Sigh.
I feel like this another thread that's about ready to be shut down.
There are huge advantages to making transit fully accessible:
- The convenience for disabled persons not to have to rely on Wheel-Trans and take conventional, scheduled transit. Wheel-Trans is a pain in the butt for scheduling trips and can take longer than conventional transit if there's additional stops. The wait for a Wheel-Trans bus can be long.
- The ability for those who aren't necessarily disabled, but have mobility issues, to access transit, making it a more attractive option.
- Families. Though I don't like seeing too many oversized SUV strollers blocking the way inside the buses.
- People with carts or luggage.
The
only downside is the reduced capacity of buses with low-floor models. The split level bus type has lost room with the front wheel wells, and poor flow at the back. (The alternative, an all-low-floor bus, was a disaster). There's several alternatives:
- Increased bus capacity: articulated buses, double-deck buses, or 45-foot buses (the size GO uses). Of course, 45-foot buses would have to be limited to suburban routes where there are few tight curves.
Los Angeles uses 45-foot urban buses for many of the Red 700-series routes.
- More buses.
- A better bus design - the Viva VanHool buses get away with having seats above the wheel wells, and a large standing area in the middle and no stairs (instead, having raised seats). Of course, the all-door loading helps a lot.