Buses on the North Shore when you are a wheelchair user

Yes Disability Resource Centre: News

Learning to use buses can be rather daunting and confusing. When you add having a disability to the mix it can make things all the more overwhelming. Rachel, a staff member at YES, who uses a wheelchair for mobility wanted to see what the buses were like as a means of getting around our community when you have a physical disability. To do this Rachel tried to catch buses to and from various points.

Her experience of getting buses was very mixed depending on what the end goal was. Trying to get to very specific places such as a gym or a friend’s house was often a struggle. This was because a lot of the buses were either not wheelchair accessible; had the ability to kneel but her wheelchair still couldn’t get access; or the driver was unaware about disabilities and therefore couldn’t or wouldn’t support access to the bus even if it was supposed to be accessible.

A lot of information out there says a vast majority of buses are accessible. However they were difficult to find and many phone calls were made in order to figure out how Rachel could get around using the buses in her area. Eventually she found that using double-decker buses was more easy and efficient. This also came with a downside, however, as there can often be hours between each double-decker bus. Another difficulty was when travelling to destinations that required transferring on to other buses as it was never clear if the next bus would be accessible.

On a positive note, the bus stations that have express buses into the city were very wheelchair accessible. There’s just a matter of finding a way to get to these bus stations in the first place that can be a little tricky when catching public transport.

Our dream of making the North Shore one of the most accessible cities in the world continues to be our goal, what next? How about an accessible beach that enables wheelchair users and people with mobility difficulties to access not just the beach but to be able to get into the sea.

www.yesdisability.org.nz                                                                                                                                                                


By: , YES Disability Resource Centre News: with Sonia Thursby (CEO)
sonia@yesdisability.org.nz

Issue 82 November 2017