The bug in the ear to help persevere: Eric Setzer, the bus and persistent motion

By Andre Phillips, a Davidson College Sustainability Scholar and 2024 Sustain Charlotte summer intern 

Eric Setzer

Eric Setzer about to board the 28 bus at the Eastland Transportation Center.

Key takeaways

  • The bus is an integral part of life for people who cannot drive due to a disability. The bus makes it possible for them to be active and involved in the community.
  • Improving a system for one group’s needs will improve the system for everyone.
  • CATS should tell riders that the measurement for buses being on time is five minutes early or five minutes late.
  • Security on CATS buses helps riders feel safe on the bus which increases ridership.

Eric Setzer’s story

Public systems have a tendency towards stagnation, because they are composed of people and people need to rest. But oftentimes, these systems stop short of where they need to go. In such cases, the system needs someone from the inside to stay in motion, someone to keep ensuring that the system meets everyone’s needs, someone to persevere. For CATS, that someone is Eric Setzer. 

Raised in Hickory, NC, Eric has not been shy about “raising hell” to make sure he can get to where he needs to go. Moving to Charlotte 27 years ago to attend college at UNCC, Eric has lived all around the city, including on and off campus at UNCC and seven years in Uptown. Now, Eric lives in the Cotswold area. All 27 years, Eric has almost exclusively relied on the CATS bus for transportation. And all 27 years, Eric has made sure the bus can get him around the city.  

In his youth, Eric Setzer was an athlete, playing football, basketball, baseball, and even finding energy to wrestle and run track. But issues with his blood pressure led to an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) and brain hemorrhage, leaving Eric with a speech impediment and paralyzed. He also has nystagmus and astigmatism in both eyes, which causes him to see double. Seeing double in a different sense, Eric reflects, “Being that way, and then also being disabled has taught me a big lesson. That’s why I’m very boisterous when I say what I do.”

At UNCC, Eric earned 39 credits towards a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology, but eventually had to quit because of his vision. However, Eric did not give up on getting a degree. Instead he went to Central Piedmont Community College where he graduated with a degree in Human Services and Technology. When speaking to Eric, I noticed how careful he was to say the full title of the school he attended and the degree he earned. There was a subtle pride in his voice as he enunciated the syllables that most people take for granted, revealing his deep appreciation for life underneath his surface level cynicism. Perhaps that is what he meant when he said “I’m very boisterous when I say what I do.” His precise diction and persistent presence impressed one word into my mind: Perseverance.  

“The whole thing is interesting,” Eric ruminated while describing his disabilities. “But you learn to overcome these little obstacles in life.” To overcome is to get over and go beyond something, and that is exactly what Eric has done over and over again. Particularly through his 27 years of using the CATS bus system. 

Eric vividly remembers his first day on the bus, down to the date: August 6, 1994. At the time he lived on 36th Street, near the Davidson Street area. The day before, his first as a resident of Charlotte, he called CATS: “I was told by the lady on the phone that Charlotte transit was totally accessible.” The next day, he went to the bus stop and discovered otherwise: “I watched bus after bus, pass me by, because they weren’t accessible.” Rather than continue to sit there day after day, hoping to catch a ride, Eric took it upon himself to research CATS and find out which bus routes were accessible. His tenacity carried him to the Transportation Committee of the Mecklenburg Advocacy Council for People with Disabilities in 1996 (which he subsequently referred to as “the committee” or “the council”). He served on the council until it dissolved around 2016 or 2017. He was also appointed by the mayor to serve on the Pastor Vehicle for Hire Board in Mecklenburg County.

Because of the council’s determined advocacy, CATS ordered a new fleet of buses to be entirely accessible in 1998. As a bonus to being accessible, the new buses also had 27% better gas mileage and 98% less emissions — an exciting example of how improving a system for one group of people improves it for everyone.

Also in 1998, the committee successfully advocated for CATS to buy automated machines for ADA Time Point Calls. Eric was particularly excited about this improvement because the calls would let people know which routes were accessible, help people plan their route, and announce the on-time status of buses so people could be prepared. This excitement quickly shifted to disappointment: “[The calls] would have helped everybody. But they don’t think that way.” Although the machines were purchased in 1998, they were not used until 2005 or 2006 as Eric remembers. Now, based on Eric’s experience in 2024, most calls are never received because drivers have the option to turn them off. 

Although the council was not credited for the work they did, Eric believes their advocacy made a huge difference: “If we had left [CATS] alone…they wouldn’t have changed. Not for people with disabilities, who were our concern… The council really put a bug in the ear [of CATS].” Without the bugs to get them back in motion, people would sit there for far too long, not realizing they need to get moving again. The bug in the ear is what helps systems persevere. Without them, the system is unlikely to move in a better direction, because it wouldn’t know which direction is better, let alone that it needed to change. 

Because Eric has used (and bugged) CATS for so long, he has seen how certain factors of the system cause it to move a certain way. In 2017, for example, Eric recalls watching the 17 bus route to Commonwealth Avenue go from a full bus to nearly empty because of people at the back of the bus raising a ruckus, often cursing in front of children. Once CATS hired security staff to ride on the bus, these people became much less of an issue, and ridership has started to increase once again. 

An issue Eric has only recently encountered is how CATS measures buses being on time. While watching TV in December 2023, Eric was shocked to discover buses were considered on time if they were 5 minutes late or 5 minutes early: “I would think most riders would understand being late occasionally, because of the traffic. But being early? Come on now, that’s on time? When I learned about that I said ‘What?’” Eric would like for CATS to tell riders that buses are considered on-time if they are five minutes early or five minutes late.

Eric Setzer_ii

Eric Setzer boarding the 28 bus at the Eastland Transportation Center.

Even with its flaws, the bus system has gotten Eric all around Charlotte. During his 27 years of riding CATS, Eric has taken the bus to Central Piedmont Community College, the UNCC campus, Pineville, Eastland Mall when it still existed, South Park, and just about anywhere else he can get to: “I don’t limit myself…I’m a very active person. You might see me anywhere.” The fact that the bus has given Eric the ability to not limit himself is incredible.

What is also incredible is how integral the bus has been to getting Eric where he is today: “It’s given me the ability to earn a degree that I wouldn’t have had if I had stayed in Hickory. I met a lot of people. I work out at the YMCA on College Street, in the second story of the One Wells Fargo building. That’s given me the ability to meet a lot of people who I would have never met.” It has also helped Eric feel more connected to the Charlotte community: “At first, the people riding the bus weren’t happy about it, at all. But they… they came to embrace it, I’ll say that.” Because of the bus’s service, Eric has been able to find the pathways that help him persevere for a better world. 

At the end of our conversation, I asked Eric for a definition of advocacy. Pausing to ponder his exact wording after each phrase, Eric explained, “Advocacy is … making sure that people … with or without disabilities … get the services that are offered.” I also asked him to give some advice on how to advocate: “Check and see if you get the benefits… if there’s a federal law that goes with that, push that federal law. Because if you don’t, nobody else will! And that goes to everybody. Because I’m not seeing people stand up for their rights.” In other words, be the bug in the ear; be the person who persists for motion. Be the bug who empowers progress rather than peters out after pestering. Because if we all empower each other to persevere, the system will improve for everyone.

Thanks for reading!

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