First of two parts
[Editor’s Note: City Transportation Director Art Ida will convene a public outreach meeting at 6 o’clock Wednesday evening in the ground floor Dan Patacchia Room, City Hall, to air especially contrary community feelings about a instituting a proposed 35-cent fare next month for blind riders of the Culver CityBus.]
Discrimination charges are the hottest social fad streaking across the country this season.
And now a crippled Culver City fellow has decided to slice a fat piece of the so-called bigotry cake for himself.
He contends his crippled condition makes him as handicapped as a blind person.
Therefore, in an age when equal wages are the rages, it is only fair to charge the same fare — not a fairly close fare — for all perceived disabled types.
Blind persons have been riding the Culver CityBus free since the early 1980s.
The offended crippled chap concluded he was a victim of a previously unknown discrimination.
He charged that Culver City practiced an unheard of bias known, creatively, as crippleism. Even though he, too, is an impaired rider, it isn’t right, he claimed, that he had to cough up three dimes and a nickel more than the sightless.
Transportation Director Art Ida said this afternoon that the complainer asserted that the city was in violation of section 99155 of the Public Utilities Commission code (see below).
“This part of the code deals with being equitable and fair about discounted fares,” Mr. Ida said.
(a) Each transit operator, whether publicly or privately funded all or in part, nonprofit or for profit, which offers reduced fares to senior citizens shall honor the federal Medicare identification card as sufficient identification to receive reduced fares. A transit operator which offers reduced fares to those senior citizens who are less than 65 years old shall also honor the senior citizen identification card issued pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 13000 of the Vehicle Code.
(b) Each transit operator, whether publicly or privately funded, in whole or in part, nonprofit or for profit, which offers reduced fares pursuant to subdivision (a) shall also offer reduced fares to disabled persons, as defined by Section 99206.5, disabled persons, as defined by Section 295.5 of the Vehicle Code, and disabled veterans, as defined by Section 295.7 of the Vehicle Code, at the same rate established for senior citizens. A transit operator shall honor the disabled person or disabled veteran placard identification card issued pursuant to Section 22511.55 of the Vehicle Code.
(c) Every transit operator that offers reduced fares to disabled persons shall honor any current identification card that is valid for the type of transportation service or discount requested and that has been issued to an individual with a disability by another transit operator.
(d) This section also applies to any dial-a-ride, paratransit, or nonfixed route operator which serves the disabled, but does not apply to a private nonprofit entity which serves the disabled or elderly.
(e) Nothing in this section prohibits a transit operator from issuing its own identification card, except that no such card shall be required to be presented in addition to either a federal Medicare card or a card issued pursuant to Section 22511.55 of the Vehicle Code.
(f) A transit operator, as defined in subdivision (b), which receives funds pursuant to the Mills-Alquist-Deddeh Act (Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 99200)), shall not require that a person requesting transportation be a resident of that transit operator's service area. 99155.1. (a) There shall be close coordination between local transit providers and county welfare departments in order to ensure that transportation moneys available for purposes of assisting recipients of aid under Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 11200) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code are expended efficiently for the benefit of that population.
(1) In areas where public transit service is available, local transit providers shall give priority, in the use of funds allocated under the CalWORKs program and made available by the county, to the enhancement of public transportation services for welfare-to-work purposes.
(2) In areas where public transit services are unavailable, local transit providers shall give priority, in the use of funds allocated under the CalWORKs program and made available by the county, to the enhancement of transportation alternatives, such as, but not limited to, subsidies or vouchers, van pools, and contract paratransit operations, in order to promote welfare-to-work purposes.
(b) In areas where public transit service is available, local transit providers shall consider giving priority in the use of transit funds to the enhancement of public transportation services for welfare-to-work purposes.
