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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

October 2004

David Tannehill Special Employee Award:

Annette Williams

Annette Williams found a way to engineer accessibility into San Francisco’s historic F streetcar line. (Photo: Kit Morris)

Annette Williams
The seventh-largest public transit system in the country, the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) serves roughly 700,000 customers every weekday, many of whom are seniors or members of the disabled community. Under the leadership of Annette Williams, Muni’s Accessible Services Program ensures that the special needs of these riders are met and their concerns incorporated into plans and programs. With the David Tannehill Special Employee Award, MTC recognized Williams for her commitment to accessibility and to mobility with dignity.

Williams has worked in the field of accessible transportation with Muni for over 20 years, and has excelled as manager of the Accessible Services Program for the past 12 years. “It comes down to getting on the bus and seeing two wheelchair users there and being wowed,” said Williams. “Our work has affected their daily lives!”

Under her leadership Muni has implemented an innovative taxi-based paratransit service that provides over a million trips annually to Muni customers; put into service a groundbreaking paratransit debit card project to replace scrip as a fare collection mechanism for the paratransit taxi service; developed boarding platforms to make their historic F line streetcars accessible; and achieved wheelchair accessibility on 97 percent of the city’s bus lines.

“Being able to get around town without a car keeps me in San Francisco,” said accessible transit advocate John Cailleau. “If it weren’t for Muni I’d be out of here! There is no other city that has the degree of accessibility that Muni provides.”

Sherrie Barnes

School bus driver Sherrie Barnes treats her young charges with equal measures of respect and tender loving care. (Photo: Kit Morris)

Sherrie Barnes
Transporting special education students, many of them severely disabled, to and from schools around the East Bay is not a job for the faint of heart. It’s a job for Sherrie Barnes, a driver for Durham School Services whose heart is as big as a bus and every bit as strong as the challenges facing her passengers.

What sets Barnes apart is her dedi-cation to a code of courtesy, professionalism and punctuality — traits that have earned her the David Tannehill Special Employee Award. Barnes demands — and receives — the same courtesy from her passengers. “The most satisfying part of the job is getting to help the kids learn respectful behavior,” she said.

This emphasis on proper behavior does not make Barnes an aloof taskmaster, however. “Every morning, Sherrie indulged my son in an exchange of hugs,” recalled Anna Lisa Fear, whose autistic 9-year-old son traveled with Barnes from his Oakland home to school in Alameda during the 2003–04 school year. “Once that ceremony was completed, he’d gleefully skip to his seat, buckle up and sit quietly all the way to school.”

Sherrie’s affection springs from a deep empathy for her special passengers. Her own 2-year-old son is developmentally delayed and receives services through the Regional Center for the East Bay. “You have to be like a guardian angel,” she said.

Barnes began driving for Durham after working as a preschool teacher for five years. Initially intending to spend her workdays with other adults, some introspection led Barnes to climb behind the wheel. “I came to realize,” she said, “that I’ve been called to work with children.”

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