By Christine Pafumi
4/23/10
Imagine you are traveling down a sidewalk in Boston, you get to the end of it and there is no way you can get off that sidewalk to get to the next one. What do you do? You would most likely have to turn around, go all the way back down the sidewalk, try a different route and hope for different results at the end of the next one, and the ones after that.
This may sound illogical for someone who is just trying to get from point A to point B, but this is the everyday reality for countless wheelchair users in Boston.
"Until earlier this year, I was unable to go down one side of the Fenway to go the Museum of Fine Arts because there was a missing curb cut cross. I had to cross the street, go down and then cross back. And if it snowed, and it didn't get plowed on the other side, then I couldn't go. That's kind of typical," said John Kelly, a Boston resident who uses a wheelchair.
Kelly, who also heads the Boston Disability Commission, has put a lot of effort into correcting the issues that the city has with sidewalks. His next goal is City Hall Plaza. "It would be nice if we and other disabled people could get here [to City Plaza] without going across these murderously uncomfortable bricks," Kelly said.
The Boston Disability Commission and the city have been ordered by the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board to come to an agreement to spend $315,000 left from fines the city accrued from Huntington Avenue accessibility compliance issues, Kelly said. Kelly has his sights on City Plaza. "Let's start at the beginning. The emblem of the democracy in the city, the people's building," Kelly said. "And then maybe we'll move on to Faneuil Hall which is also pretty bad."
ADA Accessibility Curb Ramp Requirements:
--Cross Slope: Rate of elevation change. How "tilted" a sidewalk is. ADA 2% maximum cross slope requirement for new construction.
--Curb Cuts (Curb Ramps): A short ramp cutting through a curb or built up to it. One ADA requirement is the slope must be 8.33 (1:12) percent or less.
--Running slope: the slope in the direction of pedestrian travel on the ramp run.
Bricks, bricks everywhere
Curb cuts are important to get on and off the sidewalk, but when the sidewalks themselves are uneven brick, there is a whole different set of issues. In an old city such as Boston, a lot of importance is put on the history and aesthetics of the streets. But the fact that brick sidewalks may not actually be historic is something that Michael Muehe, Executive Director of the Commission for Persons with Disabilities and ADA Coordinator for the city of Cambridge, brings up
"Boston and Cambridge, we're this historic place, but brick sidewalks, it's not really an old phenomenon. You did not find brick sidewalks 75 years ago," Muehe said. "So brick sidewalks are an artifact of people wanting to have an aesthetic that reflects the historical nature of the area, of the region."
In places such as Inman Square in Cambridge most of the sidewalk is concrete but with an added two feetbrick border. This is considerd one answer to mixing accessibility and aesthetics. "So you have the brick flavor, you sort of have that aesthetic sense but it's not the primary walking surface," said Muehe. "The primary walking surface is concrete, which is a lot smoother and it's a lot more durable, too."
But Muehe and Kelly note that people do like the brick. "Aesthetics is also very political;, it's not beautiful to a person using a wheelchair," Kelly said. "It's the most hideous form of torture there is."
In the streets
Many of those who are experiencing difficulty with the sidewalks due to brick surfaces, lack of curb cuts and cross slopes are opting to go into the street instead. "What I do on most streets and what a lot of people do is I'm in the streets," Kelly said. "Sure, someone got hit a couple months ago. People have been killed in other states from being on the street. So anytime you see a wheelchair user on the street, it's because the sidewalk is not comfortable."
Accessibility
Persons using wheelchairs are not the only ones who find difficulty in navigating the sidewalks. The streets of Boston have accessibility issues for people with other disabilities and even people without disabilities. "Cobblestones really aren't accessible to anybody," Muehe said. "I had a friend who was a wheelchair user and she lived in Beacon Hill. And she said on Beacon Hill, sidewalks are for decorative purposes only. And that was really true. People walk in the street in Beacon Hill; they don't walk on the sidewalk."
Emily Kane, an Emerson College Senior who does not use a wheelchair, finds the sidewalk difficult outside the city of Boston. "Everything is brick and cobblestone in Salem. I walk in heels there and I can't even walk on the sidewalk. It's crazy."
What is a Barrier?
Click here to hear more why John Kelly and others are choosing dangerous road travel instead of the sidewalks.
Improvements of accessibility in Boston do not just affect people with disabilities. Everyone that lives in or visits the city benefits.
"You know it's funny, all the changes made for disabled people under great resistance have turned out to be loved by able-bodied people," Kelly said. "So everyone uses automatic doors, if you've got a bag of groceries, they're great. I can't get on a curb cut because of the shopping carts, skateboards, bicycles, segways, moving carts that are using them. Even the geese use them, and the same for ramps. People use captioning on TV even if they wouldn't identify as hard of hearing. It benefits everybody."
Karen Schneiderman of the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL) says it's great when she gets to share accessibility improvements with other people. People with baby carriages or large items often find it hard or dangerous to move up steps and they benefit too when an elevator is available or a sidewalk is navigable.
"I think people have gotten accustomed, until recently, to bad sidewalks. I don't mean curb cuts, because for people who need curb cuts if you can't get off the sidewalks it's kind of a moot point. But the bricks on the sidewalks are really difficult. They are difficult for people with baby carriages, they're difficult for women who wear high heels, they're difficult for little kids, you see kids tripping and falling all the time.
"Those are safety issues as much as quality of life issues," Schneiderman said. "And they do overlap with people who are not disabled. That's a good thing."
Click on the video below of John Kelly talking about how the sidewalks are difficult for everyone.
