Prepared Remarks by William W. Millar, President

American Public Transportation Association
for
National Council on Disability News Conference

Washington, D.C.
June13, 2005

APTA is made up of more than 1,500 organizations whose job it is to provide local public transportation and products that make that possible. APTA members are dedicated to providing mobility options for all persons, including individuals with disabilities.

Americans use public transit 32 million times a day and 90% of these trips are provided by APTA members. The freedom and opportunities that mobility brings must be available for all Americans.

As the report notes, public transportation systems have expanded service for people with disabilities - but more needs to be done.

APTA and the public transit industry are working cooperatively with human service and disability organizations as well as the federal government, in furtherance of ADA goals.

Transit systems have worked to make vehicles, facilities, and services accessible and to provide complementary paratransit services. For example, 97 percent of buses are wheelchair accessible.

An interesting byproduct of this effort is that American companies are world leaders in developing products that improve accessibility to public transit services.

I was in Rome, Italy last week, attending an international transit conference. It was great to see American firms and organizations such as Ricon, SSB Technologies,
Q Straint and the Easter Seal’s Project Action, offering to world markets, products and services to improve accessibility around the globe.

As this progress report points out, there are many communities, particularly rural communities, which do not have any --or very little-- public transportation services available.

It is fitting that we are discussing this report while the House and Senate are in conference on TEA 21 reauthorization legislation.

The lack of adequate funding is the major reason that transportation services aren’t available for people with disabilities and, where it is available, there are gaps in service.

That’s why it is critical that Congress provides the highest level of funding possible for public transportation and include innovative new programs such as the President’s New Freedoms Initiative to help close the gaps.

Here are a few facts. From 1993 to 2003, paratransit passengers increased by 37 percent with over 110 million trips taken in 2003, and paratransit vehicle miles traveled increased by 113 percent.

Public transit is very beneficial for the individuals who can now travel and for the communities in which they live, but has an obvious impact on transit agencies’ budgets, as paratransit capital costs rose by 163 percent and operating costs increased nearly 200 percent during that 10 year period.

In 2003, transit agencies spent $2.36 billion (8.8 percent of their operating budgets) on paratransit services.

Our systems overall face significant unmet needs -- some $44 billion a year to meet and improve transit service, according to AASHTO’s Bottom Line report.

Clearly, more funding is necessary.

There is a related area where much can be done to improve mobility options for persons with disabilities and improve service efficiency and effectiveness.

We believe the federal government can help transit agencies nationwide by better coordinating transportation services provided under federally-funded human service programs with local transportation providers.

A 1999 GAO report found 62 different federal human service programs provide transportation assistance to public and private transportation providers.

Total spending estimates range from $4 to $7 billion annually - close to the total annual federal investment in public transportation alone.

Better coordination of these services could benefit those being served, and could help public transportation providers defray some of the growing costs of these services.

The Federal Transit Administration has taken the lead in coordinating this through the “United We Ride” effort and we congratulate them for their successes to date.

In closing, we applaud the work of the National Council on Disabilities for commissioning this study.

All elected officials should read this study to understand the importance, urgency, challenges and cost of providing transportation services for people with disabilities.

We pledge to take these recommendations to our members and continue to work to meet the mobility need of persons with disabilities.

With the help of this report, I hope we can finally realize the true promise of ADA so that every American has freedom, mobility, independence and opportunity.