49 CFR Parts 37 & 38 - Department of Transportation (DOT) ADA Regulations

16. Opening Building Doors.

For paratransit services, a passenger's request for the driver to open an exterior entry door to a building to provide boarding and/or alighting assistance to a passenger with a disability should generally be granted as long as providing this assistance would not pose a direct threat, or leave the vehicle unattended or out of visual observation for a lengthy period of time.¹ Note that a request for “door-through-door” service (i.e., assisting the passenger past the door to the building) generally would not need to be granted because it could rise to the level of a fundamental alteration.

¹ Please see guidance issued on this topic. U.S. Department of Transportation, Origin-to-Destination Service, September 1, 2005, available at http://www.fta.dot.gov/12325_3891.html (explaining that, “the Department does not view transit providers' obligations as extending to the provision of personal services. .  .  . Nor would drivers, for lengthy periods of time, have to leave their vehicles unattended or lose the ability to keep their vehicles under visual observation, or take actions that would be clearly unsafe .  .  .”).