Court Says Public Transit Agencies Must Equip New Buses With Wheelchair Lifts

PHILADELPHIA —  A federal appeals court on Monday ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation to require transit authorities across the country to equip new buses with wheelchair lifts.

Attorneys who brought the lawsuit that led to the ruling called it the most important decision ever handed down for handicapped people needing public transportation.

The 2-1 decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals was made on an appeal by both the Transportation Department and a coalition of a number of associations for the handicapped from across the nation.

The Transportation Department had appealed an earlier decision made by U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz in Philadelphia that canceled a 1986 department regulation calling for mass-transit authorities to spend up to 3% of their operating budgets on providing services for the handicapped.

Called Unreasonable

In his decision, Katz called the 3% requirement unreasonable, but ruled that the Transportation Department must formulate regulations to resolve differences between equality for the handicapped and cost efficiency.

Katz said the 3% spending limit allowed transit agencies “to eviscerate the civil right” to transit service that Congress mandated for the handicapped.

Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation, a coalition of about a dozen associations for the handicapped, appealed Katz’s simultaneous ruling that upheld the right of transit authorities to decide whether to fit vehicles for the handicapped or provide other services.

The appeals court ruling affirmed Katz’s decision in favor of dropping the 3% provision, but it reversed Katz’s other decision by ordering the authorities to equip all new buses with chair lifts or other accommodations for the handicapped.

No Burden Seen

“We . . . conclude that ordering that newly purchased buses be accessible to the mobility disabled does not exact a fundamental alteration to the nature of mass transportation,” Judge Carol Mansmann wrote in the majority opinion. “Also, by requiring that newly purchased buses be accessible, we are not imposing undue financial or administrative burdens on the local transit authorities.”

The court said a rule requiring reservations 24 hours in advance for use of alternative transportation hinders the spontaneous use of mass transit by the handicapped. As a result, the court ordered transit authorities to make “reasonable accommodations to their programs, i.e. purchase wheelchair-accessible buses.”

“Congress wanted to provide the disabled with the capability to utilize mass transit to the ‘maximum extent feasible.’ The DOT has failed to show that requiring the future purchase of accessible buses oversteps this legislative intent,” Mansmann wrote.

In the dissenting opinion, Judge Morton I. Greenberg said the section requiring new buses to be accessible was not meant to apply to transit systems choosing a paratransit system, such as special vans.

He also contended the 3% spending cap was not arbitrary.

“The impact of the majority’s decision will be very substantial throughout the country and will interfere with the local decision-making authority,” Greenberg wrote. “I feel the court is overreaching.”

Timothy M. Cook, who argued the case before the court, said the ruling was “a major, major victory for the handicapped community. . . . We can’t say enough positive things about it.”

Hopes for No Appeal

Cook, who is director of the Washington-based National Disability Action Center, said he hoped the ruling would not be appealed in light of President Bush’s recent comments about wanting to bring the handicapped into the mainstream.

Transportation Department officials in Washington could not be reached for comment after the court ruling was made public late Monday.

Joaquin Bowman, a spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, said he could not comment on the court’s decision because SEPTA has not had a chance to review the opinion.

SEPTA’s handicapped accessibility program includes paratransit and accessible buses, he said. However, he said, he did not know whether all new buses were handicapped accessible.