Reply to Bike lanes violate disability access laws, new lawsuit says

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been physically disabled from birth. The ableism in every aspect of every day life is rampant and most people don’t even acknowledge it or care. Just remember, we are a group any person can suddenly find themselves a member of at any time. Don’t wait until then to re-evaluate.

I guarantee you there was not a single person with a physical disability that affected mobility in any part of the planning proceeds. There never is. It just doesn’t occur to people to actually ask people who are disabled what they might need or what might be an obstacle. Not before or after the fact. Ever. It just doesn’t cross anyone’s mind, to think maybe we should add some disability advocates or engineers on this project to make sure we are doing it right. Nope. Never. Seriously never.

This is how we end up with this crap. With lack of accessible curb cuts, with restaurant outdoor seating pods taking up all the disability parking, with bike lanes prevent access to the sidewalk, with idiots parking in the crosshatch next to a disabled space that prevents van access so the van ramp cannot be used, etc. We struggle and fight everyday. I’m so tired.

As for the Alexandria bike lane for blind people someone posted a few pages back, I am very familiar with that situation. The man who rules BPAC, a very successful BIL lobbyist group, volunteers with a blind cyclist organization that has blind people paired with non kind people to ride those double bikes together so the blind people can experience what it’s like to ride a bike. He had a bunch of blind people he knew through this organization contact the city stating that they thought it was too dangerous to cross seminary near Ft Williams, and that their lives depended on the city doing the road diet, adding the bike lanes, and putting a crosswalk in that was conveniently located directly in front of the BPAC’s head house. NONE of those blind people lived in that neighborhood. It was all orchestrated and calculated by BPAC and then his daughter told everyone about how clever he was.  So basically he used his friends with disabilities for personal gain.

Same old same old. [/quote]

Your problem isn’t bike lanes. It’s people who think they deserve free off-street parking. We could reserve 4 spaces (one at each end of the block) for disables pick up/drop off. That would never happen. Don’t blame accessibility issues on transit advocates. Place blame where it belongs: the selfish car drivers. [/quote]

And btw - the DDOT process includes extensive opportunities for public comment including by disability groups. It just is not true that disability groups could not participate. [/quote]

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