The judge, in his ruling late Thursday, also ordered SEPTA to provide private cab vouchers for disabled riders turned away from paratransit, a reform the agency has long resisted.
And in a controversial provision that threatens to pit two groups against each other, Reed directed SEPTA to give scheduling priority to its estimated 75,000 disabled riders who use the service monthly, ahead of the estimated 55,000 senior citizens who also depend on paratransit.
"I applaud SEPTA. . . . The number of denials appears to have decreased," Reed wrote of progress made by the transit authority since his January ruling.
But in forcing SEPTA to adhere to a maximum of five trip denials per month or face penalties, Reed emphasized how crucial reliable paratransit is to the disabled.
"What I find most challenging about creating this number is the fact that we are really talking about individuals," he wrote. "People who, when denied a ride, may have great difficulty getting to a doctor's appointment or to work or to see their family. People who, when denied a ride, may have great difficulty even leaving their home, an act that for the non-disabled in our society, including myself, is usually done with such relative ease that it is taken for granted each day."
Activists for the disabled celebrated their latest victory in a suit that has put SEPTA's troubled paratransit system in the national spotlight.
In his January ruling, Reed ordered the two sides to reach a settlement on how to provide the rides without fail. His ruling yesterday settled the issue after negotiations between the two sides failed.
"The decision provides the remedial teeth for this provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act that we have been waiting for," Tom Earle, a lawyer with the Disabilities Law Project, said yesterday.
