Disabilities Awareness U District Mobility Plan just released

The U District Mobility Plan is out!. RantWoman emphatically encourages people interested in #accessibility and transportation in the U district to read it and digest it and take advantage of opportunities to comment.

U District Mobility Plan --Download the report

This Mobility Plan relates to proposals for many questions related to transportation around the Brooklyn Avenue light rail station set to open in 2021 in the U district. The plan has been developed by a number of U district stakeholders and with citizen engagement in workshops last spring.

Full disclosure: RantWoman participated in the public engagement workshops. RantWoman definitely means to read the report, but for the time being RantWoman needs to offer some comments and specifically to encourage people with more mobility challenges than RantWoman has to give it a read and consider what if any suggestions come to mind at this early point in the process.

1. The report is a downloadable PDF. There are a couple stpes RantWoman does visually because she can and because she does not know a mouse-free pathway. RantWoman would like to learn.

2. The workshops last spring were held at the University Heights community Center. As with all old school buildings donated for community centers, wheelchair accessibility is, um, a challenge. There is a lift that operates along a stairway. Even signage is  kind of iffy. RantWoman sent emails a couple directions but did not generate any wheelchair users who could actually come to events. RantWoman herself is lazy: if there is an elevator, RantWoman tends to use it; this time RantWoman coped with the stairs. Who says RantWoman cannot be healthier?

3. The events were the standard mix of accessibility challenges: space with too many tables to move around easily, lots of highly visual content, uneven levels of sanity as far as small group conversations and report back in the larger room.

4. RantWoman found it helpful that there were always people willing to talk RantWoman through the visual content. RantWoman decided she was just going to do the best she could in the environment and flag topics to pay particular attention to. for instance there was some kind of map of accident locations. RantWoman absorbed that she passes through some of the hot spots regularly and that a couple hot spots are near another location RantWoman visits often.

5. RantWoman also found it helpful that during report backs there were voices speaking about many of the issues RantWoman would expect to be of concern: grade, level of pedestrian traffic. RantWoman had to decide that those voices needed to be enough but definitely wants to make sure others read the report if they want to.

Happy Reading!