Just how much room does there need to be between a bus shelter and the curb?
At least 1.5 metres, apparently, as the Richmond News found out after a reader, Bob Garnett, contacted us last week to query the aforementioned gap.
Garnett, who doesn’t use a wheelchair, sent us the picture of the shelter on No. 2 Road and Moncton Street, questioning whether a wheelchair would fit past.
“Why was a bus shelter constructed in the middle of the sidewalk? How is a wheelchair supposed to navigate this?” asked Garnett.
The News asked the question of the City of Richmond, which sent out staff from its traffic operations department to measure the site.
And, according to city spokesperson Ted Townsend, the measurements at the site conform to TransLink’s “Universally Accessible Bus Stop Design Guidelines” with a width of 1.52 metres “between the face of curb to the vertical post for the shelter, which allows for the passage of a wheelchair user.”
Garnett was pleased to hear that guidelines have been followed, but added that he hardly thought “…a person could pass, never mind a physically-challenged person.
“Hey, I love my city and they get most things done pretty well. But periodically, I see something that causes me to say ‘who on earth did that without thinking?’
“I just take pride in our city and want it to be the best.”
