Ruling Awards Disabled Better Transit

"A recent ruling requiring better transit service for the disabled was hailed as a landmark decision that will affect transit agencies nationwide.U.S. Eastern District Court Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. ruled on Jan. 8 that Philadelphia's transit agency, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, must provide service to all disabled riders within a day of requesting a ride. The agency now requires paratransit reservations from one to seven days in advance and denies next-day service 13 percent of the time. Arthur Lopez, chief of the Federal Transit Administration's civil-rights unit, said the ruling opens up transit the same way Rosa Parks did when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955."