New ECV Rules Oct. 1?

[GrammyJudy]

Can anyone tell me what the new rules are and which ECV are no longer allowed on buses? I ordered large ECV from Apple Scooters and now wonder if that will be allowed.

 

[KPeveler]

Yes, you should be fine - At this point the only commonly rented scooter we can find that will not be allowed is the Dream scooter, which is not rented by Apple. Check out the new sticky at the top of the page for more info on the change.

 

[mickeyluvsjess]

Hi i am in the world now. The rules did change on the first amd so far the bis drivers have said it made things harder. We now have to wait in the normal bus line but the problem is that if the bus is crowded they have to move the people in the wheelchair seats with no warning. The drivers said they domt like it amd dont thinit will last long. They also changed the way they inspect the busses.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

That doesn't make sense to me. ECVs are supposed to load first, not by Disney rules but by Federal Law if I understand what's been said on these boards correctly.

 

[mommy2allgirls]

That doesn't make sense to me. ECVs are supposed to load first, not by Disney rules but by Federal Law if I understand what's been said on these boards correctly.

I thought so too. I think the new way is not a good idea

 

[LockShockBarrel]

I don't really see a problem with it. The size restriction makes sense..if the ECV/chair/device doesn't fit safely, they shouldn't let it on. The party size restriction is the same as the GAC, and while yeah it would suck for a very large family or group with someone using one these devices having to split up, there's nothing stopping them from waiting for the next bus so they can all ride together.

But from the legal standpoint, I'm 99% sure ECVs and the like MUST be loaded first, and they cannot be denied entry onto the vehicle UNLESS the device cannot be loaded and restrained safely (ie the Dream Scooter)

 

[KPeveler]

It sounds like with that policy I will wait in line, then basically get to wait for the next bus... I will be interested to see what the official policy states, as if they load people and the line gets to me, they HAVE to load me. Basically they have to treat me as if I did not have a wheelchair... this policy came about because bus drivers (not just in disney) used to load up buses and then claim there was no room for the wheelchair...

Also, I cannot imagine it would be safe for me to drive my 325lb Doom Buggy into the bus with a bunch of people standing there - I had problems the one time they tried it when I was in Florida last time!

I will be interested to see what the official policy states and see how Disney plans to handle things during very busy times.

 

[SueM in MN]

I had been told at one time that it was Federal Transportation Law and that if a bus was full at that stop for ECVs/wheelchairs, it was considered a full bus and no one else could be loaded. I did have a link for the information at one time, but the computer it was on died and I was no longer able to find the information on the computer.
I contacted the bus driver who gave me the information and he does not have a link to it either. Since I have no reference proving it is Federal Law, I have not been posting that for the last few years. I know I had read it, but without a reference, I have no proof; it may have been true, but changed.

They do/did load ECVs and wheelchairs first for some very practical reasons though:
1) If no one is on the bus, there is much more space for manouvering the wheelchair/ECV safely on the bus.
2) With no one on the bus, it is faster and easier for the driver to do all the steps he/she needs to do to safely get the wheelchair/ECV on the bus and tie it down. With people on the bus, there is often a constant shuffling of position - "Please stand here while I do this. Now, I need to be there, so could you please move there."
3) No one has to move out of seats that make the designated wheelchair tiedown spot.

We have been in some of the wider lines that are wheelchair accessible, but were at OKW, at times when the bus stop was not very busy. The driver still loaded us first, since we were within the first 10-15 people in line. He just asked the other guests to stand aside so we could pass. They could see we were a party of 4 and that they would still get seats. If it had been different, I'm not sure they would have been so nice about it.
The 'old' lines had some way to pull guests with wheelchairs out of the line - a chained gate or something similar. The new lines are solid metal thru the whole line, so once you are in the line, you have to stay in line or pass by people.
I'm sure the changes came about because other guests wrote and complained about guests with wheelchairs and ECVs being loaded first. The stories often include reports that one guest in a wheelchair loaded with "20 members of their party." There has always been a policy of a 'party' being 5 people plus the person with a disability, so if bus drivers are loading more than that, they were not following their own party. I think the "20 people" is probably a gross exaggeration and I have things posted that I know are not true, like reports that "4 scooters pulled up as the bus was getting ready to load and all 4 got on with 10-20 members of their party, filling the bus and making the rest of us wait for the next bus." Since most buses will hold a maximum of 2 ECVs and a few will hold a maximum of 3, I know this report is not true right away.

I do think that other guests will start to complain when it takes drivers longer to load the wheelchairs/ECVs. I hope guests with wheelchairs/ECVs also complain if they are not being treated fairly - i.e. not being loaded because the bus is too full when there is still room for people to walk up and get on.

