WHEELCHAIR USERS IN DIVERSE PLACES ALL OVER THE WORLD
Internationally acclaimed linear green space created from a former elevated railway.
It features multiple elevators and ramps for wheelchair access.
OR BACK OF BUILDINGS ARE BIGOTED ABLEISTS. PERIOD.
They ruin the façade.
Fire escapes.
So sculptural, they enhance the
façade.
If the same architect makes both of
these statements, they hate disabled people.
Only ableists reject access ramps.
ARE ACCESSED BY ELEVATORS – FIX THIS MAYOR MAMDANI
This phase of the plan will make 60
additional stations newly ADA-accessible while modernizing dozens of older
elevators.
Long overdue.
The MTA is not under the New York
mayor’s office, but its high profile progressive Mayor Mamdani MUST ensure this
work does not fall behind.
THEY ARE ESSENTIAL TO INCLUSIVE MOBILITY WITH DIGNITY
E. Union Square & E. 16 St. — next
to the Union Square subway station, the 4th busiest in all of New York.
Mayor Mamdani must make wheelchair
access a priority.
DURING SIDEWALK REPAIRS AND BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
New York uses these all the time, but
they are virtually nonexistent in Miami.
DISABLED AND NON DISABLED PATRONS SHOULD SHARE THE SAME MAINSTREAMED, INCLUSIVE ENTRANCE TO A MUSEUM
MET has a ground level wheelchair
accessible entrance.
But wish it would stop using the
stairs as a segregated entrance.
IT IS TOXIC ABLEISM
But isolation prevents chance
encounters/diverse experiences that maintain mental health.
Only 25 percent of MTA subway stations
are accessible.
Adding broken down lifts and people
with disabilities are denied chance encounters and societal immersions that
other commuters enjoy.
PATH OF TRAVEL IS LEVEL, GENTLY GRADED, UNOBSTRUCTED & OVERALL OUTSTANDING & RAMPED/ELEVATOR ACCESS IS GOOD
This one is at 14th Street and 10th
Avenue.
At any given time, at least one
elevator is out of service.
NO, THEY ARE THERE BECAUSE THE SIDEWALK IS NOT SAFE
the sidewalk is buckled, blocked or otherwise
obstructed.
LES— Chrystie & Stanton.
Sure hope NYC Mayor Mamdani's campaign to go to bat for the marginalized includes millions of disabled constituents.
WHEELCHAIRS = FREEDOM, NOT LIMITATION
The Carna, on display at MOMA, is
colorful & has high–tech style.
Since it had to be light and easy to
carry, an improvement over most collapsible wheelchairs, Kawasaki used a
titanium frame, with aluminum honeycomb–core wheels and rubber seat and tires.
CURB EXTENSIONS MAKE THIS CROSSWALK SAFER FOR ALL
Kudos to these pedestrian friendly, super wheelchair accessible curb extensions.
They calm traffic while providing an
excellent route for people with disabilities across Meridian Ave. at Lincoln
Lane and just north of Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach.
Every Miami Beach official embrace this and bring it to hundreds of other intersections.
People with disabilities
depend on safe crosswalks.
NARROW SIDEWALKS AND PINCH POINTS DESTROY WHEELCHAIR ACCESS FOR MANY SW 37 AVENUE SEGMENTS BETWEEN CORAL GABLES-MIAMI
After
walking 7 blocks on Douglas Road today:
I can
confidently say if I am given the choice between 2 days in jail or walking 12
blocks of Douglas & crossing its dangerous traffic 4 times—I’m picking time
in the lock up.
Narrow
sidewalks.
No shade.
Power polls
and other barriers that destroy wheelchair access.
More than
1/3 of people in Miami-Dade County cannot or do not drive.
They deserve
a multi mobile experience on this major artery also known as 37th Ave.
Let’s fix
this.
The people
of Miami and Coral Gables deserve better.
UNIVERSAL DESIGN PROVES OUT TO BE COST EFFECTIVE EVERY TIME
Universal Design and wheelchair access are NOT expensive.
An apartment entrance that used to have a couple small steps down.
Now it has a gently graded accessible
concrete path.
With a tiny investment, everyone can
visit the building.
BUT EVERY 10TH STREET HAS A POORLY DESIGN, TERRIBLY BUILT AND HORRIBLY MAINTAINED SIDEWALK
More than half of this sidewalk in a heavily pedestrian part of Miami Beach has a severe angle that makes it treacherous for people with disabilities.
It is on 16th St. at Lennox Ave. in Miami Beach.
Wheelchair mobility is virtually impossible.
Not only is the more level part closer to street (worse for pedestrian safety) but it also is an impossible route for wheelchair users -- because outside dining, valet stands and other obstructions block the pathway.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY MUST FOLLOW SUIT, SO MAJOR COUNTY STREETS REMAIN BARRIER FREE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND ALL PEDESTRIANS
I applaud Commissioners for creating and sponsoring this
legislation.
