Concern over disabled access to bus stops in Cambridge
Cambridge Are Bus Users group have highlighted several bus stops.
Concerns have been raised about bus stops being inaccessible to people using wheelchairs or other mobility aids.
The Cambridge Area Bus Users group highlighted a number of bus stops in Cambridge that it said were ‘inaccessible and deficient’.
At a meeting of the Combined Authority’s transport and infrastructure committee held earlier this month, Richard Wood, from Cambridge Area Bus Users, said a lot of the current bus stop infrastructure was “seriously deficient”.
He also stated that bus operators were now running more accessible buses, but said they were still inaccessible to people using mobility aids when the bus stop infrastructure was “deficient”.
Some examples of bus stops in Cambridge that were not accessible were highlighted, including at Eland Way, which he said was separated from the pathway by a 10-metre sloping grass verge.
Mr Wood asked for the committee to address these issues by specifying bus stop design parameters to make sure they are built to be accessible, and to adopt the Transport for London’s accessible bus stop design guidance as a default.
Councillor Anna Smith, chair of the committee said work was ongoing to prepare the budget for this work and recruit people to undertake it, as well as liaising with Cambridgeshire County Council for access to some of the land the bus stops sit on.
She said it will be a “large scale programme” and because of this said she needed to “manage expectations”.
“We are absolutely committed to those high standards. What I do not want to do today is promise that it is all going to be there by next May.”