OC or VO: Hello. I’m Sherry and I would like to introduce you to the bus service provided by the Milwaukee County Transit System. A service that is accessible for persons with limited mobility, including seniors and disabled citizens. Our number one priority at Milwaukee County Transit is service. Service to the community, service to our riders, service to you.
VO: Our buses transport thousands of riders every day to their jobs, school, church, the grocery store, health care providers and to their favorite places in Milwaukee County. We want you to enjoy life in our community and we are here to do just that. Without our riders we would have no reason to exist.
VO: We have a proud history of efficiency, productivity, safety and innovation. Our employees are dedicated to the company’s mission and values. MCTS maintains a reputation for excellence. MCTS has received the highest honor by being selected as the best transit system in the country by the American Public Transportation Association.
VO: All persons have a right to access public transportation. If you are a person with a disability or limited mobility, you deserve the same accommodations as anyone who rides the bus.
VO: MCTS buses have the latest equipment designed to help customers with limited mobility enter, ride and exit the bus.
While door-to-door service is available to persons who are prevented from using the bus due to a disability, the freedom and cost afforded by using a regular bus can be enjoyed by many persons with disabilities.
MCTS buses have the latest equipment designed to help customers with limited mobility enter, ride, and exit the bus.
VO: Drivers are extensively trained in the operation of this equipment and, just as importantly, trained to recognize, understand and provide assistance to persons with disabilities including the visually impaired,
wheelchair and scooter users and those with learning issues.
VO: MCTS installed kneeling technology in their fleet of buses to assist the bording the boarding and unboarding of people with ambulatory disabilities. This greatly enhanced the public transportation experience for those riders and provided a transportation option/solution for those living independently of care facilities and/or caretakers.
Additionally, ramps were installed to be utilized by persons in wheelchairs and scooters. This made bus service even more accommodating and appealing to a wider variety of disabled people living in Milwaukee County, it afford them travel options and increased freedom of mobility and less dependence on others for their transportation needs. Improvements were also made to stops in the areas of pavement replacement, shelter design, dimensions and signage.
(User talks about her long history of using the disabled equipped buses, driven by trained operators. We see her at home preparing to go shopping, waiting for the bus, entering and going through the securing process, exiting and continuing on to the store.)
OC and VO: My name is Dawn Green. I’ve been disabled since I was ten years old. I’ve been using a wheelchair since about 1985. I use the Milwaukee County bus; or else sometimes I use the para transit to travel, honestly I think I use the bus more than I use the para transit. I’m more comfortable using the bus, with the para transit you have to call and with the bus you can just go out onto the street corner and catch a bus. I’ve been using the bus now since they’ve had accessible buses. The driver pulls up, the driver puts the bus down into a kneeling position and then he or she lets the ramp down, and then I, literally drive up onto the ramp and he or she lifts the seats up in the front and I can, um certain navigate and pull into the spot, and the driver belts me down. And that’s it. It’s very simple.
The drivers have become more educated, more accepting, and more understanding. You can get on the bus and go anywhere. I go to doctors appointments. I go out and have fun. I go to ball games. You got to try it. It’s going to open up doors for you.
My name is Cynthia Bentlie. I guess we noticed I had a disability is when I started having seizures at a young, a very young age. The seizures are the, wa on, wa, made me get the ki, kinda the disability, and um learning disabilities and everything else I have. I use the transit, the para transit with the transit plus, and I use the city bus for short trips. I am very thankful I have both. I just think you can get the bus quicker then you can para transit. The 68 is a great bus, excellent drivers. Um, if I ask them a question, they call out the stop if I know where I’m going. Lets see 1057 is how I do it, between this and the 1057 bus. There will be an 1125 bus with gets to Silver Spring at 1135. You know our care givers are always protecting us. The only way their going to find out how safe it is they’re going to have to take the bus with their, with their consumer.
VO-NAR: Getting bus route information is as easy as dialing a telephone or logging on to our website. Our website, especially, provides information about all the routes that serve the Milwaukee metropolitan area. You can find out where and when buses arrive at the stops, where to buy tickets and passes and also how to access our Paratransit or Transit Plus service.
VO and OC: I am a city of Milwaukee Police Detective… um I’ve been on the department for 26 years. Um, 19 years as a detective.
I have cerebral palsy, um it effects me physically, um my actual diagnosis is: I am a spestic...? quadriplegic. I use transit plus, which is there para transit system. The last time I took the bus was on a Sunday. I can home from church and it was a beautiful day, and I was like: I have nothing else to do, you know, I’m going to go out to a movie and have dinner.
I haven’t heard of a lot of incidences on the bus, um and as you know they are monitored by the Sheriff’s Department. So I don’t have any fears, you know, any fears for her, um taking the bus.
I love it. I love having the ability to say, “hey, I want to go and I want to go now and I don’t have to wait to set it up.”
My name is Jim Zomcheck… I declared my disability 17 years ago in 1992 in a motorcycle accident. I run all of the sports?... for NPS and SE Wisconsin. I am consider what is a conditional user, for para transit you have to schedule a ride with them in advance, and you also need to schedule a return trip, so you need to know approximently when you’ll be done doing whatever your doing so they can have a van there to take you back, that’s the advantage to the bus. You don’t have to pre schedule a ride. You can just figure out which line is going where your going and what route you need to take. The very first time I used it was actually the very first time I got out of the hospital and I was going to rehab therepy. It was a little scary at the time because I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know all the details about it but after that one ride, it was, I realized it was no big deal, I mean. I have never noticed anyone being negative or being like, oh, we got to wait for this guy on and the belt and all of that. Um it really doesn’t take that much time at all, um so that has never really been an issue.
VO-NAR: All of our buses have a kneeling feature. This feature allows the driver to position the height of the entry step to the right level for each individual rider.
