Martin Treat Co-founder of CHEKPEDS
An Alternative for People with DisabilitiesEvery Veterans Day I join the parade up Fifth Avenue in my electric wheelchair.I lost the ability to walk because of my exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and I see younger veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in
Every thread there’s a comment about how someone might need to drive their ailing parent into the city and therefore improving streets for pedestrians is an attack on their family.
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I’ve been the ailing person who had to be driven to the hospital so I get that it has to happen. With that said, I work near a hospital and the drivers around there are awful. I avoid the block with the entrance to the hospital parking garage because I’ve had too many close calls with drivers making left turns out of the right lane or turning right on red without looking for pedestrians.
Oh for fuck's sweet sake I really hope you're joking. I'm mobility impared, and the "everyone dine on the sidewalks" thing really makes it harder for me to navigate. Especially down in the village where I've had to walk in the street to get past. I can't fathom being in a wheelchair. It's hard enough being wobbly with a cane.
Agreed. These structures are a terrible impediment, but having sidewalk extension without curbs does make life easier.
I 💯 percent agree. Also, I know it's not cost effective, but the MTA really needs to make more ADA accessible stations. If it's not accessible to those with disabilities then it's not truly public transport. Thank you for your post, OP.
They spend billions on new stations that are way, way bigger than they need to be. They spend billions tunneling in order to placate rich people who'll sue if they use the cut and cover method, which is much cheaper.
That's not cost effective. Paying way too much for an elevator due to construction industry graft is not cost effective.
But putting in an elevator at a fair price so that disabled people an mobility impaired people and elderly people who just don't want to risk falling down stairs will ride the subway more? That's absolutely cost effective.
Where my parents live they only just got the first elevator (no escalators either) in the entire neighborhood in the last few years. This was only at one station out of four.
I feel for them. The 59th and Lex (4,5,6, N,R,W) station is the closest to where I need to be for some medical treatment. However, the stairs getting out of there have a slightly higher incline than most stations making it a real bitch to get out of. I get off at CPK south at 5th and schlep a few blocks on flat ground. Much easier. I get that the system was not designed with the disabled in mind and its going to cost a LOT to make stations accessible. But it NEEDS to be done.
The expanded sidewalks would help with that.
Government officials are always wanting to widen streets and add car lanes when people complain about traffic being difficult to navigate.
We need to demand they widen sidewalks when people complain about crowds and sidewalk cafes being difficult to navigate. That'll mean losing some car lanes, but cities are for people first, not cars.
Listen, in Paris street cafes with sidewalk seating are no biggie. But, they have the room to accommodate pedestrians. Yeah the cars are smaller and kinda odd looking sometimes but yeah. My point is that NYC (particularly below Houston) was not built with the same kind of planning. That plus the car centric American society didn't really call for it anyway.
However, NYC is often an incubator and instigator in movements of all types. Since my epileptic ass can't drive, I'd support more traffic patterns like what they did on 32nd between 6th and 7th. Blocked off a lane of traffic with boulders (which also double as much needed public seating for those who can't stand/walk for long periods), painted the lane green and labeled it a "pedestrian flow zone".
but without the cars
you wont have cities...
I’m sorry what?
pretty sure it's sarcasm
It's either sarcasm or the ghost of Robert Moses.
well the reason you have this city is because a bunch of people who DO have walkable wide sidewalks dont wanna be there - they wanna be here -
they are from places where you need a car to get around and they will drive in their car to get here for work or for play - nyc wouldnt be NYC if its wasnt for those people in areas where they predominantly have cars - its because of those "car people " we have the prosperity here because they want to come and work and be entertained here and live close enough to get here by car.
2 millions come by car, 6 millions walk or use transit .
Folks also underestimate what improving street safety can do for vulnerable users (i.e. wheelchair/stroller moms). The entitled believe parking on sidewalks or blocking crosswalks is a "non issue" or a "mind your own business" kind of thing, but they have real impacts on people who need the ADA ramps, who need accessible crossings, who need more assistance just to move around the city, something we all take for granted.
What about parking lots? Where’s the game changer for cars? /s
game was changed for cars 100-70 years ago.
Have you seen “downtown” Houston? It’s literally half parking lots and half highways.
Until Covid scare let restaurants to effectively double their size by using sidewalk as part of their restaurant.
Please, elevators in all subway stations would be a game changer.
We really need more streets/lanes. The traffic is just atrocious.
the traffic is atrocious because the traffic planner(s) are making formerly wide avenues narrower which naturally causes congestion
justifying the "need" for "congestion pricing..."
The more lanes, the more congestion , or the more lanes, the less people, and therefore less city…
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Red__dead t1_j1u2l1s wrote
>Expanded sidewalks and open streets are game changers for People with Disabilities
Are you sure? Because the carbrained performative concern trolls here keep pushing the line that making the streets more pleasant, safe and accessible will leave the disabled housebound and unable to move their fridges back and forth between midtown and East Queens.