Street Spirit August 2005

Wheels on Wheels, Cheryl on the Bus

By Janny Castillo

(as requested by the author the name in the story below is not her real name)

Riding the bus is difficult enough if you are able bodied and healthy but for our disabled community limited by mobility problems and bound in wheelchairs a bus ride can become a nightmare; so much so that many disabled do not attempt to use public transportation adding to their isolation and depriving themselves of healthcare, fresh food and recreational activities.

You have to have a special kind of perseverance and be of strong spirit to ride public transportation within a city much less across the bay. One such individual is Cheryl Thomas who wants our Street Sprit readers to know that she is a Berkeleyan, through and through.  She has been a Street Spirit vendor for a year and a half and it helps pay her bills and her transportation costs. Cheryl attends computer classes at the Berkeley Adult School.  Lack of affordable housing forces her to live in San Francisco but she commutes almost daily to her beloved Berkeley.

Strength Moves Her

Cheryl suffers with a severe case of Osteoarthritis in both legs. She used a cane for many years and sometimes bus drivers could not or refused to use the lift making it very difficult for her to climb the stairs. "I remember falling up the stairs and no one offered to help me up." she said. For the last four years she has been confined to a wheelchair and no matter how hard it is for her to get to school, to therapy, to church her strength moves her through transportation obstacles that would defeat the best of us.

Cheryl gets around by availing herself of disabled transportation services like Para Transit. Unfortunately her experience has not been positive. "They are always late and sometimes they do not have enough drivers so often your wait time is three hours," she said. "Sometimes they tell you they do not have drivers and you miss your doctor’s appointment, and other times I am forced to take taxis; even taxis take two or three hours, so I go back to the buses." Cheryl says Para Transit is too expensive to use it in Berkeley and overall she only uses it for emergencies.

The Manual Life

"I was in a manual wheelchair first and it was the worst experience of my life. I wasn’t great at steering." She said, "One time I waited for three hours until I realized that I was at a bus stop that did not pick up wheel chairs." Many buses passed her up and no one took the time to tell her she was at the wrong bus stop. Trying to navigate the city in a manual wheelchair was exhausting and very painful, at the end of the day her arms would hurt terribly from the constant force needed to pull her forward and sometimes up hills.

"One day I got stuck on the bus in San Francisco, I got caught by a strap and the lift did not work, they had to call the fire dept to help me off the bus. It took about an hour. Another time I was riding AC Transit coming from San Francisco to Berkeley and the seat belt got stuck again and they could not get me out. I had to ride all the way back to the city where they cut me out of the seatbelt" She still did not give up, she rolled four blocks to the nearest BART station to find out the elevators were not working so she rolled another four blocks to the next BART station where she finally found a way back to Berkeley.

But What about BART

She laughed when I asked her about the elevators at BART. Many times the announcer says that all elevators are working, but when you get off, you find out that the elevator is broken or just broke down and you have to ride to another station which is often miles out of your way. Most of the time she tries to roll the extra distance but sometimes its just too far.

When asked if she knew of other disabled people riding the buses she had this to say: "People have to be bold and courageous to try to ride the buses because the services are so bad. There are many disabled and homeless people who are left without a way to get around. I know quite a few disabled people who do not attempt it, they’re scared. You got to be determined."

Motorized and Doing Better

The wheelchair that Cheryl is riding in now is motorized. She is teaching herself how to use the bike lanes to ride through Berkeley. She won’t ride the San Francisco bike lanes. "There is too much construction and it’s too dangerous." She said.

Cheryl’s transportation costs eat up a large portion of her meager budget. She sells Street Spirit to make ends meet. "The paper helps me pay my bills, buy food and helps with transportation costs." Without Street Spirit, her disabled bus pass and the assistance she receives from Oakland Rehab, she would not be able to get to school and her many doctors’ appointments.

Not Even Made for the Disabled

"Nowadays the bus drivers are more courteous and are more aware but they still need training on how to strap a wheelchair person in", she said. She spoke on the new fancy disabled buses: "The wheelchair lifts are in need of improvement, the system they have now; it’s a pain in the butt. The new buses are not even made for the disabled." She recalled several times when the bus driver would have such a hard time with the lift, it would malfunction and the bus would become inoperable. The lifts are not sturdy and seem to tip the bus to the side. It’s scary for me and I am afraid that my wheels can get cut. One time I was so unbalanced I was wavering and feared for my life and the seats are ridiculously high. I do not know how our folks with mobility problems can climb up on the high seats.

There was a time when there was no BART and no wheelchair lifts on the buses. Our disabled had even fewer transportation opportunities. It’s the right thing and a good thing that AC Transit and BART take into account our disabled community and provide services to accommodate their needs. It’s clear that the equipment and the willingness exist but better design, good maintenance and proper training is needed to provide the quality of service that our disabled community needs and should expect.

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