New Electric Car in the Works by 2013 for Drivers In Wheelchairs

See link below to article on the Kenguru electric car whereby a person can drive the car from his or her wheelchair. It has rear entrance.

However, seems that I saw a Cruise Car at an Ability Expo or Access Chicago or online 2 years ago where the driver could enter by ramp from the driver's side and still carry one other passenger in a wheelchair and  an ambulatory person.  It was in the $25,000 or up range, too.

http://media-dis-n-dat.blogspot.ca/2012/07/kenguru-first-drive-from-wheelchair.html

IMPRUVE, BNICEH and NPPMA Recruiting Help for Green Paratransit

Click here for link to up-to-date information on our activities 

We can justify the need for a rider-owned Green Paratransit and individual solar-powered cars.  Taxi drivers in green wheelchair vans don't want to pick us up as a priority and New York says they don't have to!!!  Chicago taxi drivers (only 2,000) are on a limited Monday-only strike for higher meter fares in lieu of higher leases on them by owners or to keep the vehicles for 24 hours. 

"Accessible transportation is a basic right and the disability community is not a one size fits all community. We and our supporters are concerned that Congress did not consider in the Surface Transit Bill, the best interests and needs of the people who are disabled who ride paratransit and are forced by FTA policy to pay as much as twice the fixed route public transit fare despite having the lowest disposable incomes in the nation; and the drivers and providers of paratransit, wheelchair taxis and Medicars whose jobs and ability to provide services at reasonable cost to taxpayers are at stake. The stalemate between the parties is hurting people who are disabled (PWD’s) worse than ever, plunging us deeper into isolation and rushing us to a lower quality of life that places us at risk for avoidable, though catastrophic illness or premature death as funds for paratransit diminish and we are unable to access appropriate affordable transportation to meet our needs and pocketbooks, and get to regular healthcare, worship service, and the activities that allow us to be on equal footing with our nondisabled peers in terms of employment and quality of life ..." - Ayo Maat, Ph.D., founder, IMPRUVE and NPPMA (National Paratransit People’s Movement Assembly) 


That is why we as members of the disability community who ride paratransit and have the lowest employment rates and lowest disposable incomes and our supporters request that our voices be heard by Congress, the President, and the public. We made  the rounds to various Congressmen and Senators to support designated funding, which did not pass in the  Surface Transit Bill. The bill does not come up for renewal again for 27 months.  The bill was both a success and a failure.

Without designated funding, paratransit operations will not be funded.

Although  House Bill HR 7, which excluded designated funding, failed, some of its provisions sprang up in the Surface Transit Bill that passed anyway on June 29, 2012. The Conference Committee of both houses was formed to work on the Surface Transit Bill AND GET IT PASSED BY June 30, 2012.  There were 47 members-14 from the Senate, 33 from the House.

 We have a solution to lower costs of paratransit and put some persons who are disabled back to work, but for now, we are focused on getting the Surface Transit Bill passed. We salute those in C

Chicago - July 2012  Our highways will be repaired and those workers will not lose their jobs.     Unfortunately, riders who are disabled and use wheelchairs will not see much change in getting picked up one time and drivers in Chicago of the green wheechair taxis will not see their demands met  until the drivers come together with the riders to effect change.  Drivers need to make a substantial living and riders need to be picked up on time.  The green taxis were ordered specifically to pick up riders in wheelchairs first. Instead, most of the drivers sit at the airports, hotels, etc.,  to pick up ambulatory passengers.  They have high leases and say they can't afford the new raise in leases effective July 1, while the Mayor of Chicago refused to raise taxi meter fares.is right?

New York - 2012 -- Taxi drivers are not required to pick up wheelchair cleinst in their wheelchair taxis??  Unbelievable. They didn't even pick me up when I was not using a wheelchair.

It is past time for us to form our own businesses, buy our own solar-powered cars and create jobs for ourselves and those ethical and reliable drivers who want to drive for us, if we can't drive ourselves.

See  www.groups.yahoo.com.group/IMPRUVE 
www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com 

 This is just a basic design. There are custom options available for this solar-powered car.

