Q’Straint and Sun Metro empower mobility passengers to secure themselves

The Sun Metro Transit Authority (SMTA) has always been at the forefront of providing its passengers with excellence. SMTA was recognized by its peers as the “Outstanding Metropolitan Transit System of the Year,” by the Texas Transit Association.

What often drives this agency’s excellence is SMTA’s willingness to adopt new technologies that provide its ridership with the most cutting-edge transit solutions. This was the case when SMTA adopted the QUANTUM – the wheelchair industry’s first automatic rear-facing securement station. The QUANTUM allows mobility passengers to secure themselves through its intelligent technology – with minimal operator assistance - when traveling on transit vehicles such as SMTA buses.

“When Sun Metro first installed the QUANTUM on its buses, to me, it was like going from the Flintstones to the Jetsons in terms of wheelchair securement,” said Lori Vugteveen, a mobility passenger and advocate of both the QUANTUM and SMTA. “Now, when a bus reaches my stop with an unoccupied QUANTUM, I say ‘Yes. Thank you’.”

The SMTA’s relationship with its mobility passengers blossoms

Since joining the SMTA ranks in 2006, Kevin Bunce, assistant director of maintenance, inherited a system that needed to address the mobility community more attentively.

“When I first approached our mobility passengers, I quickly learned that they were dissatisfied with the quality of our service and were extremely vocal in expressing their opinions,” Bunce recounted. “In my first meeting with them, I probably should have worn a flak jacket. They let me have it big time.”

Bunce was charged with introducing and informing its mobility passenger community to the QUANTUM in an effort to gauge their interest in having it incorporated into the transit system to secure its mobility passengers.

At the time, the Q’POD, played an integral part in SMTA’s securement system. By definition, the Q’POD is the industry leading three-point technology securement station. But the forward-thinking Bunce was eyeing the QUANTUM to not only integrate with the Q’POD on every new bus, but play the lead.

Bunce, a transit visionary, imagined his transit system allowing its mobility passengers complete autonomy to secure themselves with minimal operator assistance.

Bunce started the process gradually by providing the mobility community with QUANTUM product literature. After it was received favorably, SMTA installed the QUANTUM as a pilot program starting in six buses and dispatched them into their heaviest mobility market routes.

The SMTA mobility passenger community has embraced the QUANTUM.

In just a short period of time, when the mobility community had an ample opportunity to use the QUANTUM and experience its far reaching benefits, Bunce surveyed his passengers on whether or not to proceed with a more permanent installation of the industry’s most advanced securement station. After the votes were counted - a consensus was reached - and the majority of the mobility passenger community wanted the QUANTUM. SMTA proceeded to initiate a QUANTUM standard install.

“I have 14 more buses coming in equipped with the QUANTUM and Q’POD,” said Bunce. “Now, if any ADA grant money becomes available to us, I would use the funding to retrofit the remaining fleet with the QUANTUM.”

The mobility community in El Paso loves the QUANTUM. They especially love the fact that they are no longer the center of attention when boarding a bus among the other passengers. This is no longer the case since they can now secure and unsecure themselves from the QUANTUM in approximately 25 seconds or less.

“If a mobility passenger can enter our bus, get secured and unsecured quickly on their own – you can’t put a price tag on this type of customer satisfaction,” said Bunce. “The bottom-line is that they do not want to feel isolated or singled out like they do when they depend on a bus operator to secure them into a wheelchair station.”

“Q’STRAINT has the best product in the industry hands down for securement, reliability and durability,” said Bunce.  

“Being in the business for nearly 40 years, my peers often ask me what we use for mobility device securement,” Bunce stated. “I just tell them if you want to use the best, most reliable and cost-effective wheelchair securement system go with Q’STRAINT. I promise them that they won’t be disappointed.”

Bunce added: “And in the rare event that you have an issue, their customer satisfaction and after sales services departments are with you every step of the way. “

While Bunce has become a fixture at SMTA as the assistant maintenance manager for nearly 15-years, a lot of people are unaware - why he chose transit as his vocation in the first place - some four decades ago.

“I went into transit for the simple reason that in my opinion transit is one of a mobility passenger’s only means for living an independent life,” Bunce reveals. “Seeing this concept become a reality has become my life-long dream.”

Bunce is beginning to see his quest for complete mobility passenger securement autonomy materialize with his agency’s adoption of the QUANTUM. While he has experienced first-hand significant advances in the mobility transportation industry through the years, he never envisioned wheelchair passengers boarding a bus and independently securing themselves with minimal operator assistance.

“The QUANTUM makes you feel so independent,” Vugteveen reflects. “You get up on the bus, the driver sees you but stays in his seat, you pull into the securement space, push a button and voila, you are ready to ride safely without any assistance.”

“When it comes to playing a part in making transportation not only accessible to everyone, but virtually autonomous is priceless,” Bunce concludes. “Just seeing the satisfied look on the face of a mobility passenger who can now travel with minimal assistance brings to light why I chose this profession in the first place.”

QUANTUM and Q’POD emerge as a powerful universal solution

Currently, the QUANTUM is installed in 20 percent of SMTA’s entire fleet. Both Bunce and his mobility passengers long for the time when a QUANTUM and Q’POD are equipped in the entire SMTA fleet.

“I have 14 more buses coming in equipped with the QUANTUM and Q’POD,” said Bunce. “Now, if any ADA grant money becomes available to us, I would use the funding to retrofit the remaining fleet with the QUANTUM.”

The mobility community in El Paso loves the QUANTUM. They especially love the fact that they are no longer the center of attention when boarding a bus among the other passengers. This is no longer the case since they can now secure and unsecure themselves from the QUANTUM in approximately 25 seconds or less.

“If a mobility passenger can enter our bus, get secured and unsecured quickly on their own – you can’t put a price tag on this type of customer satisfaction,” said Bunce. “The bottom-line is that they do not want to feel isolated or singled out like they do when they depend on a bus operator to secure them into a wheelchair station.”

SMTA is a Q’STRAINT friendly transit agency

“Q’STRAINT has the best product in the industry hands down for securement, reliability and durability,” said Bunce.

“Being in the business for nearly 40 years, my peers often ask me what we use for mobility device securement,” Bunce stated. “I just tell them if you want to use the best, most reliable and cost-effective wheelchair securement system go with Q’STRAINT. I promise them that they won’t be disappointed.”

Bunce added: “And in the rare event that you have an issue, their customer satisfaction and after sales services departments are with you every step of the way. “

While Bunce has become a fixture at SMTA as the assistant maintenance manager for nearly 15-years, a lot of people are unaware - why he chose transit as his vocation in the first place - some four decades ago.

“I went into transit for the simple reason that in my opinion transit is one of a mobility passenger’s only means for living an independent life,” Bunce reveals. “Seeing this concept become a reality has become my life-long dream.”