Wheelchairs in Portland

The summer I interned for Houston Metro Transit there was a lot of debate about whether all buses should be wheelchair accessible or if people in wheelchairs should get a special on-call disabled bus service that takes them door-to-door. At first I thought, who wouldn't want their own chauffeur service, but the overwhelming response from people in wheelchairs was they wanted to be part of the regular bus service. I have to say I understand that people want to be a regular functioning member of society and it is pretty amazing how well people get around in wheel chairs, but give up door-to-door service?

Later that year a law passed to make all buses wheel chair accessible and I didn't think much of it as I rode the bus in Houston and then in LA. It wasn't until I moved to Portland and visited Chicago in the winter that I thought the wheelchair advocates got it wrong. I saw a guy in a wheelchair get on the bus today and he was soaking. It occurred to me it's like driving around in a convertible that you can never put the top up. Add the snow and ice and all of a sudden a wheelchair becomes a pretty major challenge. So hats off to this guy for making it downtown today. If I were him I would have been lobbying for the door-to-door bus pick up.