Marshalltown Municipal Transit, Richard Stone
January 20, 2009 [email]



Accessibility Guidelines

1192.3 Common Wheelchairs Definition

I believe that it is very important to have a definition, dimensionally, of a common wheelchair. I have had many conversations with both people using them and staff from nursing homes/assisted living centers about this. It seems difficult to have many regulations about a wheelchair getting onto, around in, and off of a bus when there is no specific object to compare these measurements against. How wide should the doorway be if there is no actual size of a wheelchair in mind? How large should the envelop be if there is no specific measurement on the size of the wheelchair? I am open to the idea of a larger sized common wheelchair.

T203.12 and 203.13 Automated Voice Announcement Systems

The cost of setting up this type of system would be incredibly expensive. We have a hard time meeting the cost of repairing our buses. We have no way of coming up with the dollars involved in this type of under taking. T505.4 Circulation Paths

These overhead grab rails help those who can stand on a crowded bus without loosing their balance. It would be a reasonable belief that if these grab rails would not be required then they would quickly no longer be installed due to the expense of building buses. It is equally important for non-disabled as well as disabled passengers to maintain balance and control while in a vehicle. I like the concept of a disabled person using the rails to move within the bus. Lets say that the bus is a 176 cut away (thus meeting the 22 vehicle length) with four wheelchair positions, two on the curb side and two on the street side of the vehicle. If each wheelchair position is in use, and a fifth disabled person wants to exit the bus, where would the grab rails be located to be used to get to the door? Our buses can and should be friendlier to the disabled, however, we should not forget the non-disabled passengers in the process.

T802.3 Openings

I like the option of a hole in the ramp in which to manually operate the ramp. This would be safer than using a strap.



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