        

 

Green Paratransit By 2016--Could Happen Sooner with Shift to Nanofabrication, Nanotechnologies

From BNICEH for Youth-Tobacco-Disability

I discussed the idea for Green Paratransit at The 2009 Chicago Green Festival at Navy Pier. My lecture was entitled Greening the Disability Community. Excerpts:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=picasacid&feature=player_embedded

https://picasaweb.google.com/bloggingcoach/DrAyoMaatGreetsSpeaksGreenFest?authkey=Gv1sRgCOn3uMSRg4mRdQ&feat=embedwebsite#5346980265756683938



https://picasaweb.google.com/bloggingcoach/DrAyoMaatGreetsSpeaksGreenFest?authkey=Gv1sRgCOn3uMSRg4mRdQ&feat=embedwebsite#5354565857550967570


IMPRUVE Paratransit Peoples' Movement Assembly is converging on Washington DC for national memorial rally May 23-27, 2011. Will also deliver Declaration of Transit Freedom and Justice. For more info: email impruve2@yahoo.com See March 1 entry at www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com

See what has already happened in the 2 years since that lecture as projected by Product development specialist and mechanical engineer Douglas Larson. Here is the link to what he said:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bloggingcoach/DougLarsonSpeaksToGreenFestConferenceMembersAboutHisSolarPoweredNeighborhoodVehicleAs?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-4osPdtM2aQQ&feat=embedwebsite#5343680170800042962







Now that there is public awareness of nanotechnology, we will be looking into nanofabrication of solar panels, doors, windows to see lighter materials and lower cost of solar-powered and electric vehicles, and perhaps assembly kits fro the solar-powered cars.

We have looked at Cruise Car, GEM autos, and Freedom Motors. There are many more auto companies popping up as Doug said.

We are still convinced that persons who are disabled, persons, with low disposable income, seniors, Baby Boomers, youth and paratransit riders can afford to own their own Green vehicles, and paratranist riders can own their own Green Paratransit and lift out of poverty with other green businesses and guse and support nanofabrication and nanotechnologies.

From BNICEH for Youth-Tobacco-Disability

Do you plan to be a dealer, rider, owner, insurance broker, manufacturer, mechanic or investor in the Soular Project or Green Paratransit?

New Chicago 2011 Denies Inclusion of Speaker, Blames IRS

Open Letter to New Chicago 2011 and Amisha Patel, The Grassroots Collaborative
and the Voters of Chicago Who Deserve to Hear from All Candidates


I am appalled at the lack of fairness, inclusion, and flexibility of the New Chicago 2011, which to my knowledge includes the Jewish Council On Urban Affairs as a member of the Grassroots Collaborative. According to letter to William Walls III (Dock Walls) from Amisha Patel, he is not invited to speak on Tuesday December 14, 2010. That means one group has determined for voters whom they should listen to in the Chicago Mayoral Campaign race and whom they should not.

It should not matter if I support Dock Walls. I do. But I support social justice, corporate responsibility, and fair play more. And I will get the word out and ask people to flood the offices or inboxes of the Grassroots Collaborative, New Chicago 2011, Jewish Council On Urban Affairs and attend the forum or blast the Internet to let all know how much they support fair play.

This is not just about the man Dock Walls, but the principles of fair play that he stands for and the fact that not just he, but 4 candidates were excluded based simply on how many signatures they turned in, not how many were valid or went unchallenged.

Moreover, why is it based on signatures alone?

I will be sure to include this information to my facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, BNICEH and IMPRUVE families and members, if I have to stay up most of the night and ask them to email their lists and call their contacts tolt them know of his miscarry of justice by organizations that I thought support social justice.

I have lived in this city over two score (that's over 6 decades). I have not been asleep at the wheel, bombed out on alcohol or drugs, locked up, or in a country where there is no contact with other people or access to media.

What the Chicago media has done to erode campaign fairness is a sin. What you are doing by excluding a viable candidate such as William Dock Walls and others whom people need to hear to make a sound judgment and informed consent is almost akin almost to fixing the election so candidates chosen by you are favored.

By not exposing persons to all or most of the candidates, at least those whose petitions proved to be sound and unchallenged from the beginning, you give validation to the candidates who are being challenged, and invalidate those who worked hard to get on the ballot and did it without paying for signatures or excluding those who could not get as many petitions from the disability community and non-disabled community due to barriers of inaccessible facilities, buildings, and weather.

I can tell you for those who are disabled and believe in fair play who went out for William Walls III aka Bill Dock Walls to get signatures as hard as it was to get over construction sites, brave the cold weather and the cold suspicious hearts of residents who thought we might be begging and did all but fall over our wheelchairs trying to get away from us before they could hear us out, we are not happy with the New Chicago 2011's decision. We also did not support you excluding the other 3 candidates. We get enough of that from WVON and the major networks.

I just watched an excellent mayoral forum held at UIC on Channel 19 CAN-TV on Sunday from 5-7 pm. I did not know most of the canmdiades, but it was a pleasure having the opportunity to hear the ten of them on every question. That is what a democratic process is suppose to do. Noticably absent were three candidates who turned in the most petitions and are being challenged, but you have invited them to your forum. Unlike what you did, they were not excluded. They were just not there to publicly answer the panel's questions. Andy Shaw did an excellent job of representing the Better Govt. Assn. By the way, all asked excellent questions that resonated with the issues of which voters are most concerned.

We cannot let this slide. I am not angry, but I am weary of the games played in this town to exclude people we need to hear.

