Report aims to ease travel for disabled

In Dunedin, disabled people are dropped with other bus passengers a block from the city's hospital to struggle to medical appointments.

No buses pass the hospital, as the main public transport route for the South Island's second largest city gives it a wide swerve.

Disabled people in New Plymouth have just one "mobility" bus with a low floor, but inside they struggle up three steps to reach what a Human Rights Commission inquiry heard were uncomfortable and hard-to-manage seats.

Their Auckland counterparts are better off as almost half the Stagecoach bus fleet can take wheelchairs, after a discrimination complaint settlement 11 years ago.

But the commission, in a hefty report out today, cites a reluctance to advertise bus routes serviced exclusively by "super low floor" vehicles as a telling reflection of the uncertainties disabled people face planning trips.

Although the commission says the company's fear of building unrealistic expectations is understandable, it says this helps to illustrate why many disabled people regard public transport as too unreliable to use.

The commission does not, after a two-and-a-half-year inquiry into the accessibility of public land transport, blame individual operators for preventing disabled people from participating in activities most New Zealanders take for granted.

It says the way public transport is provided and regulated amounts to "systemic discrimination" against disabled people, in unlawful breach of their human rights.

Chief commissioner Rosslyn Noonan says a lack of accessible public transport, particularly in rural New Zealand, traps many disabled people in a "lifetime sentence of poverty, marginalisation and dependency".

But she said yesterday that the report, which recommends mandatory accessibility standards for bus stops and footpaths as well as for vehicles, recognises difficulties facing operators.

Although the operators were at greatest risk from discrimination complaints, shortcomings felt by disabled people went right up the ladder to planners and funders.

"People need to understand the seriousness of the situation and the impact it has," she said, noting that one-fifth of New Zealanders described themselves in the 2001 Census as having some disability.

"We're talking about a pervasive attitude which to some extent reflects society's attitude - if you go anywhere with a disabled person you become aware of just how many unnecessary and thoughtless barriers are put in their way."

Meeting mobility needs will become more urgent as the over-65 population more than doubles to 26 per cent by 2051.

Although operators have been nervous about costs of improvements such as the commission has recommended, including visual and audio announcing systems in buses and trains, they will have five to 30 years to meet staged targets.

Ms Noonan said many recommendations could be met with little cost, such as requiring drivers to ensure all passengers were seated or secured, and trying to eliminate rough driving.

This would benefit all passengers, as would requiring drivers to stop on kerbs.

Bus and Coach Association executive director John Collyns, whose members will, by the end of next year, have spent $334 million on replacing fleets with more accessible vehicles, said the industry was "relaxed" about the report.

It was now up to local authorities to catch up, as there was no point having accessible buses if people in wheelchairs could not reach them.

The commission also recommends mandatory disability training for all public transport drivers.

Ms Noonan said almost everything recommended was happening somewhere in New Zealand.

Mandatory national standards within two years, would ensure best practice across the board.

Transport Minister David Parker acknowledged public transport accessibility was more important as the population aged, and called the report "well-timed".

The plan

* The commission recommends within 2 years:

* Ministry of Transport national accessibility design standards, and guidelines for granting exemptions on "unjustifiable hardship" grounds.

* Five years: Signs and symbols for visually impaired passengers at bus stops and on all buses, trains and taxis

* 15 years: Grab rails, ramps and other boarding devices, and better access paths through all buses, handrails and alarms on trains.

* 30 years: Visual and audio announcement systems, ramps and other boarding devices on all trains.