i've also been called ableist for my opinions on cars and urban planning. and here's the thing, while i do recognise that i'm at least somewhat lucky to be able to carry groceries several kilometres (though not always, and certainly not easily) if(let's be real: when) i were more disabled i'd kinda just be fucked? it's not like the second you can't walk 5km you get a free car and gas money. not that that'd be my preferred solution anyway. honestly it'd just make me want my neighbourhood to be that much more walkable that much more urgently. like, north american suburbs are an accessibility disaster and i feel like that should be obvious? at the very least begging people for whom the status quo does work to remember that disabled people with less money than them exist
Fellas I fucked up my shoulder like two days after I posted this and it's still sore, boy do I wish the nearest grocery store was a hell of a lot closer cause driving still ain't an option
When I had my accident back in August that has left me with some lasting brain damage one of the first things I noticed was written on my paperwork in big bold text NO DRIVING.
Given how long this concussion has lasted with it still be unsafe for me to drive, I am so fucking grateful I live in such a walkable city with robust public transit. Otherwise I would not have been able to get to any of my many doctors appointments and exams these past four months let alone be able to get myself food. I am able to still live independently with only occasional help from others. If I lived in car dependent suburbs I would be completely dependent on other people to get basic needs met.
Looking at this from a social model of disability lens, the car dependent urban planning model would have disabled me in ways that dense walkable urban planning enables me to still meet my basic needs when I’m now no longer capable of driving a car. Quite similarly, many other disabled people cannot drive cars but can still live independently so long as they live in a dense walkable city with good transit. Good luck living alone in car dependent suburbs if you’re not sighted.
And something that Very Online ableism discourse never seems to take into account is that near universally every public transit agency offers a service where if you’re truly too disabled to take public transit they will just drive to your residence and pick you up to take you where you need to go. In Philly it’s called CCT and in general it’s called Paratransit or Community Transport. If you get a letter from your doctor you can access this service to close the gap. If you need paratransit but the gatekeeping is keeping you out, that’s a problem with the way we treat disability not a problem with the urban planning that enables more people to be able to live independent of desired
Also like, in some countries they have these tiny cars that disabled people can use in car free areas that are perfectly appropriate for daily needs and aren’t bulking huge SUVs that can drive 80MP. If what you need is a mobility aid, it doesn’t need to be as intrusive, destructive, or dangerous as most cars.
Everything that cars enable for disabled people could be better enabled through another method than fucking over environment for the entire planet with huge dangerous combustible boxes of steel whizzing around at maximum velocity across incredible distances.
A car may be the best option for a lot of people right now but if we are going to survive climate change then we need to create the built environment where the car is not necessary and better options are available.
