CONCERNED CITIZENS OF PARATRANSIT [email protected] STANDING UP FOR ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION

I stand in solidarity for people with disabilities!

These are the very people who need this service the most.

People need this service. Do not cut anything. You all need to put your heads together and get this done.

My son depends on this service. It will be detrimental for him if these service cuts are implemented.

One ride a day? So that will get you to work but not home? If you want people with disabilities to work, and thereby reduce their reliance on public benefits, they need a way to get to their job.

I use it daily have vision handicap

I am writing this to form you that I am a Pace Paratransit rider. I 100% heavily rely on this service to get to and from work every day. Knowing that the RTA is trying to limit paratransit rides to a smaller number of rides per rider per month-not day-but per month, is so upsetting and infuriating to me. I also don't like at all that they're trying to increase prices. It puts so much financial and emotional pressure on me because then that leaves me with "what if I don't have a reliable and affordable way to get around"? They are doing a severe disservice and disgrace to riders with disabilities like myself, and I am asking the RTA to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE reconsider this proposal and DO NOT let it go into effect. I heavily rely on this service to get me to and from work every day because I am unable to drive because I have autism and anxiety, and I cannot afford the inconvenience and disservice that the RTA is trying to put on us riders. Limiting rides from 240 per rider per month to 30 per rider per month is an absolute disservice and insult to riders with disabilities who really need this service to get around, and that will NEVER sit well with me, and if this happens, the only way I'll be able to get around is if I pay increased, full prices for Ubers and Lyfts, and I cannot afford this AT ALL. So I am begging and pleading for the RTA to not do this to us riders who require services like Pace Paratransit. Thank you.

Can you tell me how helpful one single one-way ride per day is? Plus I’m already paying $3 per ride. These proposals are ill-conceived at best.

I guess you are proposing only one one-way ride per day so there is something you will concede without any pain to you. This ordinance is ridiculous. How you can consider this is unbelieveable.

As a para transit rider most of the time, upI have to to 4 rides a day.

Please explore other options. Cuts to these programs would undermine the ADA’s promise of equal access and disproportionately harm some of the most vulnerable members of our community

Not that such a steep fare increase is itself defensible with the current bloated cost of living and stagnant wages, but the drastic cut proposed in vital services just does not make sense. Certainly 60 rides per month (a round trip of 2 per day) is the minimum necessary to be considered -as- providing service to disabled riders.

Stop discriminating against disabled

My adult son with autism and intellectual disabilities is a user of the RAP program. These cuts will seriously affect his limited financial resources and his ability to function independently. Please do no make cuts to these programs.

As RTA, CTA, and PACE have for decades used services for people with disabilities as barganing chips to address budget shortfalls, or barganing with the disability communities.. While legally the proposals for fare increases is within public transit providers rights, morally is it the right thing to do.

Stop taking things from the most vulnerable people. Do better!

Please Do not reduce our rides..I depend on this service for my doctor appointments etc..How can you do this to our disabled clients? This is discrimination against disabled people

Illinois can do better than this. Our family members and friends deserve to have a well funded, safe, and timely form of transportation.

I rely on paratransit everyday as I still work and I have monthly doctor's appointments. I also service senior and disabled persons who rely on this service as well.

Cutting services will drastically impair people with disabilities. So will raising costs when people are already on fixed incomes.