Kira Witt has a lot in common with many other 25-year-old women. She works hard and dreams of setting aside enough money to get married and start a family.

But she also has a profound developmental disability that means she cannot drive herself to her job at an Arvada coffeehouse.

Now, RTD's decision to cut a bus route near her job has had the collateral effect of eliminating her door-to-door access-a-Ride service for disabled people.

Witt is among eight disabled workers at Steamer's Coffeehouse, some of whom relied on RTD's access-a-Ride to get to work.

The owner, Athan Miller, has come up with a temporary fix for Witt and a couple of others but doesn't know how long she can pay for it.

Miller was a social worker whose clients were mainly developmentally disabled. When she went into business for herself in March, her plan was to create work opportunities for them. Miller has six other employees whose jobs, in part, include coaching their disabled colleagues.

"My favorite part is working; I like to make a living," said Witt, of Wheat Ridge, while taking a break from cleaning tables, restocking shelves and delivering orders to customers inside and out on the sidewalk seating area.

"I'd like to earn more money so I can marry my boyfriend. That way I can have a family and my friends will be proud of me."

When Miller began looking for a site for her shop, she sought a location where her workers would be eligible for access-a-Ride service. She found a spot in a small retail district in the Five Parks development on West 86th Parkway east of Indiana Street.

Miller intends to double her shop's size soon and hire 10 to 15 more disabled workers. But that plan is in jeopardy without reliable transportation for them.

Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, RTD must provide door-to-door service to disabled riders who cannot ride regular buses. But the law limits RTD's obligation to disabled people who begin and end their trips within three-fourths of a mile of a regular bus route, and only during times those regular buses operate, said Bruce Abel, RTD's manager of contracted services.

Two months after Miller opened her business, RTD proposed cutting a bus route that comes close to Steamer's. It was part of RTD's thrice-yearly adjustments to routes and schedules.

The Route CC up Coal Creek Canyon and down Indiana to -Olde Town Arvada was the poorest performing route in the system, costing taxpayers more than $36 in subsidy for each of the average four riders per trip.

RTD ended up reducing the Route CC to two morning and two evening commuter trips. That cut in service meant that RTD was no longer obligated to provide access-a-Ride trips to that part of the metro area.

RTD is willing to meet with Miller and other advocates to try to find a solution. "Often what we do in cases where individuals have origins and destinations outside our service area is to work with them to find other transportation," Abel said.

Still, RTD's policy is to adhere to the ADA requirements but not to exceed them - a policy that's approved by an advisory board that includes advocates for the disabled. The reason is financial: access-a-Ride has grown so much that it is eating into other bus service, Abel said. The cost of the service for disabled clients has grown 165 percent in six years.

Miller is filling in the gap by hiring a driver out of her own pocket. Access-a-Ride takes Witt from her home in Wheat Ridge to a facility for the disabled at West 58th Avenue and Ward Road. There, Miller's private driver picks her up to bring her the rest of the way.

But Miller said she can't afford that much longer.

"I'm a social worker, and I always felt strongly that you can provide a good quality product to your customers and hire the developmentally disabled to do it," she said.

"But I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

Steamer's Coffeehouse

13771 W. 85th Drive Arvada

• Opened by former social worker Athan Miller in March in a small neighborhood retail district in Five Parks subdivision.

• 14 employees, eight of them developmentally disabled.

• Specialty coffee and espresso drinks, teas, smoothies, breakfast burritos and Lik's ice cream.

• Plans to expand with deli sandwiches and hire 10 to 15 more disabled workers.

RTD's access-a-Ride

• It's a federally required service for disabled people who are unable to use RTD's regular buses. Riders must pre-qualify for service.

• Both the pickup and the drop-off points must be within a three-quarter-mile distance from a regular RTD bus route. Service is door to door.

• When RTD alters or drops local bus routes, it can change the areas that are eligible for access-a-Ride.

• Riders pay twice the ordinary RTD fare for their service - $3 for a local one-way ride, $7.50 one-way for a regional ride.

Source: Rtd

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247

Back to Top