Disabled kids plead with AC for bus By Laura Casey, The Tribune, Jan. 12, 2003

OAKLAND -- It is easy to understand why AC Transit plans to cut bus line 53, which passes the Cerebral Palsy Center on its route up Lincoln Avenue to the Chabot Space & Science Center.

The bus climbs and descends the hill empty or nearly empty for hours midday.

In fact, it rarely carries more than two dozen people on any shift.

Still, students and staff at the 63-year-old Cerebral Palsy Center, a nonprofit school dedicated to teaching life skills to those with the disabling disorder so they can go to college or lead more fulfilling lives, consider the bus a lifeline.

That lifeline will be cut, and some service will be significantly reduced or cut on 17 other lines in June as AC Transit begins its Service Deployment Plan. The plan, expected to save AC Transit $4 million, also targets 17 lines for route changes and reduces service frequency on seven lines.

Under the plan, bus service will be cut to Merritt College. Officials say route cuts near Chabot Space & Science Center could prevent Oakland school district students from visiting the center.

Some north hills residents are upset by plans to ax bus route 6 into Montclair.

The changes are updated from an earlier proposal after several public meetings addressing affected routes in Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro and Hayward.

A second phase of the Service Deployment Plan, which would beef up service along San Pablo Avenue and cost $6 million, is on the books but not yet budgeted or scheduled.

Students at the Cerebral Palsy Center are the human face of these cuts.

Many of them understand the transit authority needs to slash service to stave off an expected $30 million budget deficit, but they say they need the bus service on the steep hill.

Its shuttles them to the Fruitvale district so they can learn how to use such services such as the post office or interact with shopkeepers and the public.

Some, such as 47-year-old Michael Greer, rely on the route to get to the center from the Fruitvale BART station. Greer, who has used the 53 bus since 1985, was born with no hands and no tongue. But he leads an independent life, works at the center and is a student there.

"I really don't like the idea that they are going to cut the service we have," said Greer, who along with other students at the center wrote letters to AC Transit pleading for it to reconsider the proposed cut.

Bill Pelter, the Cerebral Palsy Center's assistant executive director, said alternatives, such as the 43 bus, which stops a few blocks down the hill from the center, are not accessible to the students. Many students use wheelchairs and do not have the strength or battery power to get safely up or down the hill.

The 43 bus is packed with teenagers going to Skyline High School and Bret Harte Middle School at around the same time Cerebral Palsy Center students ride the bus.

"There are a lot of people who don't have disabilities who would not want to be on a crowded bus with all those kids because of the energy and the noise," Pelter said.

Some Cerebral Palsy Center students use speech devices that cost up to$15,000 each and take six months to replace. One wrong push or bump can break the device.

AC Transit planner Robin Little said he understands their case but that ridership on the 53 bus is too low to consider keeping it in service.

"How do you give these six or so individuals a bus and tell the thousands of people on International Boulevard they can't have a bus? That's our dilemma," he said.

AC Transit board will consider continuing to run the bus up the hill but "the dollar is short," he said.

Bus service also will be cut to Merritt College, where student trustee Dagmar Theison said students and staff are gathering petition signatures to stop the plan.

Route 64 from downtown Berkeley to the college is set to discontinue, leaving only the 54 line serving Merritt.

Theison said AC Transit will be hurting the community as a whole if it cuts service to the school because some students have no other way to get to the college.

Susan Bailey said she is dismayed by the proposed route 64 cut, saying one reason it has so few riders is that it is unreliable and infrequent.

"If I got off work and I just missed the 64 by a minute, I would have to wait an hour to get home," she said.

Dwayne Oslund, acting executive director of the Chabot Space & Science Center, said route cuts could prevent Oakland school students from visiting the center, even though the school district pays some educational program costs.

AC Transit already cut its program specifically serving Oakland students and the Chabot Space & Science Center in June.

"We don't want to be here on the hill saying 'We want you to come up here but not if you don't have a car,'" Oslund said.

Councilmember Jean Quan, who represents the district Route 53 serves, also sits on science center board.

She said she is concerned about the proposed cuts and has asked her staff to research the issue.

"I probably get a few e-mails a day from parents concerned traffic is going to be worse in the hills because students can't take the bus to school," Quan said.

Across the city, some north hills residents complain their bus route 6 into Montclair will be cut, limiting their access to Montclair.

Residents have been clamoring for years to get a bus from the North Oakland hills to BART, a route not now available.

Transit planner Little said AC Transit will listen to resident complaints and adjust the plan if necessary.

For example, resident complaints about cuts to the 7 line saved it from the chopping block. The 12 line will remain on Broadway instead of being moved to nearby streets.

The 59 will be put back into Montclair so those residents have bus access to 19th Street BART station.