Last week, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system axed proposed changes that would have significantly affected disabled travelers reliant on the service’s paratransit system.
The changes, which would have nearly doubled the fees for curb-to-curb transportation and limited eligible transportation zones, were abandoned after significant pushback from the disabled community and their advocates at a public hearing in July. Lines of Dallasites who use wheelchairs were crammed into the waiting room and left to sit in the foyer for hours as the boardroom hit capacity early on that night.
“I have to speak for those that cannot at all, that would not put themselves out there,” Candace Wicks, a double amputee, said to the Observer after the July hearing. “There was no way that I could hav