my previous post<\/span><\/a> that he always let me get in first, after saying \u201cBack up, please\u201d to other passengers. <\/span><\/p>\nHe is very kind and takes very good care of me. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the female driver always says, \u201cGo to another bus (the one with male driver).\u201d as soon as she sees me in the passenger crowd. <\/span><\/p>\nAt first, I was thinking \u201cShe might not know how to operate the bus ramp because she is a new driver\u201d, then I moved to another bus with the male driver.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
However the other day\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was raining and I was waiting for the bus. <\/span><\/p>\nThe first coming bus was operated by the female driver. <\/span><\/p>\nShe said “Go to another bus.” as she always does. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cShe does this even on a rainy day!?\u201d I felt frustrated. <\/span><\/p>\nThe next bus came in 10 seconds. <\/span>So I run to the next bus. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
However the male driver said <\/span><\/p>\n“The ramp is broken, so you need to take another bus (the one with the female driver)”. <\/span><\/p>\nWhen he just told me that, the female bus driver was about to depart. <\/span><\/p>\nThe male driver honked to make her stop and talked to her via microphone which is connected the 2 buses, and shouted to her <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cYou need to get the wheelchair passenger!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The female driver stopped and moved some passengers out and let me get on. <\/span><\/p>\nHer bus’s ramp worked perfectly. <\/span><\/p>\nAfter I got on her bus, the female driver looked unhappy obviously and honked a lot to other cars all the way to the final destination, my apartment.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
After I got my apartment, I still did not feel good about what I experienced. <\/span><\/p>\nI felt her attitude is not appropriate. <\/span><\/p>\nSo I posted what happened on my Facebook in English\u2026 then, impressively, I got a lot more comments and messages than expected. <\/span><\/p>\nEspecially American friends said \u201cReport her!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of my friends even told me that this might be discrimination not only against disability but also again me being an Asian. <\/span><\/p>\nBecause of the huge reactions, I emailed the University to report the female driver in the evening and went to bed. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next morning, the University emailed me back and said they would contact the department which has a contract with the bus company. <\/span><\/p>\nWhen I took bus around 10am, the elder bus driver who works morning shift told me <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI have heard that you had a bad experience yesterday? That will not happen again.\u201d with his smile. <\/span><\/p>\nI was impressed the driver already knew what had happened. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Moon](\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Moon-Rider-Bus-Wheelchair-2-300x400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In the afternoon, I was waiting for the same bus, but only 1 bus with the male driver came. <\/span><\/p>\nHe did not say anything particularly about the female driver, but he prepared a ramp before I got to the bus stop to show his extra kind.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A couple of days later, the University sent me a report. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The female driver in question stated that she typically arrives to the bus stop and has been asking me to use the second bus because her bus is usually full of riders and there isn\u2019t enough room for me to board without asking other riders to exit.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The University explained that this is not acceptable. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThe driver needs to communicate better to all customers.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The University suggested that upon arrival, the driver should watch for any wheelchair users and ask the other riders to stay back and wait until the customer with a disability boards the bus first. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIf the bus is full, they should ask whether I mind using the second bus and the reason for asking me. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nAny equipment malfunctions need to be reported immediately to the bus company\u2019s dispatch and supervisor and to all other bus drivers. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nAll drivers need to be aware of malfunctions to ensure access is not compromised. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThe bus company understands and agrees that I should not have a similar experience moving forward.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Moon](\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_2252-e1459191397463.jpg\")
\u00a0<\/p>\n
What made me surprised is American people\u2019s huge reactions and quick actions to resolve the issue. <\/span><\/p>\nI found that American people are very sensitive about discrimination and take it as a serious issue. <\/span><\/p>\nWhen I had a trouble with public transportation in Japan, I messaged them but they replied me in one or two months later. <\/span><\/p>\nI almost forgot that I messaged them when I received their reply. <\/span><\/p>\nI told the whole story to my American friend, then she said,<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThere are lots of lawsuits in US. If you take an action slow, you would be sued. Maybe lawsuit is not as common as in Japan, so people might reply slow.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nThat could be true.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ok, that is one of my most unforgettable experiences in life in USA.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I always take bus to commute from my apartment to the campus where my institute is located. I am sharing one of the most unforgettable experiences. One day, a bus driver refused to let me board the bus and Syracuse University resolved this issue surprisingly quickly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,129,131],"tags":[120,123,85,98],"class_list":["post-8239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","category-advocate","category-life","tag-issues","tag-law","tag-life-in-usa","tag-wheelchair"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8262,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239\/revisions\/8262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Moon](\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/photo-1428591501234-1ffcb0d6871f-e1459190578422.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n