(Image from www.streetcarmike.com)
I am running to catch the 761 at Westwood and Wilshire. A teenager runs beside me carrying his long board? skateboard. (I don't know the different kinds of skateboards, but it looks long to me.) As I run I notice there is no need. Two riders in wheelchairs have delayed departure.
Waiting for the disabled is a routine for the bus rider. It develops patience, but sometimes that patience can be tried. Frequently the lifts have difficulty, and sometimes they get stuck. The other day on the 240 the lift got stuck on the curb after the wheelchair rider was already on the bus. The mechanism whines hard but it refuses to move. "Maybe I should get on the other side of the bus", says the disabled woman. People look at her quizzically until she explains that the battery operated chair she is in weighs several hundred pounds. She awkwardly maneuvers her chair to the other side. Wawawawawarr. No help. The driver gets off the bus and tries to dislodge it, then gets back on the bus--Whrrrrrr--still doesn't work. She asks a strong looking man from the back of the bus to get down and push up while she tries the mechanism again. The man hops down and grabs, presses, strains and grunts--rwarrawrawrarwwwww--Nope. At this point several of us get off the bus, deciding it might be faster to walk.
But sometimes the delays are timed perfectly. When I notice the wheelchair riders must first be lifted on to the bus, I stop running. The skateboarder arrives first, but there is a problem. These disabled riders, a man and a woman in their 60s, have old manual chairs, and while the man was able to wheel himself up the slight incline onto the bus, the woman is stuck. She doesn't have the strength. She turns to the skateboarder, "Hey, can you give me a little help here." He puts the long skateboard in her lap, and pushes her up the ramp. "No problem."
No comments:
Post a Comment