Listening to the annoying “On Hold” announcements this afternoon whilst calling in to try and track down yet another late pick-up, it struck me as ironic – there is one recording that tells “customers who abuse the service” may be removed from the list, and goes on to list the three main examples – Late cancellations, no-shows, and being abusive to staff.
My question is, what happens to MetroAccess when it abuses the customers? We’re subject to late cancellations (usually discovered when our ride’s haven’t shown up), no-shows (the trip is on the manifest but the transport never actually arrives), and abusive staff (usually when called wondering where the ride is and being told to “deal with it” before being hung up on).
Not to mention one hapless rider who was accused very publically by Mr White of being a liar in front of the Metro Board … I must have missed the apology that was tendered for that one.
Let’s understand something here. These trips are not some sort of privilege, they’re a legally mandated requirement for WMATA to provide so that disabled people can enjoy the same ability to actually go anywhere in the nation’s capital as everyone else does. In many cases, that ability is literally saving people’s lives, by allowing them to attend medical clinics such as dialysis.
WMATA stopped fining Logisticare for missed rides and complaints a while ago. We would like to know if they’re going to start fining MV for the same “lapses” in service. Because at the end of the day, if the service doesn’t rise up to at least marginally acceptable, the ones who will really lose out in all of this will be the regular users of WMATA’s services, through increased fares as WMATA tries to pay off lawsuits as well as any fines they end up with for breaking the law.
Of course, given the tone of recent comments by Mr White, the disabled community is painfully aware of just who WMATA will try to shoulder the blame on if that occurs – the disabled community.
We don’t have any alternative methods of transportation, and indeed the question is, why should we need it? Everyone else gets the services of Metro, is there some reason why we shouldn’t be given the same ability to actually go places using public transport? Do we not also pay for the services, through fares and taxes? Or is this no different than people who use disabled bays – “We’re better than you because we have working body parts. Deal with it”?
No-one expects privilege. We do expect to be given equal access to facilities and services. In many ways, we’re still having to fight for that equality – Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, we’d actually like the bus to get here to begin with.
One good first step is applying the rules MetroAccess has regarding “abuse” equally to the contractor that’s supposed to be providing the service.
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