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From: Betty Anderson
Date: 2/6/2003
Time: 7:51:35 PM
Remote Name: 205.188.209.11
At the January 6,2003 Barrier Free Memphis Soiciety Meeting, I told Mr. Hudson he had promised Congressman Harold Ford,Jr. and the BFMS on many occassions that people with disabilities would be included in the training of MATA operators and staff and asked why this hasn't happened. He didn't answer as to why it hasn't happened, whuch is typical of Mr. Hudson, but once again promised that a training program will be set up that would involve people with disabilities. He didn't say when it will happen and even if he had, that certainly doesn't mean that it will. People with disabilities need to stay after Mr. Hudson until this does happen. Mr. Hudson went on to say that the training will also include the retaining of current drivers. Boy do some of them need to be retrained.
Yesterday I heard a fairly new driver tell the dispatcher that a rider had handed her a purple and white card (a MATAPlus punch card), she could not read what it said, and asked the dispatcher if she take it.
Some of the areas I have seen where there is desperate need of training and retraining is in the tying down of wheelchairs and scooters. Many of the drivers wouldn't know the mainframe of a chair if it bit them.
Most of the driver can't read a map and can't or will not follow directions that a rider may give them.
I also have major problems with drivers going miles out of the way, often in the opposite direction from my destination, when there are no other pickups, because it is the only way they know how to get to a specific location. This is one of the reasons riders are late for pickups and arrivals at their destinations.