The buses have a ramp system that can be quickly deployed to provide access for people using wheelchairs and scooters. These are very safe to use and are convenient for anyone who finds it hard to step onto the platform. After a couple of uses, and with the help of the trained driver, riders can confidently board the bus by using the ramp.
The driver will secure a wheelchair or scooter in place to prevent any unwanted moving around. At your destination, the driver will unsecure the chair and assist the rider in exiting the vehicle.
My name is Angie Porter and I am a oporator with the MCT. I have been her for, um o’ gosh it will be 24 years in March. Sometime I have to give information on getting to other destinations, ahh for people who arn’t familiar with our system. I have to assist ahh, elderly individuals on the bus, people that are disabled, ahh so, just being an operator isn’t, isn’t my only job title. But if you can look forward everyday to a familiar face it certainly does take away the edge of, of uneasiness that someone, especially if someone is cognitively disabled is very unsure about getting on the bus. Just having that familiar face, and having that someone that is going to, ahh welcome you. You know... even if it’s not the driver, if its just a passenger that that person sits with everyday. For me its its knowing that I’m doing the best that I can, and that I’m doing a good job. You know that is the most satisfying part to me, knowing I can get somebody who’s not familiar with the system and get them to where they nee do go.
Part of the reason that I selected in coming to Milwaukee was in the advantages and the possibilities of having a well rounded transportation system. Um, given that I am totally blind and that I need to rely on different adaptive techniques and skills, and services to operate, um having a bus, um which can take me anywhere throughout the county. I can walk to any businesses, saving myself time and getting a little exercise as well and staying current in the community, but yet I can get where most places I need to get very quickly by walking to a bus, two blocks one way, two blocks another way. I’m walking in an area or I’m in an area and I hear the sound of a bus. it almost like in the old days when they use to have a beat officer around, somebody who you know is coming through, somebody you know is public representative, somebody who can fairly give you information, and you know he is going to be an honest trustworthy sort of person. Not infrequently the bus driver will aslo, will offer, or I may ask, if they have a moment to help me cross an intersection thats bad or help me cross some obstructions that might be difficult but also you get used to see a number of people. Um who in the morning, they greet you. You greet them. And when you haven’t seen them in a while you inquire as to the well being they have. How there doing, um so there ends up being that camaraderie that you don’t get, when you a car alone.
VO: It is true that many people will continue to rely on Transit Plus especially during odd hours or inclement weather.
However, a vast majority can enjoy the additional freedom of riding buses with the proper training and awareness of how the various buses and routes operate.
VO: To better inform persons with disabilities and their caregivers and also seniors on how to use the bus, MCTS has developed an extensive training program that both disabled riders and caregivers can participate in.
When we first started this out probably about six years ago. We just did a class room presentation; we never came into the bus. And it seemed like the kids were getting really bored at the end of the two hour session. So that’s when we asked permissions to get a bus out here and have them ride the bus. With some proper training most of them could take the bus on their own, but you might get some resistance for the parents, from the guardians, saying “ahhhh. not quite sure if he’s going to be safe on the bus. you know.” Anybody in a disabled position we are trying to make them understand that they can ride the bus comfortably. They can take the bus that will have a driver that is able to help them. So this is part of there life skills class, but Darlean and I have also went out to senior centers showing this presentation to a group of seniors who want to learn how to ride the bus, taking the fixed route on the Milwaukee County bus, can offer them a very inexpensive ride, it can offer them such independence, mobility, so they can come and go as they please.
I’m Cheri McGrath… and I’m an avid bus rider, and I’ve ridden the bus since I was a little girl, and I am here today to be apart of the training program for these bus drivers. Every driver who is apart of the MCT has been through training like this. The percentage of the ridership is going up because of elderly and disabled people, and um I just think that it is very important that all drivers know safety issues, that they are they’re to assist everyone. Once you are on that bus you are safe and people are welcoming, were learning about people with disabilities and the elderly all over. Were a growing population.
VO: The perception by many caregivers may sometimes be that regular buses cannot provide service for people with special needs. Many family members, with the best of intentions, perceive the bus as too challenging for their loved one to use.
In fact, persons with disabilities often have a preference for using regularly scheduled transit buses because it gives them greater freedom, less cost and the ability to access rides at any time without advance scheduling and longer waits and travel time.
My name is Mariam Montgomery. My car is giving me problems, yes. The other day my battery was dead again and plus it, cost what three, four hundred dollars a year for insurance. From where I live here on route 15, is so convenient to so many things, so I picked up the phone and I called the bus company, and asked for a map, the 15, which is Oakland this goes from Bayshore all the way down to Oak Creek. I’ve taken the bus to go down to the bead and button show, and if I had one of those cart things, which I have the bus, the bus is now ramp which is the front door so it’s easier to get it on.
I feel its my job to make them feel comfortable, and um, I always make sure I know where there seated and I can kinda keep an eye on them, make sure everything goes well. Its a lot easier then they realize, at first service their a little apprehensive about, um using it, using transit, but once they use it they’re, they realize its very simple to use.
VO NARRATOR: The Milwaukee County Transit System has been doing this for a very long time. Our considerable experience and equipment will provide disabled riders with the best public transportation available. While some of you may not be able to use the bus and will have to rely on private transportation providers or our own Transit Plus service, we do encourage you to consider using the bus if, after watching and listening to this, you think it might work for you.
OC: Like we mentioned at the beginning, this is all about service. While we have made considerable efforts to provide public transportation service to disabled persons, we encourage you to participate in this process. When you do decide to utilize our bus system, we welcome your input and encourage you to let us know how we can improve our service. When you are ready to ride or learn how to ride, please contact us at 414-344-6711 or at www.ridemcts.com. Thank you.