A Unique Perspective on Access and Mobility

By Michael Wallwork, P.E.

    As an ex-Australian traffic engineer I offer a different perspective on the Americans with Disabilities Act. My background has given me the privilege of working with people who were severely visually impaired or who had severe spinal injuries that confined them to electric wheelchairs operated with little a toggle switch

    In Melbourne Australia many years ago the State Government decided that in order to equip people with disabilities so that they could gained financial independence and a sense of their own worth two issues would need to be addressed. It was decided that this segment of the population needed both job training and increased mobility to enable them to travel from home to work without the need to rely on others completely. When you consider those who are visually impaired or who have physical disabilities there are some simple but important considerations that must be included in a transportation system.

Basic Considerations:

	Sidewalks that provide a flat and stable surface with clearly defined edges;
	Curb ramps where the sidewalk meets a curb so they can walk or wheel themselves up and down from the sidewalk to the road;
	A guidance system to help them negotiate roundabouts, audible-tactile signal to help them identify that they have reached a signalized intersection and which will then assist them to cross the street;
	Compact intersections to minimize their exposure to vehicles and which somewhat limit the speed of vehicles;
	A public transit system that will take them to and from their destination.

    In Melbourne and most Australian cities all of these facilities existed for many years although they have had to be refined and improved, as the range of people with disabilities became more mobile. To this end the engineers in Melbourne and I wrote a set of engineering guidelines for people with disabilities, Providing for People with Disabilities, Traffic Engineering Guidelines, VicRoads, 1993. These guidelines have now been in place for more than five years, prior to the A.D.A. in the U.S. The interesting feature is that these guidelines go way beyond the A.D.A. in this country in the detail and range of facilities that these people are provided with while in this country there is an incredible amount of resistance to the existing and now proposed A.D.A.

    This book makes a very good point in the introduction. "A person with a disability is one whose mobility is impaired through physical, sensory or intellectual impairment. A person who is handicapped is one whose movement around the street system is limited because that system does not cater adequately for his or her disability. If we include those people who are handicapped because they are carrying luggage, wheeling strollers, are pregnant, are very young or who are temporary disabled or handicapped by injury or illness then we are talking about a very large number of people. In the U.S. it has been estimated that 35 million Americans have a disability. If we include those who are included in the Victorian definition we have a population of people whose mobility around the street network is higher than the population of most countries in this world."  (Providing for People with Disabilities, Traffic Engineering Guidelines, VicRoads, 1993.)

Closing Thoughts

    Those with disabilities are mobility impaired because of the obstacles that they face in using the street system. Obstacles such as uneven surfaces, unstable surfaces, nonexistent curb ramps, road crossings, changes in height of sidewalks, nonexistent guidance systems, obstructions, vegetation overhanging sidewalks, poles in the sidewalk, holes, etc. can all be remedied.

    One group of people in our society that are so often overlooked, and yet we will all become someday is the elderly. These senior citizens would prefer to be able to walk or bicycle to their friends, the stores etc. rather than have to wait at home until a family member can spare the time to come and pick them up or they can beg a ride from a friend or neighbor. For one day all of us will become old and lose our drivers license then how do we move around, do our shopping, go to the club, travel, do all of those things we currently take for granted. I challenge every reader to give up their car on a Saturday and try and do their weeks shopping, go to the theater, go to a restaurant, visit friend or your normal Saturday tips without the car. If you cannot do all of your normal Saturday trips imagine what it will be like being 70 years old and try walking along all of those routes that you now drive. Can you really walk to your destination? Is it a comfortable walk, or do you have to constantly stop yourself from losing your balance?

    Remember that when you are 70 or so your balance is not like it is now, so the simple task of steeping down off a curb onto the road is a challenge. Those cracks in the sidewalk can trip us up. The tree branch overhanging the sidewalk hits us in the face because we forgot to look up. The pole in the sidewalk that causes us step off onto the grass can unbalance us. Imagine what it is like walking in the wet grass and the puddles when it rains because there is no sidewalk. Try visiting your neighbors in a wheelchair. See how difficult it is to push a wheelchair in the grass, or to go up the steps into a building. Even if you have sidewalks, on which to travel in your wheelchair and you finally reach your destination, how do you get into the building because of the two or three steps in the front of you? What do you do? Wait for the building to sink a kind stranger to help you up the steps. Then how do you get out of the building? How many times have you seen the little child fall down steps because they haven't yet developed their balance? Remember when your wife or you were pregnant. Remember the difficulty you experienced in going up and down steps, getting up and down curbs, walking on rough ground, or the fear of being hit as you walked along the road because of the lack of sidewalks.

    If you think back and consider what America was like 60 years ago it had many of the A.D.A. requirements built into their transportation system. It had sidewalks, public transit and people more willing to help those with disabilities to move around their communities. Yet, nowadays, these same facilities are decried as unreasonable because they cost too much and take money away from road construction.

    So because of the lack of concern for people with disabilities and the many obstacles that have been placed in the street system that impedes us all we now have the Americans with Disabilities Act. This Act initially made some fairly substantial changes to the way access is provided to buildings. Unfortunately it only basically required the construction of curb ramps and some minor detailing of on-street parking.

    The biggest flaw I saw in this Act was permitting the single curb ramp at an intersection. This design is very problematic for those who are confined to a wheel chair or for those who are visually impaired. The single curb ramp directs people directly into the middle of the intersection. This a poor design because it forces people closer to the through traffic creating a safety concern and it requires us to turn 45 degrees to turn back to the crosswalk. Try blindfolding yourself and turn 45 degrees and see how well you can turn this angle, or do you wander all over the place. Imagine if there were two ramps per corner and all you had to do was to walk down the ramp and proceed straight ahead without any turning. How much easier and faster would you be able to cross the road? Fortunately Section 14 of the A.D.A. now requires the construction of two ramps per corner. A proactive approach to eliminating design flaws and poorly conceived policies would be to consider those with mobility impairment first.

    Regarding the most basis facility the sidewalk, the proposed Section 14 of A.D.A. will not require a sidewalk. I recommend instead that as we build a road network it should permit vehicles to travel in multiple directions and that we should consider building a sidewalk network that will permit pedestrians to walk in all directions.

    No mandate just a comment in the preamble. It's your future and unless practices change, when you do reach the age of 70 or so and may have lost your driver's license and there is no guarantee that you will be able to walk on a firm dry level surface to your destination. You will instead more likely be condemned to a grass roadside or staying at home and waiting for someone to come and pick you up. But then by then you will more than likely than not have decided to give up your house and your independence and live in a nursing home.