How Does Removing Parking and Road Space Affect People With Disabilities?
It's important to keep our eyes on the big picture: the system of transportation that we have built, in almost all of America post-World War II, is one in which the destinations of our day-to-day lives are too spread out from each other to be accessible by any means other than a private motor vehicle. Who actually benefits from this?
Steve Wright makes the case in a recent Strong Towns article that people with disabilities do not; that people with disabilities can actually thrive and enjoy much more independence in compact urban places built around proximity, connection, and accessibility.
The suburban experiment has in fact made mobility and access to resources and social opportunities more, not less, difficult for anyone who is not an able-bodied adult (and also affluent enough to afford their own car). Children lose the chance to learn independence. The growing population of seniors face terrifying rates of isolation and loneliness as they age out of driving.