Anthony Trocchia follows a personal rule when using public transportation. The Brooklyn resident who is wheelchair-bound says he has the patience to let three buses bypass him for pick up. However, if none of the buses has a functioning lift to get him inside, then he will block the path of the last to let people know that disabled passengers deserve equal access.
The determined bus rider, who was trying to get to LaGuardia Community College Thursday, did just that after three consecutive Green Line buses, each with an inoperable lift, failed to pick him up at Queens Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue.
After dejectedly watching his only mode of transportation thrice close its doors to him, Trocchia, the president of Disabled-In-Action, a non-profit civil rights activist group, decided to retaliate with an impromptu protest. He planted his wheelchair in front of a Q60 bus and phoned the media and fellow volunteers in his non-profit group. By coincidence, the Queens Independent Living Center, a residency for disabled tenants, is just blocks away from Trocchias sit-in. Hearing the news, residents at the center joined him in solidarity.
"This bus line goes up and down Queens Boulevard, and it thinks it can operate without a lift," said Trocchia heatedly. "This is a sloppy bus company."
Due to the sit-in, passengers were forced to disembark and move to another bus. Green Line eventually re-routed a bus with a working lift to the location, but after two-and-a-half hours of protest, Trocchia decided to go home. Police were on the scene, but no one was arrested.
Green Line later issued a statement of apology for the inconvenience, but Trocchia said he did not receive one directly.
The private bus company is one of six that contracts with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide local route service and receives operation subsidies from the city. In its statement, Green Line attributed much of the blame to its outdated buses, many of which are 18 years old. The statement also blamed DOT for the lack of upgrades.
"We put together a plan more than a year ago and presented it to the Department of Transportation to rehabilitate the older equipment and systematically address the problems that are resulting in failures of the wheelchair lifts," the statement read. It added, "Despite repeated requests for a response, the Department of Transportation has failed to make a decision on this matter."
Trocchia remarked that he and other disabled bus riders have long complained about the bus companies that contract with DOT, and noted many are notorious for operating without functioning lifts and leaving many disabled riders on the curb. He and his peers say that non-functioning lifts are a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) a 1990 federal law that guarantees, among other rights, equal access to buses for those with disabilities.
"The poor service stems from not caring and from getting away with this nonsense for so many years," said Anita Apt, a Forest Hills resident who suffered a brain aneurysm that left the left side of her body weakened and who now uses a medical scooter to get around. She is also a member of Disabled-In-Action.
Apt says, since it is the closest to her home, she has to rely on the Green Line Buses Q60 line, which travels along Queens Boulevard through South Jamaica, Forest Hills and Rego Park, on its way to Manhattan. The disabled activist says that the companys poor service delays many of her daily tasks and has discouraged her from pursuing a graduate degree at Queens College.
"I refuse to register for school, and then not be able to attend because the bus cant take me," she stated.
The Forest Hills resident has been a long-time critic of these private bus companies. She has a paper trail of complaints and letters she has sent Green Line and DOT dating back to the early 90s. Her crusade has gotten DOT officials to ride with her on the buses to see first-hand the severity of the problem, but no long-term changes were made.
Apt even produced a copy of an internal memo by Michael Strasser, assistant commissioner of Surface Transit Operations at the Department of Transportation, who conducted a survey of the private company buses. The 1995 memo is an admission by a high DOT official that buses with non-functioning wheelchair lifts violate its ADA compliance policy.
Strasser writes, "If the lift does not work, the bus is not to leave the depot until it has been repaired." The memo also notes that some drivers know their lifts do not work but are sent on their route anyway. "We are aware that some operators only cycle the lifts once a week or less, and knowingly dispatch buses with defective lifts. This is not acceptable and in direct violation of the [ADA] Policy"
Trocchias sit-in comes at an appropriate time, when the mayor is debating whether to turn the private bus companies over to the Mass Transit Authority an agency that disabled riders have praised for its wheelchair accessibility. Bloombergs decision would be based on costs it would save the city, but the protest has heated the debate. In response to Green Lines statement, which fingered DOT for not upgrading their fleet, the Department of Transportation responded with a statement questioning the private companies use of subsidies.
"It should be noted that the taxpayers of the city and state have subsidized the Green Bus Line buses for the past 20-plus years, both in terms of operation and capital budget," read a statement by DOT spokesman Tom Cocola. "Furthermore, if Green Bus Lines have had trouble spending these subsidies properly, maybe it is indeed time to give the MTA take-over thorough consideration."
As for Trocchia, who plans on notifying the Federal Transit Administration about the problem, there is no more debate. He is fed up with Green Bus Lines. "I hope that my actions will incite other disabled individuals to become activists," he said. "Unless you want to live as a second class citizen, you have to get out and make noise."
