Asleep At The Wheel

As a person who leans more towards a social democratic world view, I found my feature story to be quite appalling.  

I found the story on the CBC website, about the way some bicycle lanes had been designed and built in Ottawa.  If you take a look at the picture below you can see that there are large curbs separating the automobile traffic from the bicycle traffic.  At first glance, as an able person, it looks like a great idea.  It provides a barrier that helps keep cyclists safe from vehicle traffic.  I like it. 

However, like most able people, we are privileged in our thinking, and the designers of the cycling lane obviously were too.  No one considered how difficult it would be for people with a physical disability to access the sidewalk if they are being dropped off by a car.  So the city, recognizing their faux pas, have conceded to removing just enough curb to allow a handi transit vehicle to drop off passengers.  Max Brault, a wheelchair user, was quoted in the article as saying, “It doesn't sit well with me.  It doesn't really address the actual problem, which is getting people to be able to enter into the front of the building" (CBC News).

It would seem that this cycling path committee is operating under a Liberal paradigm.  It appears that they feel that their bicycle path is pretty much fine the way it is.  They acknowledge that they need to make a couple of concessions, but it’s otherwise ok.  It’s exactly how Mulally described it: “Liberals believe that our present liberal democratic social order, although flawed, is superior to all others, then any social change proposed by the liberal worker will be limited to fine-tuning the system rather than overhauling it.  Any change will occur within the system and will not involve fundamental change of the system” (Mulally, 2007, p. 102). 

It is typical for Liberals to be reactive rather than proactive, as Catherine Gardner points out in the same CBC article.  She chairs the city’s accessibility committee, yet that committee wasn’t even consulted by the city when they were developing this bike lane project.  Catherine points out a couple of key items: "We do have the knowledge there and all we want is to be asked to be involved… It's really simple — I have an idea of what the problem is, able-bodied people don't. Get us involved, we want to help. And I think that's where the real solution is" (CBC News).

I don’t think it matters how much I know about the issues that confront people with disabilities, or how much I care.  There will still be LOTS that I don’t know about what it’s like to live with that.  That’s why it’s so important to not only have things like an accessibility committee, but it’s equally important to utilize it!  Only people with that perspective are experts who can advise us on their specific needs.  We need to wake up and listen to them. 

Bambi

CBC News Canada.  (2011).  Laurier bike lanes form disability barrier.  Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/07/09/laurier-bike-lane.html

Mullaly, B. (2007).  The New Structural Social Work (3rd Ed.) Canada: Oxford University Press.