[nfbmi-talk] more on colorado center in the news

[joe harcz Comcast]

You're welcome nd "hugs" back atcha.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Amy Sabo" <amylsabo at comcast.net>
To: "'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 5:33 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] more on colorado center in the news


> Hello joe,
>
> Thanks for sending this to the list... I have of course forward
> this onto to my friends/colleagues in the nfb of colorado about
> this news. thanks again and, I will talk to you soon.
>
>
>
> Hugs,
> amy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe harcz
> Comcast
> Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:20 AM
> To: nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nfbmi-talk] more on colorado center in the news
>
> RTD's planned changes affect blind students who use system for
> transit training
>
> By Jeffrey Leib The Denver Post
>
> Posted: 10/18/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
>
> Updated: 10/18/2011 08:10:53 AM MDT
>
>
>
> 1017/20111017_115426_cd18rtd_blind_200
>
> Students Simon Jaeger, right, and Sally Friedman, back left, get
> instruction from Colorado Center for the Blind instructor Monique
> Melton on how to use
>
> the bus and rail system at the downtown Littleton station. "The
> 60 is the bus that most of our students take home," Melton said.
> RTD wants to cut that
>
> route. (Kathyrn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
>
>
>
> To the dismay of educators and students, RTD's planned
> bus-service cuts in January will wipe out most of the fixed-route
> bus service that links the Colorado
>
> Center for the Blind with apartments the center provides for
> scores of students it trains each year.
>
>
>
> The Regional Transportation District is planning one of the
> deepest cuts in bus and rail service in decades, including
> eliminating all or parts of at least
>
> three bus routes that blind students use to get from their
> apartments to the center, near Littleton's downtown transit
> station.
>
>
>
> The Center for the Blind attracts students from around the
> country - and the world - who come to Littleton to get training
> in how to live independently,
>
> including how to navigate urban transit systems.
>
>
>
> "We're being disproportionately hit hard" by RTD's cuts, said
> Brent Batron, the Center for the Blind's youth services
> coordinator.
>
>
>
> "We want our students in the community," and RTD's fixed-route
> bus system gives them that opportunity, Batron said. "It's
> independence, it's freedom, it's
>
> doing what you want when you want."
>
>
>
> But RTD officials say many of the local bus routes in the area
> west of the downtown Littleton and Mineral light-rail stations
> that are used by blind students
>
> do not have enough ridership. RTD is replacing much of the bus
> service in the area with a new call-n-Ride operation.
>
>
>
> Students at the Center for the Blind currently walk the short
> distance to the downtown Littleton transit station to pick up
> buses to get home, or they take
>
> the light-rail train one stop south to the Mineral station, where
> they can take other buses to their apartments.
>
>
>
> The apartments are about 4 miles from the school.
>
>
>
> "We specifically chose those apartments for the reason that they
> were close to the Mineral and Littleton light-rail stations and
> that they would give students
>
> bus and train experience," said the Center for the Blind's Stacey
> Johnson.
>
>
>
> Among dozens of bus
>
> 1017/20111017__20111018_A09_CD18BLIND~p1_200
>
> Simon Jaeger, left, of Canada and Sally Friedman, center, from
> Albany, N.Y., walk a path to the closest RTD bus and train stop
> while instructor Monique
>
> Melton, right, gives them a lesson on how to get to and from the
> bus stop. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
>
> routes that RTD is eliminating or curtailing is route 60, which
> the agency plans to do away with. It serves an area west of South
> Santa Fe Drive, including
>
> the blind students' apartment complex.
>
>
>
> "The 60 is the bus that most of our students take home in the
> evening," said Monique Melton, a Center for the Blind instructor
> who accompanied two students,
>
> Simon Jaeger and Sally Friedman, as they walked from the center
> Friday afternoon to the downtown Littleton station.
>
>
>
> Jaeger, of British Columbia, Canada, has been a student at the
> center for about five months and Friedman, of Albany, N.Y., for
> about a month.
>
>
>
> RTD also plans to eliminate the portion of the route 67 bus line
> that now runs on Mineral Avenue, near the students' apartments,
> and to do away with the
>
> segment of the route 401 bus that runs west of the Mineral
> light-rail station - another transit leg used by the blind
> students.
>
>
>
> Riding scheduled bus lines helps the center's students build the
> confidence they need to travel the metro area, said Melton, who
> also is blind.
>
>
>
> The call-n-Ride service - with its curb-to-curb operation -
> "completely changes" the transit experience for blind students,
> she said, adding that the "repetition
>
> of constant trips" on the buses is "one of the things that sets
> our program apart from others."
>
>
>
> For all commuters in an area west of South Platte Canyon Road and
> south of West Bowles Avenue, RTD plans to replace the lost
> fixed-route bus service with
>
> a southeast Jeffco call-n-Ride operation that will have four
> 15-passenger buses available at peak travel times, said Bruce
> Abel, RTD's bus-operations chief.
>
>
>
> The fixed-route service will be "replaced by a multivehicle
> call-n-Ride, so the mobility needs will be met," Abel said.
>
>
>
> Center officials are concerned that call-n-Ride buses may be too
> crowded to handle the demand at peak travel times and that they
> will not run on Sundays.
>
>
>
> In addition to the on-call service, RTD plans to operate
> scheduled service using the smaller call-n-Ride buses west from
> the Mineral light-rail station,
>
> and those buses will be available to take blind students to their
> apartments, said RTD service-development manager Jeff Becker.
>
>
>
> On Monday, the agency said it is adding some route 67 service
> back to relieve pressure on the call-n-Ride operation.
>
>
>
> Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or
>
> jleib at denverpost.com
>
> Follow Jeffrey Leib on Twitter.
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