Transit riders with disabilities cannot determine in advance whether a specific bus on their route will have a functioning wheelchair ramp or kneeling feature, leading to stranding at stops

The ADA requires all fixed-route buses to be wheelchair accessible, but mechanical failures disable ramps and kneeling systems on individual vehicles. Transit agencies assign vehicles to routes on the day of service based on what is available in the yard, not based on accessibility equipment status. A rider using a wheelchair has no way to check before leaving home whether the specific bus arriving at their stop will have a functioning ramp. If the ramp fails, the rider must wait for the next bus (often 15-30 minutes), with no guarantee that one will work either. So what? Riders with mobility disabilities must budget 30-60 minutes of extra time per trip to account for potential ramp failures, making transit journeys that take able-bodied riders 30 minutes into 60-90 minute ordeals. So what? The unreliability makes transit impractical for time-sensitive trips (medical appointments, job interviews, work shifts), forcing reliance on paratransit services that require 24-hour advance booking. So what? Paratransit demand increases, and paratransit costs transit agencies 5-10x more per trip than fixed-route service, straining already tight budgets. So what? Budget pressure from paratransit causes agencies to defer maintenance on fixed-route accessibility equipment, worsening the reliability problem in a vicious cycle. So what? People with disabilities who cannot rely on either fixed-route or paratransit service become effectively homebound, losing access to employment, healthcare, and community participation -- the exact outcomes the ADA was enacted to prevent. The structural root cause is that transit agencies track vehicle maintenance status in their asset management systems but do not expose per-vehicle accessibility equipment status in their real-time passenger information feeds (GTFS-realtime). The GTFS-realtime specification includes an optional 'wheelchair_accessible' field at the trip level, but most agencies do not populate it because their maintenance and dispatch systems are not integrated. There is no FTA requirement to report real-time accessibility status, only a requirement that the fleet be accessible, creating a compliance framework that ignores the operational reality of equipment failures.