Public Transportation

 I am not able to drive, so I depend on public transportation. I live in a city for best access to bus stops. Before becoming disabled I rarely used public transportation unless I was in Europe. Like most everyone, I had my own car and drove every where.

Moving into my own apartment, I quickly realized that transportation was a huge problem. Thankfully, my cousin Robyn, drove me all the way to Lakewood to apply for an Access-A-Ride card with RTD. RTD provides the buses in Denver and Boulder. Basically, I had to prove that I can’t reach the bus stop. Access-A-Ride is a paratransit service run by RTD. You call at least a day in advance and schedule a ride. A bus comes to your location that can transport wheelchairs and it costs $5 each way. The thing is your destination must be a quarter mile near a fixed bus stop. This sucks, because they won’t go to the riding center!

The cool thing is that my access-a-ride works as a bus pass. RTD wants you to ride the fixed route, it’s cheaper than running an Access-A-Ride bus.

Next, I signed up for travel training, now offered by DrMack. My travel trainer, Brian, met me weekly to teach me how to ride the bus. I picked locations I commonly go to. At first he taught me how to plan my route and then he would go on the bus with me as practice runs. One of our practice runs was to the 29th street mall. On that trip, we stopped at Anthropology, he sat on a bench outside while I shopped! Being able to go shopping alone was amazing. Learning how to ride the bus gave me independence.

I’m also an ambassador for Boulder County Mobility For All. We provide workshops that train people how to use smartphone apps for transportation. Workshops on using Lyft, Uber, RTD mobile ticketing, Google Maps and the Transit app. We even go on trips with people so they become comfortable with the type of transit. The Boulder County Mobility For All website has videos of all the workshops and is a great resource.

I can’t post about buses without mentioning the Transit app. This is my favorite app and I use it constantly. The app is free and it works across the country! The app uses your location to provide you with the nearest transit options. It allows you to easily just provide the address and it gives you directions and tells you how long the trip will take. I pull it up when by a stop, so I can see in real time what time the bus is coming.

I ride the bus at least once a week and it makes my life so much easier. Plus, it’s way cheaper than owning a car - no insurance or maintenance fees and no parking hassles or paying for gas! It’s also better for the environment, which becomes more important every day.