 

[cranbiz]

The wheelchair loading policy did not change.

The number of guests with the wheelchair did (not really, the number of guests allowed to board through the back doors was set at 6 total guests months before)

You still wait in the wheelchair loading area in resorts that have one or in/near the painted box. We will still load you first if there is room for you. 5 other guests in your party will be allowed to board with you, any other guests will need to use the standard queue. You may choose to wait until the rest of your party will be in a position to ride with you. We will not move them ahead of other guests to make sure they ride with you.

If you come up to a bus stop and we are already loading the bus and there are still guests in line, I will ask you to wait for the next bus. That is being fair. If I stopped loading the guests that were waiting first, that's not fair to them and probably not safe, either. That would be providing preferential treatment.

As far as the rule SueM was referring to, that was the policy at one time, but it was not mentioned at the training we had on the new policies, so maybe that has changed. From a fairness standpoint, I would agree with that rule but from a practicality standpoint, if I can squeeze several standee guests on a full bus, I think that I should be allowed to. If I load standee guests but cannot load a wheelchair, I will call my coordinator for a bus to come and pick up the wheelchair.

This happened at Riverside this weekend, a 3 wheelchair party was not able to board the bus running the route, the driver called it in and I happened to have a 3 position bus that was empty. I was dispatched directly to Riverside East depot to pick up those guests.

I'll bend over backwards to help out those who are in a wheelchair (and me bending over backwards is not a pretty sight!) but I need for you to be understanding that I'm trying to help all guests equally.

The intent of the rules is to allow equal access, not preferred access.

Oh, and by the way, the way we are inspecting buses does not have any effect on the wheelchair policy, it really did not need to be brought up in this thread.

 

[mytripsandraces]

In NYC (which uses the same buses as WDW), wheelchair/ECV riders are added to the bus from wherever they happen to be along the route. If people are sitting in the wheelchair/ECV space, they have to get up. No new passengers are loaded before the wheelchair/ECV gets loaded, but they don't empty the bus so that the wheelchair/ECV can be loaded first.

 

[KPeveler]

I read somewhere other than the disboards that wheelchairs and ECV have to board first if possible for safety reasons, but I cannot find the reference either - I will ask a couple people I know for help!

I don't mind waiting in line, but I could not figure out how they would load me mid-boarding. The bus driver would have to stop, tell no one else to board, move the people in the seats I need, raise the seats, move everyone from the aisle, make sure there are no strollers being held (not enough room with anything in the aisle), unload the ramp, load me, tie me down, THEN go back and continue boarding. Not having to move people would be a big help!

If we got to the point of the ramp being lowered and I see I cannot get in safely, I will not even try it. I will go back down the ramp and wait - which I know will just please the bus driver and other passengers no end!

 

[mytripsandraces]

The bus driver would have to stop, tell no one else to board, move the people in the seats I need, raise the seats, move everyone from the aisle, make sure there are no strollers being held (not enough room with anything in the aisle), unload the ramp, load me, tie me down, THEN go back and continue boarding. Not having to move people would be a big help!

That's exactly what happens every day, many times a day, in NYC. Same thing in reverse when we reach the person's stop. Maybe we NYers are just used to it, so it's not a big deal. The loading and off-loading works very smoothly with both front- and back-loading buses.

 

[KPeveler]

I've ridden buses in smaller towns as well as Orange County CA, and it is not uncommon for them to tell me that "they are full" even when I can clearly see that they are not (I am in a wheelchair, not stupid), and then I have to wait for the next bus. I know LA, New York, and Boston have done a lot to help train their bus drivers - I am going to find out shortly if Orange County has done so as well (I will be riding the buses frequently in the near future).

I think the concern at Disney is that there are a lot of people who do not require their wheelchair in daily life, but need a wheelchair or scooter at Disney, and are therefore not as good at driving as people who are daily-users.

 

[cranbiz]

If we got to the point of the ramp being lowered and I see I cannot get in safely, I will not even try it. I will go back down the ramp and wait - which I know will just please the bus driver and other passengers no end!

Won't bother me at all, in fact, I applaud you for doing the sensible thing.

Hey people, you are on vacation, enjoy a couple minutes or rest and sanity. As for me, I get paid by the hour, not the run. Take as much time as you need.

 

[KPeveler]

Won't bother me at all, in fact, I applaud you for doing the sensible thing.

Hey people, you are on vacation, enjoy a couple minutes or rest and sanity. As for me, I get paid by the hour, not the run. Take as much time as you need.

Obviously you are so much cooler than everyone else

Seriously I have had a lot of bus drivers get annoyed when I handle things on my own - some of them even like grabbing the back of my wheelchair and shoving my sideways to get me in the spot. oh well - I guess I will just hope I get to see you and all your awesomeness on my next trip!

