in the discussions around urban planning accessibility is not often explicitly mentioned,
rather it's implied. For those like myself who have a disability it is a front and
center concern. As a legally blind person, i look into transit and walkability as a matter
of maintaining my quality of life. Whether i aim to live in Philly, Baltimore or Berlin,
the area i live in being accessible isn't a nice perk - it's a make or break aspect of living a
full life somewhere. What i've come to realize is that europe is fundamentally accessible,
whereas in the united states accessibility is a luxury plain and simple i used to live around
washington dc for much of my adult life i found it quite convenient the metro was on time enough
many stations were around built up areas in north virginia or maryland i was in
an extremely fortunate location one that many americans don't have the laundry to experience
access to reliable transits in many ways is a luxury since many governments of the
united states just don't see transit as a priority while smaller city governments in europe can find
regular train service and buses burying people around their respective regions this is an
artist's rendition of something that really helped me navigate city streets crosswalks where the sign
would audibly tell you it was time to walk and how many seconds were left it didn't make crossing a
six-lane intersection less scary but i knew how much time i would have to get across small things
like this really help those of us who don't have perfect vision this kind of street design
is almost night and day compared to my current situation here in the sun belt transit is seen
charitably as quote unquote unnecessary government there is only one major city in the south that
can be said to have mass transit charlotte even there many stations are so-called park and ride
which is better than nothing at all but sad that you have to have so much parking for such little
access in areas outside of major population centers we are left with this decaying land
that no one feels obligated to take care of when we could have development and revitalization
people say that cars give them freedom and that is definitely understandable
when your country has ignored public transit for decades what option do you have millions of people
with disabilities however lack that same freedom and are in a way denied it through inaction on
transit in this kind of environment the ada is basically a joke for my non-american viewers the
americans with disabilities act presents a number of changes that can be made to make buildings and
public spaces accessible to the disabled not just the blind like me but deaf people people
in wheelchairs people need crutches etc typically a developer will happily provide something like an
automatic door or sloping curbs but then legally buying local ordinance not be allowed to build
dense housing nearby spicy take here if someone needs to drive to reach the accessible amenity
it isn't actually accessible there's a patchwork of development going on that is walkable
but it is almost not expandable towns build isolated pockets of genuinely good development
surrounded by car-oriented suburbs it doesn't make for an accessible life when you are effectively
car bound past a one mile radius even if that one mile is good it isn't good enough
the united states has only one fully walkable city where you can be car free without a problem
it is as you might imagine out of reach to most people on a fundamental level the rest
of america is designed for the car in the vast majority of cases as we can see on this map
only one county manhattan uses public transit on a day-to-day basis when i see content from a
channel like not just bikes and when i experience traveling to europe i get a sense of comfort like
this is how a city should feel walking down the streets of the shop is a daily occurrence
of the netherlands something most americans will likely never experience city governments in europe
especially the netherlands understood as far back as the 70s that cars couldn't be the primary mode
of transport and so began the process of moving to a less congested more human scale environment
for example biking has become more than a leisure activity across most of europe today it's almost
a religion in the netherlands cars still exist but their role has shifted from absolute necessity to
one among many options while many american cities do and have made positive steps in reducing car
dependency or improving urban density they are still largely beholden to their suburban exteriors
which are quite difficult to densify and work with one factor that could positively change things
is civic engagement speaking at the local level europeans are much more involved in city politics
when the oil crisis happened in the 1970s the dutch people protested by blocking the streets
of amsterdam and other cities with their bikes americans meanwhile waited in queues but there
was little appetite for fundamental change the us needs places to live that are affordable dense
and transit forward it should be normal but in the united states apartments are not often built close
to commercial buildings due to exclusionary zoning the less exclusionary zoning the more accessible a
place is the more economically self-sustaining and profitable a place is because in these
places people can live a more full life indeed millions live like this around the world every day
they don't have to drive a car everywhere and deal with high gas prices because the price of
gas is a non-factor and how people get around in large urban centers there's some kind of public
transportation to get you from your apartment to wherever you need to go a couple kilometers away
european cities have done the leg work and the citizens approve of it today a city of 500 000 in
sweden has over 10 tram lines while the nation's capital struggles to fund public transit because
people started using it like a real subway system not a commuter line and the density wasn't there
at the end of the day to live an accessible life in the united states as i and many other
people around the world would imagine it you either need to be very lucky very rich or very
compromising on what you define as accessible and frankly i'm not willing to compromise