I would like to know how in this world did the sponsors of Tuesday's mayoral forum expect us to accept their refusal to allow 4 of the candidates who are not being challenged (incl. William Walls III) to be included, based on mere petition numbers. What would you decide if like in Portland, only 50 signatures were required? Only invite the first six in line when petitions were turned in? Or the first six to call and ask to be invited? I shudder to think what basis you would use in the future. And why six? It's not based on Feng Shui, some mystical reason, or astrology and indeed it should not be.

When people pay for petition signatures or have huge campaign financing behind them, that is no indication that they are the best or only candidates that should be presented before the people who will be voting.

In fact, that takes it out of the realm of a public forum and makes it a forum of selective candidates--sort of elitist, what does that say about New Chicago 2011 and who is pulling your strings or financing the forum. Perhaps a better name for the collaborative would be Same Old Chicago 2011.

This is no different than the unfair system that we are trying to get rid of now as it exists within the Chicago Board of Election Commission.

The weather is not the only thing that is fierce in Chicago. Here's my weather advisory for the forum -- watch out for backlash from a Chicago that stands for fairness, expects it, and won't support those who want to carry on business as usual in presenting candidates to the public.

One final question--did you exclude the 4 candidates, because your funding or position has been threatened? because the argument you used to exclude Dock Walls was less than weak,--"can't jeopardize your IRS 501(c)(3) approval"-- it was right up there with the worst excuse for not turning in homework: "my dog ate it." So IRS not only gives you nonprofit status, requires you to file 990 tax forms, but now determines for nonprofits whom they can invite to speak at forums and you have decided that to keep from violating 501(c)(3) rules, you cannot invite those with the lowest signatures even if they met the requirements of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, are unchallenged and are on the ballot. If true, sounds like the IRS is wasting our tax dollars and violating one of Maat's 42 laws--
30. I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern. Sounds like someone has had a lobotomy of that part of their brain that includes reasoning.

Sincerely in Love and Peace, I am
Maat

Dr. Ayo Maat
Coordinator of GreenThink Tank for the Disability Community
President, Black Network In Children's Emotional Health (BNICEH) and
(IMPRUVE) Independent Movement of Paratransit Riders for Unity, Vehicles, Equality

btw, Maat is not just a name. Maat is the energy of Justice, the one who weighs the heart on the scale of truth to be sure nothing is weighing down the heart. Maat abhors injustice, disorder, chaos; and favors those who have not cheated anyone at the scale due to injustice or skimming. Balance of the scale is required. There are 42 laws or principles of Maat--these are two of them that most of us should use for self-examination: I have not acted hastily or without thought and I have not acted with insolence.

Green Think Tank Teleconference Sat. Sept. 25, 2010

Next teleconference Sat. Sept. 25 3-3:45 pm CST 712-432-6131 PIN 100453# We discuss and develop workgroup projects that make lives of persons who are disabled more sustainable or provide green jobs or businesses. greenthinktank@comcast.net Moderated by Dr. Ayo Maat. Call me Maat (mah as in Mama and ott as in otter)

Top Ten Green Needs of persons who are disabled: 1. Green sustainable living, income, healthcare, employment 2. Funding of Sustainable projects, including the Soular Car Project and Green Paratransit by private entities preferably 3. Ownership of Green Paratransit 4. Accessible streets in every major city 5. Accessible restrooms and entrances in public buildings with privacy in resttoom stalls and entrances without barriers 6. Accessible green housing cooperatives 7. More political candidates and elected officials who are disabled and visible 8. Carbon-free, chemical-free cosmetics, health supplies 9. Green housing maintenance, lawn maintenance, landscaping, and pest control 10. Public awareness, training of public servants, doctors, media reps that handicapped and wheelchair-bound are not proper descriptions for persons who are disabled. Determine feasibility and recommend funding of green projects that persons who are disabled control singly, as a group, or with persons who are non-disabled. Soular Car Project is a project of the Green Paratransit Think Tank. Members are encouraged to recommend funding for green product ideas, product testing for persons who are disabled and seniors. Some product ideas already proposed are: rider-owned Green Paratransit, solar-powered 4-passemger wheelchair, solar-powered wheelchairs, solar-powered kitchen appliances and durable medical equipment, green housing coops, accessible green resource training centers with overnight facilities, accessible veganic urban farms, and green auto dealerships and insurance agencies run as home-based businesses, green repair shops, medical info and final arrangements (after death), on flash drive wrist bracelets, and evening, holiday and weekend solar-powered wheelchair repair and rental franchises. Consideration is given for Baby Boomers may develop age-related disability in the future. Please RSVP to teleconference at greenthinktank@comcast.net and visit the site http://www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com. Comments, design ideas, funding ideas, grantwriters, inventors, product developers, persons who are disabled, ideas for adaptive technology always welcome.