 

[mytripsandraces]

Seriously I have had a lot of bus drivers get annoyed when I handle things on my own - some of them even like grabbing the back of my wheelchair and shoving my sideways to get me in the spot. oh well - I guess I will just hope I get to see you and all your awesomeness on my next trip!

That's really dangerous! No-one should touch your wheelchair without permission or your request. Come to NY - you'll be treated just like the rest of us sardines (i.e., do it yourself or it won't get done right)!

 

[maroo]

The loading policy did change. Oct 1.

I was told this last month by a bus driver and checked it out here on the DIS and was told that the rules are in fact changing.

I just got back and here were my experiences:

I stayed at POP - wheelchairs/ECV's still load first, either because the queue has not been changed or maybe they aren't changing at the resorts?? No idea. The only problem I had at POP was that a non-accessible bus came on October 3rd at 8:25 for a 9:00 rope drop. I called Transportation because I was ticked that I would be waiting for another bus when it is so important to be at rope drop as near to the front as possible for Toy Story. Another bus did arrive about 5 minutes later - not too bad!

EPCOT- The bus lines ARE mainstreamed queues now. You basically wait in line with everyone else and towards the end of the line you break off to another line (a lot like the Toy Story line or the Safari line).

My experience with this was not real good. I was solo and had no friends to wait with me, so I just got in line with some nice strangers. We got the part of the line where it splits off and my line mates got on that bus (I will call that bus #1). There were 2 ECV's already waiting.

Then a 2nd bus pulled up beside the first (in a way that it was not able to load wheelchairs at all) letting another large group of the line while I continued to wait behind 2 ECV's.

A third bus pulled up and loaded the 2 people in the ECV's that were in front of me. As that bus was loading a 4th bus came and loaded more people, but NO wheelchairs, because it was parked beside bus #3.

So I got on the FIFTH bus. Five buses after the people I had gotten in the main stream bus line. And yes...this took a good 40 minutes longer than it would have if I had been walking.

I was very mad - but also very tired and figured I would not be nice when I called to complain - so I do plan to write a letter outlining what happened, etc to Disney.

To me the new policy is not going to work. It really is a good theory, as they break the line off at a point where you would think a wheelchair could be loaded and then the bus loaded...but in practice it just didn't work. It slowed down the process.

BUT...it will certainly cut down on some of the rude stares you get from people if you happen to get an earlier bus using the old system - so that's something good about it.

DHS, MK and AK were all still the old way...it was just EPCOT that had been updated with the new way. But every bus driver mentioned that all the queues were going this direction and that there was "nothing they could do about it" one even said, "It's just how it has to be!"

 

[kimsuenew]

The wheelchair loading policy did not change.

The number of guests with the wheelchair did (not really, the number of guests allowed to board through the back doors was set at 6 total guests months before)

You still wait in the wheelchair loading area in resorts that have one or in/near the painted box. We will still load you first if there is room for you. 5 other guests in your party will be allowed to board with you, any other guests will need to use the standard queue. You may choose to wait until the rest of your party will be in a position to ride with you. We will not move them ahead of other guests to make sure they ride with you.

If you come up to a bus stop and we are already loading the bus and there are still guests in line, I will ask you to wait for the next bus. That is being fair. If I stopped loading the guests that were waiting first, that's not fair to them and probably not safe, either. That would be providing preferential treatment.

As far as the rule SueM was referring to, that was the policy at one time, but it was not mentioned at the training we had on the new policies, so maybe that has changed. From a fairness standpoint, I would agree with that rule but from a practicality standpoint, if I can squeeze several standee guests on a full bus, I think that I should be allowed to. If I load standee guests but cannot load a wheelchair, I will call my coordinator for a bus to come and pick up the wheelchair.

This happened at Riverside this weekend, a 3 wheelchair party was not able to board the bus running the route, the driver called it in and I happened to have a 3 position bus that was empty. I was dispatched directly to Riverside East depot to pick up those guests.

I'll bend over backwards to help out those who are in a wheelchair (and me bending over backwards is not a pretty sight!) but I need for you to be understanding that I'm trying to help all guests equally.

The intent of the rules is to allow equal access, not preferred access.

Oh, and by the way, the way we are inspecting buses does not have any effect on the wheelchair policy, it really did not need to be brought up in this thread.

Thank you for clarifying the changes for us.

 

[KPeveler]

Maroo - that is my concern - I don't mind waiting, but it sounds like we are going to be waiting at LEAST one extra bus. I think this is going to get very ugly come holiday time!

 

[Piper]

Maroo, I am going solo in january and I am a little concerned now--wasn't before!