. I doubt the Portland transit police would be that dumb. Also with all the reports of out of control emotional support animals on Portland public transit, I doubt the cops are carting many people off.
And then she would sue the transit police for violating her ADA rights. Again the law is clearly on her side. I doubt the Portland transit police would be that dumb. Also with all the reports of out of control emotional support animals on Portland public transit, I doubt the cops are carting many people off.
Then there would be ADA vs ADA (her violating the wheelchair guy's rights if he chose to kick up a fuss) and she'd be the one with the burden of proof. And, not police, but I have seen bus drivers do some shocking stuff to get a person off the bus.
Don't know about 'out of control support animals', although there way entirely too many of them in the Portland transit system.
Then there would be ADA vs ADA (her violating the wheelchair guy's rights if he chose to kick up a fuss) and she'd be the one with the burden of proof. And, not police, but I have seen bus drivers do some shocking stuff to get a person off the bus.
Don't know about 'out of control support animals', although there way entirely too many of them in the Portland transit system.
She was not violating his rights. Just like for non-disabled riders, the seats are first come first serve. She was on the bus first. So she gets to ride and he was SOL.
I'd like to know if there is an update on this story.
I would too, actually. I have tried to find any recent news on this story but haven't found anything that was posted after the original news article was posted. Possibly because no names were given and technically no crime was committed. I read in a comment on another website posting an article about this incident that the protocol is that if the lady refused to accommodate for the wheelchair-bound passenger, the bus driver is supposed to call for another driver to come and provide a curb to curb transit to the wheelchair-bound person.
I would too, actually. I have tried to find any recent news on this story but haven't found anything that was posted after the original news article was posted. Possibly because no names were given and technically no crime was committed. I read in a comment on another website posting an article about this incident that the protocol is that if the lady refused to accommodate for the wheelchair-bound passenger, the bus driver is supposed to call for another driver to come and provide a curb to curb transit to the wheelchair-bound person.
There will never be an update, because it's a non story. Buses fill up all the time, and some people have to wait for the next bus. It's not news. It's happens somewhere every second of the day.
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