Chicago Paratransit Riders--Meet to Get Logs In for Federal Lawsuit on Pace

Emergency Alert

IMPRUVE Paratransit People’s Movement Assembly Mon. September 27, 2010 2:30-5:30 p.m. For Paratransit Riders to pay for Oct. 2 fundraiser or complete logs for Federal Court on late and excessively long paratransit trips. Bring records, notes and memories of such trips & if time permits, discuss issues to bring to D.C. in 2011 – Free meeting at Access Living 115 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago 60610 (near LaSalle)
RSVP & General Info: 773-416-7366 impruve2@yahoo.com

IMPRUVE is a grassroots, unfunded frontline fighter for paratransit rights & transit freedom, Green Paratransit, Green Jobs for US! IMPRUVE is sponsored by BNICEH 6951 N. Sheridan Rd Chicago IL 60626-3527
www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com
“Like an oak, we yield, but never break” since 2000

Green Think Tank for the Disbaility Community at Glenwood Farmers Market and 49th Ward Green Corps Table

Green Think Tank for the Disability Community staffed table of 49th Ward Green Corps Sunday Aug. 22 from 9 am-2 pm in Chicago on west side of N. Glenwood near Greenleaf. Attendees of the Glenwood Farmers Market and Glenwood Art Festival stopped by to learn what we were doing, sampled Maat's homemade raw organic blueberry kombucha, and signed our Declaration for Transit Freedom and Justice. We stil need more signatures, but please write some comments --a few words or a line. Become part of or invest in Green Paratransit. Join the Green Think Tank or Green Paratransit Think Tank. Call us at 773-416-7366. Email: greenthinktank@comcast.net. View our comments at LinkedIn.com, too. Join our Green Think Tank groups there. We are global. IMPRUVE is national and eventually will be global. You do not have to live in Illinois to join and plan for Green Paratransit or the 4-passenger wheelchair (Soular Car)in your community. Green Think Tank for the Disability Community is a product of persons who are disabled. It includes Baby Boomers, seniors, young people. Some things we focus on are: green cars, solar power, green cooperative housing, green pest control, orgnic gardening, green dining, green products for home, body.

Through the Green Think Tank, we promote green jobs and businesses that will take persons who are disabled out of poverty!! We also give voice to the green disability community and report on green businesses that are accessible to persons who are disabled.

Don't be held hostage to vehicles and paratransit systems that don't accommodate you. Why stay home all the time? Get in the loop. Work with us on the Soular Car Project--the car of innovation, with no carbon emissions. Cruise Car is the manufacturer of choice. Douglas Larson is a product development consultant and principal, also a mechanical engineer. He is working with us. We will sell it, rent or lease it, repair and maintain it, insure it and make sure it is affordable.

Target date for rider control of public paratransit or Green Paratransit: 2016. Invest now!! We can make it happen sooner only with more resources (financial, rehab engineers, product development, acceptance nationally). Be part of this innovation at the ground level. But if you are disabled and want a green job within the various businesses that we will establish or allow you to set up, you must learn or know technology, have business skills (develop them through Hull House (ETP) Entrepreneurship Training Program - 10 weeks) or a community college business course or study online. Do it now while you can. We will also have study courses and work with Stay Environmentally Focusd', Image Consulting, and Freedom and Victory Publishing, which plans to publish green education and living manuals. Moreover, a Green Think Tank contact in Sardis MS is developing a green resource center (for teaching and sharing resources in windpower, solar power, organic gardening and canning; and making it accessible for urban and rural families to visit and live while studying. In Pembroke Township (Hodgkins Park) IL and Chicago IL, there is the Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living. Though not a member of the Green Think Tank, we salute their work. It is run by Fred Carter (certified instructor in permaculture and former transportation executive) and Dr. Jifunza Wright Carter (holistic MD in integrative medicine and community health). Other green groups are BIG (Blacks In Green) run by Naomi Davis and 49th Ward Green Corps of which Dr. Maat is a member. We would like to see more green events and living centers that are wheelchair-accessible throughout the country. There are companies such as Chicago Ramp and American Ramp that rent and sell ramps (Chicago Ramp rents for one day, one event, a few days, etc. for those who don't need a ramp year-round). There are companies that sell or rent tarps for wheelchairs to make it over sand, gravel, dirt, grass and through garden paths. Some may be able to make their own ramps, tarps, etc., of recycled materials, or bamboo, repurposed plastic, or reclaimed wood. However, the most current focus for the Green Paratransit Think Tank...is accessible NEVs (neighborhood electric vehicles, of which the Soular Car Project focuses on the solar-powered vehicle, yet we will be looking into other electric vehicles (and assembly kits) that are cost-effectove for persons who live at, near or below poverty.