Local options disheartening for those traveling by wheelchair

Recently, a Fayetteville resident who uses a wheelchair for his mobility asked me to accompany him around his neighborhood, so that I would get to see the city from his perspective. We met at his home, and he took me on a tour of his neighborhood and his regular route to his bus stop and his local grocery store.

The sidewalks linking his home to his destination were good in places. Yet in other places, missing ramps and uneven, broken sections of concrete made the sidewalks unusable for him. Our best option, for most of our trip, was to travel in the street.

Wheelchairing in the street isn’t ideal even on quiet residential streets. On larger roads, it’s downright dangerous. Busy, five- lane College Avenue may as well have been a moat keeping us from crossing to spend money at restaurants and shops just a stone’s throw away.

People who use wheelchairs face these sorts of daily challenges in commuting to work or doing personal trips. For them, too, there is a palpable lack of dignity in traversing inadequate infrastructure, whether that’s a cracked-up sidewalk or a roadside bus stop without seating or shelter. In a word, it’s disheartening.

Disability advocates are usually quick to point out that just about everyone will be disabled at some point in their life. Whether due to injury, illness or just old age, inevitably, we will find ourselves depending on accessible transportation options at some point. Being able-bodied is a blessing, but it’s only temporary.

For my own daily transportation needs, I am at turns a cyclist, pedestrian, occasional driver, e-scooterist and transit rider. I have options to get around, and I exercise just about all of them. Even after years of experiencing my community on two or four wheels, it was eye-opening to see what it’s like in-person to depend on sidewalks and bus service as the only feasible means to get to work. When one of these humble conduits fails, it has the practical effect of shutting down a person’s ability to travel.

Mobility is perhaps the most basic human right. The freedom to move about in your environment safely and affordably with ease is essential to quality of life. But all too often, the personal liberty of choosing where you want to live, work and play is reserved for those with drivers licenses and the money to buy, maintain and fuel a car. For decades, we’ve designed our transportation systems around one paramount option: the car. And that would be fine, perhaps, if everyone could drive.

But we can’t all drive. The U.S. Department of Transportation finds that about 25.5 million Americans, or roughly 1 in 10 adults, have travel- limiting disabilities. Another 4 million Americans simply do not travel outside the home due to disabilities. Tens of millions more are old enough to go places on their own, but too young to drive.

A transportation system that relies so heavily on a mode of travel that effectively locks out so many members of the public does us all a disservice. Americans deserve cities that invest in genuine transportation options, not simply more roads. Paratransit programs, sidewalks, trails, e-scooters, bike share, quality bus systems, on-demand transit and many other options can help offer everyone the fundamental freedom to get moving when and where they choose.