Better Design Better Living : A Wheelchair and Stroller Restraint on Public Bus

Accessible
& SafetyWe got a good news from Singapore is testing the stroller restraint on public bus (Link ref : https://goo.gl/35kdPL).
I, as a wheelchair user was extremely affected by an impractical layout design on public bus, which had mostly lower safety standard.
And thought that this issue should be brought to the front line as one of priority concerns.
After my trial abroad on public transportation in countries, I would like to share my opinions:

1. Requiring seatbelt on all passenger seats, equivalent to ordinary passenger car.
   This is precisely the most important concern, the safety standard. When a bus got an accident, the bus should have safety features to save and protect passengers’ life. And seatbelts are very useful in the situation to reduce any harmful possibilities. It should be mandatory to require seatbelts on every passenger seat, like those ordinary passenger car. However, this new standard practice seems to require to update the new law & regulation.
   You can see how terrifying it is for non-seatbelt bus. The damage could cost a life.
   .
2. A body-restraint for wheelchair user, stroller, and priority people.
   So far, some buses already got restraints for wheelchair user and stroller, which are good.
   Anyway, there was only restraint on the equipment, the wheelchair and stroller itself, not on passenger’s body.
   This current design still inadequate in term of safety concern. We need to think about on some occasions, like a sudden stop or car crash, the wheelchair and stroller would be still hanged on by the restraint, but the passengers would possibly fly away as they got nothing to hold on.
   Yes, everyone knew that this incident could cause a serious injury. It is good to know for better understanding that a restraint can be classified into mechanical-restraint and body-restraint.
   Hanging on a wheelchair must be done at highest secure level to stabilize the wheelchair, just like ordinary passenger seat.
   Some wheelchair users got serious difficulty on riding a bus. They face high level of centrifugal force, by the law of physics, during their journey that it is so hard for them to stabilize themselves and maintain their position.
   .
3. Get-In and Get-Off Time
   Basically, PWDs don’t want to be on the pity spotlight of a society.
   Causing other passengers just to wait for you is such a high pressure and unfavorable desire.
   However, if it is inevitable in some situations, they just want to try making your waiting time possibly shortest.
   On this case, holding on a wheelchair has some concerns to consider.
   To say, the more processes of the restraint, the more time wheelchair users need to unfasten.

For me, I never use a provided safety belt on BTS or MRT, a major Bangkok Metro, because it took so much time to unfasten all of them.
Furthermore, the train often took an initial departure with speedy acceleration which it’s not user-friendly for every passenger and caused a mess on the journey. Anyway, I’m quite fortunate that my upper body is strong enough, so I can still find something to hold.

If you take a deep scrutiny, you might notice that all of our posts involve everybody, not specifically only disabled people.
I always remind everyone that these kind of issues; accessibility, PWDs or justice and equality, all greatly involve everyone of us, in some ways and in one day.
We have to make everything inclusive, reasonably accessible, and truly equal.

I believe that absolutely good design can solve all these problems, I’m always supporting all the way and would like to encourage everybody to share your own viewpoints for our better society.

Regards.
/Saba
AccessibilityIsFreedom
Bangkok, Thailand
06/30/2017

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