Browsing by Subject "ADA"
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Item Complete Streets from Policy to Project: The Planning and Implementation of Complete Streets at Multiple Scales(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2013-12) Schively Slotterback, Carissa; Zerger, CindyComplete streets is emerging as an influential movement in transportation planning, design, and engineering. This guidebook, with accompanying case studies, explores the variety of ways in which complete streets is conceptualized and institutionalized by various jurisdictions. It offers practical and applicable insights for jurisdictions in Minnesota and elsewhere. The research focused on best practices in 11 locations across the nation: Albert Lea, Minnesota; Arlington County, Virginia; Boulder, Colorado; Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Dubuque, Iowa; Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota/Minnesota; Hennepin County, Minnesota; Madison, Wisconsin; New Haven, Connecticut; and Rochester, Minnesota. The guidebook is informed by an analysis of multiple data sources from each jurisdiction. The authors conducted a review of key documents (e.g., plans, policies, design guidelines), site visits, photo documentation, and in-depth interviews with more than 100 key informants. Six best practice areas emerged through the analysis: (1) framing and positioning, (2) institutionalizing complete streets, (3) analysis and evaluation, (4) project delivery and construction, (5) promotion and education, and (6) funding. The six best practice areas are described in detail and illustrated by examples from the case locations. The guidebook concludes with an appendix of complete streets case reports that offer additional details about each of the 11 case jurisdictions.Item Disability discrimination of prospective adoptive and foster parents(2015-04) Fleming, Grace PiechlerParenthood is a notion shared throughout the globe, but for persons with disabilities, the laws and regulations surrounding the adoptive and foster care process create unnecessary barriers. Vague health requirements, lack of protections for disabled prospective parents, and the patchwork of state laws threaten that disability impedes persons throughout the United States from becoming adoptive or foster parents. Prospective parents with disabilities may face categorical denials when seeking to adopt or foster children. Many face bias and speculation concerning their parenting abilities during their application process. The effects of these practices are felt not only by those who seek to expand their families, but also the growing number of children awaiting homes. Disability rights law has often focused on employment discrimination, but the Americans with Disabilities Act aimed to create equal opportunity beyond those boundaries, including within adoption and foster care systems. This article analyzes a fifty state survey of adoption and foster care laws and regulations to present several problems within this arena including inconsistencies in non-discrimination provisions, vague health requirements for prospective parents that allow for discrimination and bias, lack of professional knowledge in evaluation of prospective parents' ability to care for a child, and failure to include reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. Fulfilling the best interests of the child must remain the paramount purpose of public and private agencies, but that should not mean that prospective parents with disabilities are denied the ability to adopt or foster when their home meets the best interests standard.Item Improving Capacity Planning for Demand-Responsive Paratransit Services(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2008-04) Gupta, Diwakar; Chen, Hao-Wei; Miller, Lisa; Surya, FajarraniThis report proposes and evaluates two ideas for improving efficiency and service quality of paratransit operations. For carrying out this analysis, the authors use data from Metro Mobility, the agency responsible for providing ADA-mandated transportation services in the Twin Cities. However, the underlying principles, mathematical models, and algorithms are applicable to a variety of similar transportation operations in urban and rural areas. The first idea is to re-optimize routes developed by Metro Mobility’s route-building software (a commercial product named Trapeze) at the end of each day of booking operations to reduce the total time it takes to serve booked trips. The second idea evaluates the selective use of non-dedicated vehicles and service providers (e.g. taxi services) for lowering operational costs. Mathematical models and computer algorithms are developed for each of these approaches. These are then tested on actual operational data obtained from Metro Mobility. The report shows that a conservative estimate of savings from re-optimization would be 5% of Metro Mobility’s operating costs. Additional savings from the use of taxi service would be in the hundreds of dollars per day. The actual magnitude of these savings would depend on the proportion of customers who agree to travel by taxi.