PHOENIX — Every car owner has those terrifying travel tales of vehicles giving out when you least expect it. These alarming automotive anecdotes strike fear in any worrisome traveler.
Even this wheelchair user.
I’m not the Fresh Prince, but this story is still about how my life got flipped and turned upside down thanks to a bad transmission.
It all started on an uneventful Sunday afternoon in August as I rode in my wheelchair-accessible van.
I was heading home from work when my 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan decided it no longer wanted to function. My father and I were stranded in an empty South Phoenix parking lot. Luckily, the busted transmission didn’t keep the motor running, so the van’s air conditioning saved us from the scorching triple-digit temperatures.
So there we were, my dad and I crammed into my van, furiously making calls to find a tow truck and an accessible ride home. I am a quadriplegic – have been for 26 years – and use an electric wheelchair to get around, so my options for transportation were rather limited:
- Find an accessible taxi
- Find an accessible ride-share
- Find someone who has an accessible van
I found out that there were no accessible ride-shares or taxis available after calling several different companies. The bus was an option – but sitting at a stop outside in the heat in my black wheelchair was less than ideal.
I eventually found a medical transport service that had a van available, but it was going to take three hours to arrive and cost me $130 for a one-way trip.
I finally made it home. After five hours. Most of it was spent in a hot van.
But my trouble didn’t end there.
My van needed a new transmission and it would take almost three weeks to fix. I would essentially be stuck at home until then.
Or I could spend a lot of money.
My cost for leaving the house: $125 per trip to wherever I wanted to go. Or I could rent a van at almost $150 a day.
Now before you say, “Well, Gabe, what about state and city services like Dial-A-Ride and Paratransit,” know that my previous experience with those services has been extremely unreliable and virtually unusable if you need to get anywhere on time.
For example, a few years ago I scheduled a ride home from work with Paratransit. After arriving 30 minutes late, it took several stops and almost two hours before I made it home. If I had my van, it would have been a simple 15-minute drive.
Some of my friends in the disabled community also shared stories about their experiences with services like Dial-A-Ride. Their feedback about late pickups, bad service and late cancellations have made me stay clear of using those services.
I decided to ride it out at home for a couple of weeks before I chose to shell out $900 to rent an accessible van for one week. In those two weeks, I never left the house. Not once.
Because I couldn’t.
The entire experience just highlights how hard it was to get around the Valley in a wheelchair.
If I wanted to travel around the city as a wheelchair user, I had to either shell out $130 per trip, $150 a day for a van rental or try my luck at public transportation.
The inequality in transportation options between disabled and able-bodied residents was obvious – and infuriating.
There are plenty of options for an able-bodied person to get to the mall:
- Use a ride-share service
- Call a friend with a car
- Take a cab
I am, clearly, not an able-bodied person. And I pay the price for it.
Hopefully spreading awareness about my experience with accessible transportation helps shine a spotlight on the need for change and improvement in transportation options for people with disabilities.
In the meantime I can’t help but think about a certain credit card slogan during this situation:
- Van repairs: $5,000
- Van rentals: $900
- Realizing it’s too expensive to be disabled? …Priceless.
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