You get to the end of a street and make a pile. But now the home owner can't move that pile without heavy equipment. They can make an effort not to push snow towards ramps. I've seen plows angle their blade straight forward as they pass a ramp or driveway, then angle it to the side again when they're past.
This is only an issue when they're plowing near the curb, on streets where there isn't parking. Let's not forget how much worse they get in the winter, when the city is happy to push snow into giant piles in front of the ramps, or to allow property owners to leave their sidewalks unshoveled for days. Boston's asleep at the wheel.
Not to mention sidewalks all over the city covered with dog?? Hope nobody in a wheelchair has to navigate through that. But I spent some time in San Diego last year and the sidewalks were atrocious. The concrete itself was fine: not a lot of tree roots growing quickly to push things around, and not a lot of freeze-thaw to break it apart.
But curb cuts? Who needs them?! There were plenty of sidewalks that just ended in a curb at the street, which works fine if you have two working legs but if you're on wheels, you're SOL. For instance, here's an intersection in Pacific Beach with four corners, one of which has a curb cut. So the utility of that curb cut is basically zero.
You can go down into the street and then, well, you can return to where you came from. And the imagery goes back to , when the same single curb cut existed. So in a decade-and-a-half they haven't improved a thing. This is probably because while street pavement in Boston only lasts a decade or two, out there it will last a century no snow, little rain and they won't be forced to replace the curb cuts until the repave, where here everything has gone through at least one cycle.
So, yes, the curbs should be better and wherever possible, there should be raised crossings, which are far easier for users, and also drain better, see Pearl Street in Cambridge for a recent example.
But we're certainly not the worst, even in a country with ADA. And it's maybe a silver lining to the weather we have that the streets need to be resurfaced frequently enough that the cities have to put in curb cuts when they do.
Now, if only they'd do a better job building and maintaining them. My impression of California is that everything is designed and maintained well. Here's a good example. No sidewalk on this side of Middlesex Turnpike to get to the Burlington Mall, even though people clearly walk there because there's a dirt path.
Lotta people here with observations and opinions; only a few seem to have any experience at being disabled and requiring mobility aids to get around. You could become one of "those people" at any time; yeah even you, marathon runner. For me it was July 7, Drunk driver totaled my car and my spine.
The lawsuit didn't even cover all of my medical bills, nevermind anything else. She wasn't even insured. I went from working active hour days as a landscaper to a cripple.
Your physical fitness will not save you. How will you feel when stopping at that particular shop or restaurant you always enjoyed, or that evening walk around the block, now can't happen because of a step, or a lack of a curb cut, or an 8"deep half-frozen slushpuddle at the bottom of the ramp?
The very reason you think of a wheelchair user as "occasional" -- that you don't often see us somewhere -- is often because we can't get around that particular area, for whatever reason of difficulty. Please sit with that for a moment. You don't see us there because we cannot GET there. Until you've experienced the loss of all the things that suddenly become inaccessible to you, and how inconvenient and frankly embarrassing some "special accommodations" can be, you cannot understand.
You and your friends used to go in the front door; now they do, but you have to go find the side door with the ramp and hope someone's listening for the doorbell to let you in. And you're lucky if that's even an option. Anyone who wants to suggest or make policy regarding accessibility: how about you rent a manual wheelchair and try it sometime. See just how far you get before you can't without help. Can you even get out of your home? Can you get to the bathroom?
Your living situation doesn't magically adjust to sudden disability; neither does the rest of the world. Nobody makes free ramps, elevators or ADA-accessible homes. Moving isn't easy or free either. You come home to the same house and hood you left, but you're not the same, and suddenly neither is anything you used to do.
Let's go get coffee. How's the sidewalk? Is it trash day? Usually you just cross the street here? No curb cut? How many blocks out of your way do you have to roll before you find one?
Do you even know where the nearest one is? I doubt you do. There's certainly no reliable guide for us as to where they are or aren't, regardless if there "should be". And now there's a car blocking half of it, or a ridge of frozen snow. Frustrated yet? All of you throwing around which city or country is better or worse than Boston about this? And Boston needs a lot of work to be live-able for us.
I was born in Boston. I grew up here. I deserve the same, equal access to everything in this city that I had before. If you think otherwise you have a serious problem. Design something better! But using aesthetics to excuse the physical segregation of disabled people from an area is disgusting behavior from disgusting people.
In re: the discussion about whether other cities are better or worse than Boston: this is the same stupid derail that comes up when the subject is racism, or any topic where Boston doesn't exactly smell like roses. It's shameful that people do this, particularly concerning disability.
Are we not the city that adopted the bumptious slogan "Boston Strong" following the Marathon bombing, which resulted in many people with permanent disabilities -- only to do nothing to make it easier for those people to resume their lives? More raised crosswalks, please!
This eliminates many of the issues of not being able to easily install ramps properly. Cambridge has been installing a lot of raised crosswalks along major streets, so that whenever you are walking along it and crossing minor streets, you never have to deal with a ramp. Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a completely non-deductible contribution.
Copyright by Adam Gaffin and by content posters. Skip to main content. Hey, there! Home » Boston. Free tagging:. Attachment Size Complete complaint So cheapshots at the disabled are welcomed. Excuse me? Accidents down, but deaths are up. ADA became law in So, maybe we could have made a bit more progress by now. And these measures impact accessibility for more than just people in wheelchairs.
You're so right. Which have you visited? What a ridiculous and heartless comment. You do not consider accessibility in public spaces for all to be a priority. These people? Also known as Suzanne E Hazard. Includes Address 6 Phone 4 Email 1. Resides in Waynesboro, PA. Related To Russell Toms. Also known as Suzanne K Hazard. Includes Address 5 Phone 1 Email 1. Resides in Raymond, ME. Includes Address 16 Phone 6 Email 4. Resides in Panama City, FL. Related To Patricia Hazard. Also known as Susan May Hazard.
Includes Address 18 Phone 4 Email 2. Statistics for all 13 Suzanne Hazard results:. In most cases, the agency is required by law to have companies voluntarily agree to a recall or a corrective action like this. It is unusual for the CPSC to go to court to compel action for what the agency considers a substantial product hazard. The danger comes from a narrow gap between the two doors on some residential elevators. Small children can slip between the doors and fall under a moving elevator car. The elevator industry had been aware of the hazard for more than 70 years, as the Post reported in its investigation into the lack of action by regulators.
At least eight children have been killed and two more seriously hurt in elevator entrapments since , according to a CPSC database and Post research.
0コメント