Imagine that it’s 10:00 at night on a Saturday evening. You’ve been on your feet all day and night. You’re disabled and your body and feet hurt so bad that you can barely walk. After a jubilant exchange of energy with an incredibly enthusiastic crowd during a musical performance. It’s time for you to return home. So, you slowly make your way outside and are met by the extremely cruel and unrelenting chill that sometimes accompanies a late night here in the Black Hills. There is no paratransit door-to-door service similar to what many other cities have. With the hour being extremely late, Rapid City’s meager bus system stopped running hours ago. Your only option is to take Lyft or Uber and because you’re disabled and use a walker as a mobility aid, you can only accept certain vehicles. Those that are too high like pickup trucks and SUVs are extremely high risk to get into because one wrong twist and you could break a bone or tear soft tissue. You try five or six times on each app getting nothing but vehicles that you can’t use, so your only option is to stay marooned on a concrete island until you get a ride that is accessible. 

Fast forward to a few days later: you walk out of a medical appointment into the dusky afternoon. You wish you could call Dial-a-Ride but since your appointment doesn’t fit into their window you would have an hour to two hour wait, at minimum, not knowing when you will be able to get home. God help you if you need to use the restroom somewhere in between because no one else will. Again you must call a Lyft or Uber. It arrives, the driver rolls down the window and says “I’ll pull up.” You then move towards the car. Once they do, suddenly without explanation or warning they cancel the ride and drive away. 

I’m a cochair with the Rapid City People’s Alliance. I’m also a disabled resident and I wish I could tell you that the scenarios described above were fictitious but they’re not. I experienced both these things only a few weeks ago. I share these stories not to malign anyone but to illustrate what can happen to the most vulnerable in our community when our transit system has so many gaps that need filling. It’s important to realize that if we don’t adjust operation hours and routes to reflect the needs of the elderly and disabled as well as our brothers and sisters who work the third shift then Rapid City will be drained of its lifeblood because a transportation system is no less than a city’s circulatory system. Without oxygen and nutrients carried to its most vital parts, a city like a person will eventually die. As in any situation it’s important to acknowledge the difficulties but it’s also important to acknowledge success. Despite federal funding constraints, Megan Gould of Rapid Transit is currently working to do what she can to address where the needs are greatest within the transit system. She’s doing what’s called a micro transit feasibility study which will help try to address some of the aforementioned needs. She then hopes to bring her findings before the mayor and city council. With the help of the Rapid City People’s Alliance and other nonprofits, she hopes that they will listen and they will see a positive outcome. 

We in the Rapid City People’s Alliance have a deep love for everyone in this community. Including the working people that keep the city running and those that are most vulnerable. In closing, we ask you to join us and we hope that your love for those people is as deep as ours. Thank You! (Pilamaya!)

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