Public transport: Don't leave disabled out

Public transport: Don't leave disabled out
Sam Wong Nov 21, 08 3:52pm

At last, we are happy to hear that the Selangor government has initiated the transport fund to improve the publish transport in the state. This has shown the state government’s keen interest to increase the rate of people using public transport.

The target is seeing people using public transport go up from 11 percent to 30 percent and setting another goal to reduce the private car to public transport ratio to at least 30:70.

Nevertheless, in the report on this transport fund, we did not see any statement regarding people with disabilities. People with disabilities make up of almost 10 percent of our nation’s population.

They have been the larger marginalised group in our country even though they can contribute to the national economy. Perhaps it is this disabled environment or disabled unfriendly environment that makes them disabled after all.

We should not neglect the ability of people with disabilities; they have long been marginalised in our country. They are eager to contribute to the nation and have even foregone their personal well-being.

However, the environment surrounding has always been unkind. They do not have access to the public areas because these public areas are not designed to be disabled friendly.

I am one of those disabled people. When staying at Petaling Jaya few years ago, I found none of the public amenities were disabled friendly. The public transport services, both in design and in routes, were not accessible to me.

Even normal people found it hard to access to the services. The roads were not jept in good condition with constant digging going on from day to night while the public transport infrastructure itself was more often than not an inconvenience.

The Selangor government has said that it would work together with developers to push the federal government to develop the state’s public transport infrastructure. But I do hope the development will also include the rural areas such as Kuala Selangor, Sungai Besar and Sabak Bernam.

Those areas are also part of Selangor and the state government should also develop the public transport infrastructure there. There should be a plan for all, not only for some areas; we are not building up a Lego city here.

The government must not overlook the needs of people with disabilities. The transport fund has to take into account the community of people with disabilities in Selangor.

When developing public transport infrastructure please please ensure that they are accessible to the disabled.

The increasing ratio of members of the public using public transport always includes the population of people with disabilities. In Hong Kong, 90 percent of population use public transport and this includes people with disabilities.

Finally and just as importantly, some disabled are fortibate enough to have their won personal transport but we need to remember that when they age they may have to depend on public transport more and more.

All the more reson that our public transport infrastructure be holistically demand to cater for the needs of the entire population, disabled included.