After serving the District 3 constituents for nearly a
decade, my next career direction was marketing urban design and working as a
town planner.
My specialty is pedestrian access and mobility for people
with disabilities.
Cities that work are cities that remove barriers to
pedestrian safety.
Safe sidewalks protect children and elderly while greatly
increasing the economic outlook for mom and pop shops, restaurants and services
that depend on foot traffic in our urban city.
In my work around the world to promote wheelchair access, I have sadly shown a
segment of downtown Miami just west of the World Center where both sides of the
street are completely shut down for years of high rise construction.
Out of the 100 cities I have worked in, the both sides
blocked – between a billion dollar development and a billion dollar Bright Line
Train Transit system – was the worst example of pedestrian safety and mobility
for people with disabilities.
Other cities solve this by requiring scaffolding or other
ways of keeping sidewalks.
I returned yesterday from work in Manhattan.
I walked past more than 100 construction sites.
100% of the time, the sidewalk was maintained.
Miami MUST match NYC’s success at maintaining pedestrian
mobility.
This is crucial for people with disabilities.
People with disabilities are the most under and
unemployed of any minority group.
That is NOT because of their disability, it is because of
the obstructions that we allow that ruin sidewalk mobility and the access it
provides to transit.
Developers may say this is an onerous cost.
I say that anyone who puts the basic human rights and
dignity of disabled people to a cost benefit analysis is being shamefully
inhumane.
I urge the five Miami City Commissioners to approve this
unanimously, when it returns for second reading.
It can be the first step (ticketing and towing cars the
perpetually block sidewalks would be another huge boost to safety for disabled
veterans and others) toward Miami delivering the mobility its residents
deserve.
Read FR 1: https://miamifl.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=14&ID=3893&Inline=True
FUNCTIONAL, FLEXIBLE, COST-EFFECTIVE – BEAUTIFUL
Brilliant example of Universal Design on super elongated picnic table on the Underline near the Metrorail Brickell station.
Wheelchair users can roll up to the
table on either side.
The Underline has emphasized inclusion
and accessibility for all ages and abilities – in all of its design.
The Underline is Miami’s 10-mile
linear park and urban trail.
The segment with the accessible table,
in a shaded urban oasis is near the super dense and bustling Brickell Financial
District, straddles SW 1st Avenue.
https://www.theunderline.org/
THEY VALUE THE LIVES, SAFETY AND DIGNITY OF PEDESTRIANS BY REQUIRING SCAFFOLDING TO MAINTAIN SIDEWALKS DURING YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT
High praise for the wheelchair
accessible, well-lit scaffolding around the historic Alfred I. DuPont Building
in downtown Miami.
Sidewalks must always be open and safe
during renovation and construction work.
Every city I have lived in, unless it
was a 24-72 hour concrete pour, window installation or facade cleaning -- it
was required to keep the pedestrian pathway clear.
Scaffolding maintained pedestrian mobility.
The example on Flagler at the DuPont
and across the street at the Olympia are bright, light and almost artistic.
It floors me when the city allows a
developer to close an entire sidewalk for two to three years of construction.
It violates the ADA, PROWAG, great
governance, best practices, good business and basic human decency and
inclusion.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT HAS HUNDREDS OF REGULATIONS FOR CARS IN STREETS – BUT WE SHAMEFULLY HAVE VIRTUALLY NO REGULATIONS TO PROTECT PEDESTRIANS ON SIDEWALKS
This is the first delivery bot that I’ve seen that can back up.
When they don’t, it is catastrophic
for a wheelchair user. 90% of the bots that I have seen stop when a disabled
person approaches.
That blocks essential curb ramps and
narrow sidewalks.
The City of Miami, Miami-Dade County
and other cities MUST regulate these hogs of the sidewalk bots.
Only those programmed to back up out
of the way of people with disabilities should be allowed.
Wide, safe, lit, wheelchair accessible simple scaffolding to keep sidewalks open during construction.
What is so hard about this Miami?
How do we have this perfect solution
by Flagler St. — then allow both sides of the street to be closed a few blocks
north?
I am at a total loss for why Miami
officials do not require scaffolding to maintain sidewalks during years of
development construction.
Most solutions require tens of
millions of dollars.
This requires zero.
MIAMI CLOSE SIDEWALKS FOR YEARS WHILE PEDESTRIANS, ESPECIALLY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, RISK THEIR LIVES CROSSING THE STREET TO CONTINUE THERE JOURNEY
Is there something Miami’s water in
that turns big developers & major construction firms into incompetent
fools?
Because every city I have lived in +
every city I have visited — does not close sidewalks for 3 years of work.
How is it that gigantic, 50-story buildings
can be built everywhere else while maintaining sidewalks – but in Miami our
development community is incapable of this simple task?
In Miami, we kill pedestrian safety
for no reason.
There are 100s of American cities that
require developers to maintain sidewalks during construction.
Simple scaffolding preserves safe
mobility for pedestrians and independence for people with disabilities.
