Seats for disabled prioritized, but not promised, on public transportation
I've received calls recently from senior citizens who complained about a lack of seating for people with disabilities on public transportation. They've said complained seating at the front of a bus, for instance, that says is assigned for seniors or people with disabilities is sometimes taken by people who don't seem to need it, and the drivers won't do anything to get them to move.
A driver can ask a person to move from a seat for a person with physical limitations, but there are reasons they won't be more insistent, SEPTA officials said. A bus driver, or train conductor, is not allowed to tell someone to get up, said Joshua Gottlieb, SEPTA's director of administration & finance for bus operations.
"Because the person who's sitting there may have a hidden disability we cannot tell them or force them to move," Gottlieb said. "That is our basic rule which governs this type of situation."
SEPTA staff also can't ask riders what their disability is. Creating a situation where one's person condition is treated as more important than another is a risky sandpit to enter, staff said.
The result, they said, is sometimes unfair.
"We're certain there are definitely times the person who won't move has no disability and they're just very, very rude and inconsiderate but they won't move," Gottleib said.
SEPTA buses have 10 seats total that are labeled as priority seating for the elderly and people with physical limitations. They're the seats closest to the door, including the bench-style seating along the sides of the bus, and some can be flipped up to make space for wheelchairs.
Creating access has been a long struggle for people with disabilities in the city, said Thomas Earle, CEO of Liberty Resources, which assists with creating independent living, and an advocate for physically limited people. He has heard complaints, he said, about seemingly able bodied people refusing to surrender a seat that should be prioritized for a person with a handicap.
"It's just a tough town, and I think the SEPTA drivers try to avoid confrontation," he said.
He acknowledged, though, that there are conditions that aren't visible but do cause mobility problems, like some forms of arthritis. There isn't an easy answer to what public transportation entities could do differently to guarantee a person who needs to sit down will always be able to.
"Considering the scope of SEPTA's operations in one of the largest cities in the country that also happens to have a huge number of people with disabilities," Earle said, "it's a challenge."