[Nfb-kzoo] Proposed Letter to Metro Transit

[Fred Wurtzel]

Hi,

Excellent.  Does this include exterior speakers for people who are waiting
outside the bus?

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-kzoo-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-kzoo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of J.J. Meddaugh
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 11:05 AM
To: NFB of Kalamazoo Michigan List
Subject: [Nfb-kzoo] Proposed Letter to Metro Transit

I would like to send the following to the director of Metro Transit, as they
are set up to receive over 3 million in federal stimulus money for capital
improvements. This is a rough draft, so probably needs some work. Thoughts?

Dear Mr. Schomisch:

My name is J.J. Meddaugh, and I a member of the Kalamazoo chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Michigan. I am writing to thank you for
your willingness to improve accessibility of the Metro Transit system and
ask for your consideration on some proposed improvements.

I read with interest the probable allocation of roughly 3.1 million dollars
of Federal stimulus funds to be spent on capital improvements. I would like
to recommend that a portion of this money be used to outfit the entire bus
fleet with a modern positioning and audible stop announcement system which
would help to increase access to blind and visually impaired passengers.

Unfortunately, the current system used to announce stops is unpredictable
and inadequate. Only major stops are announced, and the driver must manually
activate the announcement. This often leads to inconsistency and confusion.
If an automatic system were to announce every stop on each route, this would
allow the driver to more effectively concentrate on the roads while
providing a better experience for passengers. In addition, GPS technology
could be used to offer realtime bus information to all passengers in
multiple forms.

I have experienced audible systems announcing every stop in systems large
and small, and the audio announcements are not seen as cumbersome or an
annoyance. This funding provides for an excellent time to implement such a
system.

The Kalamazoo chapter of the National Federation of the Blind would be happy
to work with you and your organization to implement this system, secure
additional matching funds, and determine the most reliable and usable
technology for this project. In addition, we would be happy to answer any
questions you may have. I urge you to consider this request, and look
forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
J.J. Meddaugh

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