Just before municipal elections this year, the city of Jackson quietly settled a more than decade-long battle over public transportation standards for people who have disabilities. 

In January, Disability Rights Mississippi and Jackson reached a settlement agreement establishing standards that JTRAN, Jackson’s transportation system, must continue to reach for in the coming months. Otherwise, the city could face further legal action from disability advocates. 

While it may be considered progress for the city, the conclusion of the lawsuit was not publicized earlier this year as the mayor ran unsuccessfully for reelection, though he generally touted improvements in JTRAN during the campaign. Materials from Mayor Chokwe Lumumba’s campaign highlight updates to JTRAN’s bus fleet, as well as securing more than $20 million in federal funds to improve Jackson’s transit system. 

Scott Crawford, the lead plaintiff in the 2008 lawsuit, which led to a 14 year-long consent decree, said the settlement agreement is a move in the right direction. 

“The notion that the consent decree could last forever is just not realistic. You can’t tie up a court system overseeing a transit system forever. That is not practical, and I’m the lead plaintiff,” said Crawford, JTRAN Paratransit Advisory Committee Chairperson. “You can’t have courts overseeing a system forever, so they needed it off the docket. That’s just a pragmatic fact of life. We had it in place for 14 years, and that’s a very long time.”

Those standards include ensuring that 95% of telephone hold times are not longer than three minutes and 99% are not longer than five minutes. It also states no more than 10 trip denials in a month, which occurs when JTRAN cannot provide a trip or when JTRAN offers a trip with a pick-up or drop-off time differing by more than 60 minutes from the requested time.

In addition, the settlement agreement focuses on the timeliness of passenger pickups, with at least 90% of all pickups occurring within the on-time pickup window, which is 30 minutes, and 95% of all pickups within 45 minutes.

“To be accurate and clear, we’ve only met that standard one month, so we’re not there yet. Nobody’s declaring victory. It’s a work in progress,” Crawford said. 

Minutes from April’s JTRAN Paratransit Advisory Committee meeting provides data that shows trip cancellations were down in January and February. Excessive ride times were up, with a few rides lasting longer than 120 minutes. The settlement agreement says that the city shall not provide excessively long trips for more than 5% of paratransit trips in a month, and no trip should be longer than 120 minutes.

“We have been in the range of 78% to 85% (for on-time dropoffs) in the last several months. I hope we can get up to 90% for Paratransit on-time performance. That would be an acceptable level of timeliness when you’re trying to get to appointments,” he said. “If you’re the medical provider or you’re the employer, you really want your folks to be on time for their appointments and their jobs, so it matters.”

The city of Jackson contracted with MV Transportation to manage transportation services, including JTRAN bus drivers, in January of 2024. Last fall, the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1208, which represents the drivers, went on strike against MV Transportation due to concerns such as long hours, wrongful terminations and safer working conditions. The strike lasted two weeks. 

Christine Welch, deputy director for the Office of Transportation, said that one thing JTRAN needs now is more bus drivers.

“It’s across the board. Drivers,” Welch said. “Currently we have about 54, 55. The desired number is hopefully about 60 drivers.”

JTRAN’s buses are ADA accessible, she said, meaning that people with disabilities can ride fixed routes or paratransit. But paratransit comes with some limitations. 

“You have to first be certified for that service based on your medical disability,” she said. “It’s a door to door service, curb to curb. Our services operate within three-fourths of a mile of a fixed route.”

Crawford said that one way to ensure JTRAN meets the standards agreed to in the settlement is for the city to hire more bus operators and pay them a fair wage. 

MV Transportation’s current job listings for CDL drivers in Jackson come with a starting pay of about $16-an-hour. The city is also seeking an associate planner who will aid JTRAN in managing paratransit services.

“I think public transit is worth its weight in gold. I think we underpay our transit staff, and that would help. That’s one way to fix this, but trying to convince lawmakers is an uphill battle,” Crawford said. “These are professionals who are doing a stressful job, and they need to be paid like it.” 

Greta Martin, litigation director for Disability Rights Mississippi, said that the protection and advocacy organization will continue to monitor data that the city of Jackson provides to them on a monthly basis. 

“For every piece of data that we get from the city of Jackson, there is some kind of number that they have to stay within,” Martin said. “It’s kind of a wraparound situation that we have. We’re making sure that we keep an eye on the data, but we’re also trying to work with the city, knowing that they have their own limitations, but then we also want to be accountable to the community and understand what their perspective is as people that utilized the services.”

Martin said by ending the consent decree and reaching a settlement agreement, it allows the city and her organization to direct time and resources toward improving public transit and quality of life for people who have disabilities. 

“That was the point of filing the litigation to begin with, to hold them accountable for the services they should be providing people with disabilities in the city,” Martin said. “I hope it fosters a collaboration with the city so that not only will they lean upon us for these issues involving public transit, but also that they will lean upon us for making the city of Jackson more accessible as a whole.”

Martin has represented plaintiffs in the JTRAN lawsuit since she started at the legal advocacy organization seven years ago. A little over a year ago, the city hired Martin’s husband, Drew Martin, as its lead attorney. The plaintiff’s lawyer said she’s received more feedback from the city attorney’s office in the last year than at any other point in the litigation. 

She quipped that may be because “my husband sees my name on the email and says, ‘I better answer it.’”

“I’ll take my wins anywhere I can find them for people with disabilities,” Greta Martin said.